quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
...My understanding is that they are taught a somewhat different version of the story than we are.

That was true 25 years ago, I doubt it's changed. The Ministry of Education tightly controls the content of school books.

I was assigned (as an Army civilian) to an ammo depot in Kure, just outside of Hiroshima, 1989-93. We lived off post in a typical Japanese neighborhood, the people were great. We often went to the Peace Park in Hiroshima, our daughter loved feeding the pigeons, we ate at the McDonalds in town. At the time, the museum's theme was the war began in August of 1945 when we dropped that nasty bomb. No mention of anything that led to the bombing. It's been 25 years since we left Japan, the museum may now be more objective.

Never did we encounter any hostility, not in the Peace Park, not at Nagasaki, in train stations, or anywhere. Just the opposite. Younger Japanese would often approach us to ask if we needed assistance, that way they got to practice their English. They were amused when our toddler daughter would chatter away in Japanese she learned from her friends in the neighborhood.

Yeah, every Aug 6 Hiroshima has a big memorial ceremony, but don't take that as hostility.

For those who are interested in this, there is an interesting account of these issues at National Review.

Understanding Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 73 Years Later By Dan McLaughlin

Thought I'd resurrect this thread. This morning Bill Whittle re-released his very first video from his days at PJTV.

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:

I am SO sick of Japan playing the perpetual victims in regards to WWII. THEY started the war. THEY continued to carry on the war even though they knew in 1943 that they could never win. THEY perpetuated acts of brutality that today seem unbelievable. THEY violated human rights on an industrial scale.

My uncle was 6 ft tall, a bit over 200 pounds, when he volunteered for the U.S. Army at the beginning of WW-2. He, with survivors of his unit, was captured by the Japanese. When their POW group was rescued and transported to Australia for initial treatment, he weighed 87 pounds.

All you need to know about Imperial Japan in WWII is summed up with “Unit 731.”

Just the actions of those barbarous animals in testing biological and chemical weapons on large civilian populations in China fully justified dropping a third bomb, this time on the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Why? Direct Imperial support for what Unit 731 did both in developing and then testing bio weapons including anthrax and bubonic plague.

Had Unit 731 developed militarily useful biological weapons, you can bet those weapons would have been unleashed on Allied forces, and likely the mainland of North America via “ballon bombs.” The Japanese would have used them on their land had the Allies invaded Honshu.

Instead, after the war ended, the US gave those barbarians immunity in exchange for what “data” they generated.

That the commander of Unit 731, Shirō Ishii and all of his subordinates never faced a scaffold after conviction for war crimes was a great injustice.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
What's more, THEY still refuse to admit to any atrocities, take responsibility for their part in the war, or apologize for anything.

You guys know I’m not a history buff , so please understand I’m not trolling.

Are we asking them to apologize? Haven’t they stopped the mentioned atrocities? And is that enough?

I was recently on the USS Arizona memorial, and was observant of the people around me.

I noticed that the older Asian visitors seemed to have a remorseful and ashamed demeanor when visiting the memorial, but the younger ones seemed to be much more caviler in their attitudes.

I did see one older Asian gentleman correct his younger guests attitude, even my wife mentioned noticing his actions.

There is something akin to white guilt that I would call "victor's guilt". We even see this with crime and self defense, where the victim is blamed for using deadly force to stop a horrific attack.

We experienced this earlier in the summer on a walking tour of Nuremberg Germany. The tour guide was a Brit ex-pat who had lived there for about 40 years. He made several comments about how awful it was the allies bombed the city to nearly total destruction, as well as other cities destroyed. He was so unhappy about it that he had chosen German citizenship.

My 92 year old mother was with us. She grew up in England and has vivid memories of bombs falling on her neighborhood. Close enough that there was still damage visible to her house when I saw it a few years ago. She somehow held her tongue in the moment but did have a few colorful things to say afterwards!

This was 2 days after we'd visited one of the concentration camps. Standing in the gas chamber where many tens of thousands were murdered is not something I will ever forget. Nor will I forget standing at the wall where very many were shot.

It is a form of insanity to blame the victor for having to destroy an attacker who won't desist otherwise.

Very few people are aware of the horrific atrocities that the Japanese committed . It's never been taught in schools .No oil embargo could ever justify the actions of the Japanese military toward innocent civilians . Any attempt to justify it is ignorant and just plain ridiculous .

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
Very few people are aware of the horrific atrocities that the Japanese committed . It's never been taught in schools .No oil embargo could ever justify the actions of the Japanese military toward innocent civilians . Any attempt to justify it is ignorant and just plain ridiculous .

I won't even repeat the shit they did to the Koreans, Chinese, and Filipinos. It made the Nazi treatment of Jews seem like mercy.

Imperial Japan got away pretty easy. Russia declared war on them and they knew more atomic bombs combined with a Russian land invasion (and their associated war crimes) would've given them a dose of what they did to the rest of Asia. I have a Russian Soldier who insists the Russians didn't commit war crimes during WWII. The primary target may have been Germans and hence overlooked because of that but it happened.

In my opinion, 2 bombs wasn't enough for those barbarians.

When I was at the Air Force museum in Dayton a few years ago, there was a small group of Japanese people looking at Bocks Car, the B29 that dropped the Nagasaki bomb.
They were very quiet, taking some pictures, and I wondered what they might be thinking at that moment.

Japan did not need to attack the USA due to the embargo. They could have simply complied with the conditions the embargo was used to promote.
Reasoning like yours is the same as saying criminals are forced to defend themselves from the police.

quote:

Originally posted by jed7s9b:
Japan did not need to attack the USA due to the embargo. They could have simply complied with the conditions the embargo was used to promote.
Reasoning like yours is the same as saying criminals are forced to defend themselves from the police.

Exactly .There was NO justification for the atrocities they committed . None .

Used to back Colorado with a friend and his father. Father a very intelligent and kind engineer. In WWII he was a naval officer who ferried the wounded Marines off the beaches on to ships off shore for medical treatment and to deal with the dead. I asked him what he though about the drop of the atomic bomb? He replied: That was the happiest day of my life."