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Why does Japan get completely away with all this and the Germans are getting pounded over every tiny little detail 24/7? I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but sometimes people come up with stuff and pound the Germans over nonsense. It really does **** me off that Japan gets away with this ( and has been ). Maybe it's because of their remote location and minor involvement in Western politics. And if you watch the video... the Japanese government even tried to talk them out of building this SMALL memorial in this small town. Wtf? This is outrageous.
Why does Japan get completely away with all this and the Germans are getting pounded over every tiny little detail 24/7? I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but sometimes people come up with stuff and pound the Germans over nonsense. It really does **** me off that Japan gets away with this ( and has been ). Maybe it's because of their remote location and minor involvement in Western politics. And if you watch the video... the Japanese government even tried to talk them out of building this SMALL memorial in this small town. Wtf? This is outrageous.
What do you mean "get away with this?"
From the Wiki article which you linked:
Quote:
Soon after the war, the Allied powers indicted 25 individuals as Class-A war criminals, and 5,700 individuals were indicted as Class-B or Class-C war criminals by Allied criminal trials. Of these, 984 were initially condemned to death, 920 were actually executed, 475 received life sentences, 2,944 received some prison terms
While you're at it, don't forget to get flaming mad about how the Russian soldiers raped every German woman from age 12 to 80, as well as every female dog, tree and empty artillery shell they found as they advanced West across Germany.
Nobody EVER points fingers at the Russians for that.
Or maybe how the Union Soldiers did the same thing + burn everything as they marched across the South in the Civil War.
War is hell and brings out the worst in people, regardless of their nationality.
I am 65this year. Beleive e I spoke with mnay vert=ans as a kid;they hated both the germans and the japansese for what they saw they has done to mnay people that were civlians.I can remmber many sayig that Europe has a whole really did't care what happened to the Jews.Bascially they returned with a disgust of europe.One only has to loom at how recent Bosnia was to see not all has changed in europe.
What do you mean "get away with this?"
From the Wiki article which you linked:
I think the OP was not referring to punitive actions against the actors in war crimes, but the casting of an entire culture through a negative lens.
If you ask 100 people the first thing that comes to mind about Japan and people will say, "Sony", or "Samurai", or "Sushi".
Ask the same question about Germany and a whole hell of a lot are going to say "Nazis!"
As far as my opinion as to why, my hypothesis is that Western Culture, in general, is very self-reflective and self-deprecating. By this, I mean that in some way, Westerners hold Germans, our cultural siblings, to a different standard than the inscrutable, almost alien (culturally) Japanese.
I think the OP was not referring to punitive actions against the actors in war crimes, but the casting of an entire culture through a negative lens.
If you ask 100 people the first thing that comes to mind about Japan and people will say, "Sony", or "Samurai", or "Sushi".
Ask the same question about Germany and a whole hell of a lot are going to say "Nazis!"
.
Well that doesn't seem fair. The Germans suffer from these severe image problems, but anyone who has watched "Hogan's Heroes" knows the truth. The Nazis were slap happy bumblers. Oh sure, they made a lot of threats, but that was all bluster, they never harmed anyone as far as I could tell.
Having conversed with the OP and seeing their contributions to many threads, I am very positive that there are no Nazi sympathies intended in the post. I think it is more a reflection on where people today place the focus. Germany and its people have made atoning for their crimes part of the German national identity and they pursue the knowledge over what happened and share a collective guilt that has been passed down through generations. Do to the German openness to discuss and examine their past in all of its gruesome details, it has become acceptable to constantly remind them of it. Just look at programs about WW2 on TV, how many deal with Hitler, the Nazi's, the Holocaust, etc. versus how many even offer any sort of coverage about the Pacific. Even when the Pacific is talked about the war crimes aspects are almost breezed over in the coverage.
On the other hand the Japanese have almost made an art form out of covering over and avoiding the topic of Japanese actions and crimes during the war. There have been many threads on it, some of which were very interesting as we also received a Japanese perspective. Overall though, the topic of Japanese crimes is not addressed in any formal manner and it is not part of the social consciousness of Japan.
In Germany leading Nazi's and war criminals are not remembered among the dead of the war and there are no memorials to them and their graves are not part of national cemeteries. In Japan, there are convicted war criminals whose names are included in the Yasukuni Shrine dedicated to those who died fighting for the emperor.
Germany as a nation has issued countless apologies and pays reparations to the survivors of its most brutal acts. The Japanese have issued what boils down to a spoken statement that never rose to the level of an apology.
In Germany it is a crime to deny the Holocaust and the atrocities happened. In Japan many leading politicians and businessman have quite openly stated their denial of Japanese atrocities and blocked any attempts to formally acknowledge them.
The reason why Germany gets a higher share of blame for its atrocities is because they were perpetrated largely against Jews and other Western European ethnic groups who represented large shares of the American population.
Japanese crimes were mainly against Chinese, who were Commies, and other Asian groups who we didn't care about. Asians were considered almost second class citizens in the U.S. back then. We also have to consider that we nuked Japan killing millions and also the Japanese internment within the U.S., so perhaps there was some American guilt after the war towards the Japanese which prevented us from bringing down the hammer on the Japanese. We never did these things to German-Americans and we never nuked Germany.
Someone else brought up a great point about Soviet atrocities. Why do the Soviets not get an equal share of the blame? I'm guessing for the same reasons as the Japanese. The crimes were perpetrated against people we hate. Commies, Soviets, Germans, and other undesirables.
Good topic, but the discussion was pretty much exhausted with this thread a few months ago. OP I suggest you read as it gives some interesting viewpoints from a Japanese citizen who joined to discussion:
Nolefan you are forgetting the impact on the cold war in the reason on why Japan war crimes were not more highly publicized. The nuking of Japan did not kill "millions" by the way, other conventional bombing campaigns actually took more lives, massacres in Nanking by Japanese troops using bullets and bayonets as a matter of fact took more lives then the A bomb droppings, but yes it's amazing that Japan is portrayed as the victim of the war to some misguided people out there.
Having conversed with the OP and seeing their contributions to many threads, I am very positive that there are no Nazi sympathies intended in the post.
Well, dosen't this statement prove my point...
I'll post a disclaimer the next time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nolefan34
The reason why Germany gets a higher share of blame for its atrocities is because they were perpetrated largely against Jews and other Western European ethnic groups who represented large shares of the American population.
Japanese crimes were mainly against Chinese, who were Commies, and other Asian groups who we didn't care about. Asians were considered almost second class citizens in the U.S. back then. We also have to consider that we nuked Japan killing millions and also the Japanese internment within the U.S., so perhaps there was some American guilt after the war towards the Japanese which prevented us from bringing down the hammer on the Japanese. We never did these things to German-Americans and we never nuked Germany.
Someone else brought up a great point about Soviet atrocities. Why do the Soviets not get an equal share of the blame? I'm guessing for the same reasons as the Japanese. The crimes were perpetrated against people we hate. Commies, Soviets, Germans, and other undesirables.
This isn't just about the U.S. It's about most other countries. With China being the exception, and South Korea.. They still do hate them for this.
Yes..the Soviets. Well, the U.S. and the Soviets were busy playing war for a couple of decades. I guess that explains some of it. And they were directly attacked by Germany. I don't think Japan was. So they were pretty much the same as the Nazis.
I don't think they go after small town across the globe, though, like the Japanese. But that sounds like something they would do, but I'm not aware of them doing it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dd714
Good topic, but the discussion was pretty much exhausted with this thread a few months ago. OP I suggest you read as it gives some interesting viewpoints from a Japanese citizen who joined to discussion:
Nolefan you are forgetting the impact on the cold war in the reason on why Japan war crimes were not more highly publicized. The nuking of Japan did not kill "millions" by the way, other conventional bombing campaigns actually took more lives, massacres in Nanking by Japanese troops using bullets and bayonets as a matter of fact took more lives then the A bomb droppings, but yes it's amazing that Japan is portrayed as the victim of the war to some misguided people out there.
From what I see, this isn't the same. I know what they do. It's not about that. It's about everybody else not holding them to the same standards.
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But that sounds like something they would do, but I'm not aware of them doing it.
