Japan’s defence minister said on Saturday the 1945 atomic bombings on the country by the United States “couldn’t be helped” as they led to the end of World War Two. The comments are likely to invite criticism from victims and opposition parties, and may further dim Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ruling bloc’s prospects in a July 29 upper house election. “My understanding is that it ended the war and that it couldn’t be helped,” Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma said in a speech near Tokyo. “When it was dropped on Nagasaki, it was a tragedy,” Kyuma, whose electoral district includes Nagasaki, also said.
The 66-year-old minister later told reporters he did not intend to justify the bombings, but reiterated that from the US perspective, the use of atomic bombs at the time was inevitable.