Where is our patriotism & where are our friends?

Where is our patriotism & where are our friends?
by Robert Schneider 

I have communicated with the White House and Congress to get an apology from Japan. Recently, I suggested forgiving Japan in lieu of the apology. To make a long story short, I continue to feel like an outsider because my mail to the president was blocked ; follow-up mail suffered the same fate. I know it’s been 60 years since WW-II, but the passing of time does not abrogate the need for an apology. I have made the best sense possible from the evidence allowed to be observed; here are my conclusions: 

All my mail in to the White House and Congress was blocked.

Follow-up mail was also blocked…

The VFW was talked out of helping the canvas and I suspect that the Auto Responder’s mail was filed by the president’s secretary per instructions.

I have the feeling, Mr. President,  that you never read my mail or you read it and elected to ignore it.

Another possibility is that Americans will not get the opportunity for closure and veterans of WW-II won’t know what hit them.  At a  meeting in Tokyo in March of 2005, we informed Japan that we would support their effort to become a permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations. Everyone knows that Prime Minister Koizumi and President Bush are friends so, presumably, that explains our offer of support. Also, one cannot rule out political considerations.

On this basis of Prime Minister vs President friendship, , why hasn’t the prime minister simply stepped forward to offer his government’s apology to the United States via President Bush; this would be a friendly thing to do particularly since he recently gave  some apologies during his Pacific meetings. The problem could be that Junichero Koizumi carefully avoided saying anything nice about the United States during his Pacific meetings and then read text of his speech noting that Japan was the only country ever bombed by nuclear weapons. I’m certain that it has occurred to people around the globe  that if Japan had not bombed Pearl Harbor , Hiroshima and Nagasaki would never have occurred!  His people don’t seem to understand this concept(or don’t want to.)

Japan had not apologized when they expressed a desire to become a permanent member of the Security Council of the U.N. but we are supporting them. My program is to get an apology from Japan or for the United States to forgive them with no strings attached. It is understandable that it might be embarrassing for the United States Congress to hear a debate on my proposal so it is not surprising that I was blocked out of Congress to avoid embarrassing Japan and the United States. I don’t really agree with this logic; our president could have met with P. M. Koizumi in private to test the waters before proceeding. There can be no doubt there are many considerations to this matter but it is clear that none of the stars are aggressively moving ahead to end this war of words. P. M. Koizumi seems satisfied, President seems indifferent whereas, Americans who lived through WW-II seem tired of the ridiculous dialog but want an end to this matter which has become ridiculous.  Americans have forgotten that if nothing is done, which is the way our president is heading, takes heritage, the present and the future away from our younger generations. There isn’t much more I can do until our president allows me to come in from the cold and get on with my project.

Also Mr. President, most of America wants your help so the United States can move on to other things.

Please get an apology from Japan or have the United States Congress debate forgiving Japan and issue an appropriate statement.