Letters to the Editor

August 19, 2005

Daughter of Peace

In July 1945, while assigned in Calcutta, India, orders had been issued for us to join the second invasion of the China coast. Four separate invasions were planned. The Hiroshima bombing of August 6th held up the orders. The Nagasaki bombing on August 9th cancelled them.

In 1949, Hiroshima was made an international shrine of peace. The annual “Peace Festival” on August 6th has become the most important event of the year. On that same day in 1949, our daughter was born.

John W. Wohlfarth

Cloverdale, Calif.

Why the Bomb Was Dropped

Time Magazine’s David M. Kennedy significantly misquoted Emperor Hirohito. He wrote: “Citing the unprecedented destructive power of the atom bombs, [the emperor] declared, ‘I swallow my own tears and give my sanction to the proposal to accept the Allied proclamation’ –– which called for unconditional surrender.”

Actually, as I point out in my book, Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb, what happened was quite different. The full quote by the Emperor is that Japan would “accept the Allied proclamation on the basis outlined by the Foreign Minister.”

Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo had insisted on the one condition that the emperor system remain intact. After receiving this message, President Truman accepted Japan’s offer of a conditional surrender. Had Truman not originally been so rigidly insistent on unconditional surrender in the Potsdam Declaration, he might have been able to end the war without dropping the atomic bomb.

Ronald Takaki, Ethnic Studies professor

UC Berkeley

Yanking the Yang

Lisa Lee’s (“Maddox, Jolie Out of Africa,” Aug. 4) writing is so short and superfluous. For example, Wong Kar-Wai’s 2046 was released last year in Asia and the cast received wide acclaim at Cannes. However, AsianWeek hardly covered it, nor does Lisa’s writing say when her featured movies will start. 2046 [was] released by Sony Pictures this August.

I have yet to see any in-depth articles about San Francisco-born Daniel Wu, an Asian American making head waves in Hong Kong. He is the most beautiful Asian actor to date, speaking English, Mandarin and Cantonese, and many say he will take on the mantle as leading actor of many Hong Kong movies in time.

Andres Tong

Via e-mail

Whiteness Sells

The pictures (“Holding Abercrombie to the Fire on Diversity,” Aug. 11) indicate something else. No minorities, but plenty of white women. So, let us not kid ourselves. White women are not excluded. They are over-represented.

As long as Asians in Asia patronize stores with an all-white cast such as A&F as well as Bossini [in Singapore], A&F does not have to reform. After all, whiteness sells!

Name withheld

Via e-mail

Balancing the Court

A “consensus candidate” (“Supreme Court Nomination: A Critical Test,” Aug. 11) would keep the unbalanced Supreme Court leaning to the left. When John Roberts finally gets placed on the Supreme Court, the court will be the closest to being balanced ideologically in more than 50 years.

Letters to the Editor

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