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Six former U.S. soldiers taken prisoners of war in the Philippines by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II have failed to receive apologies from private industries that used them as slave labor.
The former POWs are currently touring Japan with their families on a visitation program sponsored by the Japanese government.
Ex-POWS touring Japan disappointed at not receiving apologies from firms over slave labor - The Mainichi Daily News (http://mdn.mainichi.jp/features/news/20100917p2a00m0na019000c.html - broken link)
Denial ain't just da river in da Egypt for the Japanese. They still, as a nation, have never faced their war machine's unscrupulous brutality--not just to combatants (captured or not), but to civilians. Besides slave labor, when you experiment on people with gas gangrene shells, that's pretty mean. When you force women into prostitution, that's pretty mean.
The odd part is that many Japanese still resent Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as if their country hadn't absolutely and completely earned about ten more. Not that I wish we had, but there would have been nothing immoral about it. After their atrocities in Korea, China, the Philippines and everywhere, they ought to be glad we didn't use four bombs and bracket Tokyo--which would effectively have erased it.
Well, they are not in America are they?
We are used to being overly apologetic and usually insincere. This was from 70 years ago, are any of us responsible for what our father or grandfathers did?
War is hard. Perhaps the men should reflect on the fact they were not killed.
Even today there are prisons where a person's family has to arrange for food for a prisoner.
In WW2 we sent food to Japan for our men, too often it was not given to our men.
I suggest to all to see a old film called King Rat
Well, they are not in America are they?
We are used to being overly apologetic and usually insincere. This was from 70 years ago, are any of us responsible for what our father or grandfathers did?
War is hard. Perhaps the men should reflect on the fact they were not killed.
Even today there are prisons where a person's family has to arrange for food for a prisoner.
In WW2 we sent food to Japan for our men, too often it was not given to our men.
I suggest to all to see a old film called King Rat
Corporations can be held responsible for past crimes.
What the Japanese did was commit serious war crimes, in violations of international agreements.
If I were those men I would have not been so non-violent, nor would I have waited so many decades to get justice.
What the Japanese did was commit serious war crimes, in violations of international agreements.
If I were those men I would have not been so non-violent, nor would I have waited so many decades to get justice.
What's more, whether or not the Japanese were signatories to the international agreements, they chose to take the actions. They were not stupid, obviously; they were human beings who understood perfectly well that their fellow human beings do not enjoy protracted rape, being biological weapon test animals, slave labor or starvation. They simply considered anyone but themselves less human. If you're going to commit atrocities, you'd better win the war, because if you do not, you may reap the whirlwind. And when you do, you'd better not whine about it and try to pretend you didn't have it coming.
They obviously know little of Japan. The only thing the Japanese think they did wrong in WWII was lose. Their lack of guilt over the war has been richly documented for decades.
Quite true. Unlike Germany, they've not accepted they did wrong. Their schools don't even teach that the atrocities happened (and if they even mention anything, dismiss it as a few soldiers and not widespread).
Our treatment of Japan after the war was very different than Germany's, and it shows...
In the last twenty years conservative (aka fascist) Japanese politicians have rewritten Japanese school books to remove even the mild comments there before. A former Japanese prime minister of the last decade was famous for deliberately attending a shrine full of major war criminals - one the Japanese Emperor himself refused to go to.
As far as the corporations that used slave labor, Mitsubishi a maker of cars for example, used slave labor but I doubt a single person who was responsible for any mistreatment is currently employed by the company. Everyone working there today had nothing to do with the war years and have nothing to apologize for.
It's like me being required for slavery of 200 years ago.... I wasn't around, I am innocent and will not apologize for an act I had nothing to with.
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