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Originally Posted by jatx
You guys are wildly off base about the Japanese. I grew up with a great many Japanese, most of whom remain friends to this day, and every single one invariably becomes uncomfortable when the topic of WW2 is raised. They are profoundly aware of the fruits of their aggression, and most feel personally ashamed of those events even though they were perpetrated by another generation. Hence the national trend toward pacifism, which took root after WW2 and is in marked contrast to their long martial tradition.
Anyone seen that kind of contrition from a German recently? Let's not slander our friends needlessly.
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I lived in Hawaii for several years, traveled to Japan, had Japanese friends, and met many Japanese business people and tourists.
I will have to take exception to your comments and state that I think you are dead wrong.
Were your friends educated in the West?
The Japanese know that there was something wrong with what happened, but are grossly uninformed about their involvement in WW II and are in denial about the horrible atrocities they committed. They do not teach the Japanese expansionism and aggression that started WW II, or their sneak attack on U.S. forces in Hawaii and the Phillipines that precipitated U.S. involvement.
One of my best friend's father had been captured on Corregidor and made the Death March. The stories he told me of the actions of the Japanese soldiers and even civilians are absolutely horriffic and incomprehensible.
Their zenophobic dislike of foreigners continues to this day. My associates who have lived in Japan have also commented on this, saying that foreigners who leave the insular group of friends or business associates and meet Japanese casually there say that the racism is palpable.
The Germans teach that Nazism was a horrible time in their country's history and that it must never happen again. Many sites in Germany are dedicated to the horros perpetrated there. The Germans have made reparations to many of their victims, and the evil of Hitler is mentioned there on a regular basis. Other than Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Japanese War Memorial (all looking at external damage done to Japan), where are the Japanese reflective on their horrors? Any public castigation or acknowledgement of the terrors of Tojo or mistakes of the Emperor? They deny the sack of Manila, the Rape of Nanking, and the torture and chem/bio experimentation on POWs.
No, the entire Japanese culture is in denial, and I see no change in sight.
TR