Japan and WWII

[Australian rePublic]

One thing that really isn't discussed as much as the NAZIs is Japan's role in WWII. Everything from their treatment of POWs to Peal Harbour to the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, let's discuss Japan and their role in WWII.

Japan were arguably as bad as, if not worse, than the NAZIs. They did some horrible, horrible things in an event called the "Rape of Nanking", where, as they name suggests, they did some pretty horrific things in Nanjing (formally Nanking), which as the name suggests, they raped and slaughtered anyone who was there, and sadly that's probably the least horrible thing that could have happened there. I could get into details, but they'd probably get me banned for life.

At the same time, we also had Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which, to this day remain the only two cities to have been nuked during war, killing and poisoning millions of innocent civilians including school children. We could argue day and night about whether or not the nukes were necassery, but hindsight is 20/20, and those who dropped the bombs may have legitimately thought it was.

I'm also amazed at how in a period of 80 years, Japan went from a militaristic superpower who saw their own people as less than collateral damage to a functioning, high ranking democracy with one of the best standards of living imaginable. Truely an amazing transformation.

It's still disheartening, however, that Japan does the minimum to acknowledge their autrocities and move on from it, like Germany did. It's something that we in the West and in Japan should be taught at school

[Durius]

Time in history classes, so obviously subjects have to be carefully selected. Japan role in WWII didn't impact most of the West, in particular Europe, so it's understandable that it's role is mostly ignored in western history classes. I have little doubt that students in Korea, China, etc., learn about Japan's atrocities even more than Germany's.

[Australian rePublic]

Time in history classes, so obviously subjects have to be carefully selected. Japan role in WWII didn't impact most of the West, in particular Europe, so it's understandable that it's role is mostly ignored in western history classes. I have little doubt that students in Korea, China, etc., learn about Japan's atrocities even more than Germany's.

Well they do, this was proven by the fact that Thailand had an obsession with Hitler to the point where you could by T-shirts of Hitler the Telebubbie:

https://www.yummymummyclub.ca/sites/def ... etubby.jpg

And this obsession was born out of ignorance, rather than supporting the NAZI regime, and the government said that the need to focus more on teaching kids about the NAZIs, but you don't have to spend hours and hours teaching about Japan, just the occassional mention of their role in the war would be nice.

Even here in Australia, the ONLY thing we learnt about Japan's role in WWII in any significant degree was that they bombed Darwin and Pearl Harbor, and that was the first time that Australia ever experienced an act of war from a foreign power since colonisation (it was actually the second time, but I wouldn't expect our piece of shit school ciriculum to know about the shooting in Broken Hill, and I didn't mean to insult shit by comparing it to our school ciriculum). Yea, Australia was actually direct victim of Japanese aggression, and we barely learn about it, so don't feel too bad

[Heloin]

American and Allied failure to implicate the Japanese Imperial house in the crimes they knew were committed in their names lives on today in a deeply right wing Japan that in recent years has sought to not just ignore but flatly deny the atrocities committed during the Second World War. Yes I know MacArthur's reason and it was a bad one.

Time in history classes, so obviously subjects have to be carefully selected. Japan role in WWII didn't impact most of the West, in particular Europe, so it's understandable that it's role is mostly ignored in western history classes. I have little doubt that students in Korea, China, etc., learn about Japan's atrocities even more than Germany's.

I mean, the answer to the question there is racism. Japan significantly affected the West as well, but in there colonies. Indonesians, Vietnamese, and Filipino deaths didn't matter to the west for the same reason the kids are taught the Invasion of Poland in 1939 as the start of the War rather than Marco Polo Bridge in 1931 or the Battle of Beijing in 1937.

[Bodh Gaya]

Why exactly did MacArthur decide to effectively exonerate the Emperor? Was evidence truly wanting? They could have at least tried the Imperial Government for all they did, similar to the Nurembergs.

[Australian rePublic]

American and Allied failure to implicate the Japanese Imperial house in the crimes they knew were committed in their names lives on today in a deeply right wing Japan that in recent years has sought to not just ignore but flatly deny the atrocities committed during the Second World War. Yes I know MacArthur's reason and it was a bad one.

Time in history classes, so obviously subjects have to be carefully selected. Japan role in WWII didn't impact most of the West, in particular Europe, so it's understandable that it's role is mostly ignored in western history classes. I have little doubt that students in Korea, China, etc., learn about Japan's atrocities even more than Germany's.

I mean, the answer to the question there is racism. Japan significantly affected the West as well, but in there colonies. Indonesians, Vietnamese, and Filipino deaths didn't matter to the west for the same reason the kids are taught the Invasion of Poland in 1939 as the start of the War rather than Marco Polo Bridge in 1931 or the Battle of Beijing in 1937.

Well, I was born and educated in one of the colonies who was bombed by Japan, and it's still crickets. Also, who's Macarthur?

[Ethel mermania]

Why exactly did MacArthur decide to effectively exonerate the Emperor? Was evidence truly wanting? They could have at least tried the Imperial Government for all they did, similar to the Nurembergs.

Top Japanese leadership with the exception of the Imperial house were tried, convicted and some shot.

The reason being MacArthur thought it easier to control japan through the emperor than without. It was also implied in the American acceptance of the Japanese end of war conditions that the imperial house would be treated lightly.

[The Holy Therns]

It may be less discussed than the Nazis perhaps, but phrasing it like that sort of implies it's not discussed, which I would call rather inaccurate.

[Risottia]

killing and poisoning millions of innocent civilians

Your numbers were pulled from your copy of "A Report by Samuel Eckham", I guess.

[Australian rePublic]

killing and poisoning millions of innocent civilians

Your numbers were pulled from your copy of "A Report by Samuel Eckham", I guess.

It was only thousands?

[Durius]

Time in history classes, so obviously subjects have to be carefully selected. Japan role in WWII didn't impact most of the West, in particular Europe, so it's understandable that it's role is mostly ignored in western history classes. I have little doubt that students in Korea, China, etc., learn about Japan's atrocities even more than Germany's.

I mean, the answer to the question there is racism. Japan significantly affected the West as well, but in there colonies. Indonesians, Vietnamese, and Filipino deaths didn't matter to the west for the same reason the kids are taught the Invasion of Poland in 1939 as the start of the War rather than Marco Polo Bridge in 1931 or the Battle of Beijing in 1937.

No, it's not racism. Frankly, I think even attributing it to racism is racist itself, given that most obvious answer is geographical. And teaching colonial history like if they were ever treated as proper territory is nothing more than revisionism. Indonesian history is not Dutch history, and Dutch history is not Indonesian, even if they are connected. In makes little sense, given the limited time, for a Dutch to learn about WW2 in Indonesia and it makes little sense for an Indonesian to learn about WW2 in the Netherlands. Same for a Australian regarding the UK, or a British regarding Australia. Trying to tie the two boils down to historical imperialism.

[Dogmeat]

Yes, go on and discuss Japan as the only underrepresented Axis power overshadowed by Germany. - this message in no way brought to you by Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, or Croatia.

[New Visayan Islands]

American and Allied failure to implicate the Japanese Imperial house in the crimes they knew were committed in their names lives on today in a deeply right wing Japan that in recent years has sought to not just ignore but flatly deny the atrocities committed during the Second World War. Yes I know MacArthur's reason and it was a bad one.


I mean, the answer to the question there is racism. Japan significantly affected the West as well, but in there colonies. Indonesians, Vietnamese, and Filipino deaths didn't matter to the west for the same reason the kids are taught the Invasion of Poland in 1939 as the start of the War rather than Marco Polo Bridge in 1931 or the Battle of Beijing in 1937.

Well, I was born and educated in one of the colonies who was bombed by Japan, and it's still crickets. Also, who's Macarthur?

Filipino here, so I’m from a country that was once under the "delightful ministrations" of Imperial Japan. While there are more things His Imperial Japanese Majesty’s Military have done to the country that were, in all candor, inexcusable, what we generally learned growing up was the more egregious stuff. The Bataan Death March was one, another is how the Battle of Manila saw devastation to a degree that only Warsaw suffered worst—and was often called "the Pacific Stalingrad," to boot—and the fallout (pun not intended, as this concerns Imperial Japan) of the War.

Douglas MacArthur led the defense of the Philippine Commonwealth until he invoked the Joestar Secret Technique, escaping to Australia to gather additional forces for the Liberation. He eventually got removed by Truman in the Korean War for being a tad too nuke-happy, but I digress.

[Countesia]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe

Read up on this guy.

He, as a member of the Nazi party high ranking enough to entrusted to act as the Nazi representative to China, protected 250,000 chinese citizens from the Japanese during the Nanjing Massacre.

For someone who clearly aligned with the ideals of the Nazi's ideas of racial purity dear to discard such beliefs to protect an 'inferior' race from the Japanese, just goes to highlight how fucked up Japanese atrocities were.

[Perikuresu]

Even here in Australia, the ONLY thing we learnt about Japan's role in WWII in any significant degree was that they bombed Darwin and Pearl Harbor, and that was the first time that Australia ever experienced an act of war from a foreign power since colonisation (it was actually the second time, but I wouldn't expect our piece of shit school ciriculum to know about the shooting in Broken Hill, and I didn't mean to insult shit by comparing it to our school ciriculum). Yea, Australia was actually direct victim of Japanese aggression, and we barely learn about it, so don't feel too bad

A younger Aussie here that lives in a state far superior to NSW (lol)

The school curriculum in my state does teach WWII, although it's vastly overshadowed by Australia's atrocities against the Aboriginal and Torre Strait Islander and their fight for equality and rights. As for the WWII part, or what we learn of Japan it's basically:

1. Japan's Excuse for conquering and subjugating China and SEA (with the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere)
2. The Nanking Massacre (which is just brushed aside)
3. How Japan threatened Australia during WW2 (with Darwin Bombing and the Battle of Singapore, the latter is more focused on, I remember a few lessons focusing on Singapore in particular) and how that forced Curtin to pull back Australian troops from Libya to defend Australia (and also how it contributed to creating an independent Australian identity due to Britain's apathy)
4. How we also fucked over Japanese-Australians and threw them into Internment Camps
5. Oh yeah, we also did some on Pearl Harbour and the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

This, whilst is sorta an improvement to what quoted user has said, it's still fucking disappointing that most of Japan's crimes during WW2 is less focused on. (hell, my class focused more on the Interwar Germany and how the Treaty of Versailles lead to the rise of Hitler)

However, I'm not sure if it would've been exactly "PG" to show this to kids tho. Explicit details and pictures of Nanking weren't really shown, and there was no mention of Comfort Women and Unit 731, which well, I'm not sure are exactly appropriate for High School kids (and certainly would've been an easy way for a teacher to get fired)

[Suriyanakhon]

Yes, go on and discuss Japan as the only underrepresented Axis power overshadowed by Germany. - this message in no way brought to you by Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, or Croatia.

Italy gets away with so much it's insane.

[Perikuresu]

The reason being MacArthur thought it easier to control japan through the emperor than without. It was also implied in the American acceptance of the Japanese end of war conditions that the imperial house would be treated lightly.

Also not to mention that both the Americans and Soviets were already building the foundations for the inevitable (and also upcoming) Cold War. In the case of America, they wanted a friendly Japan not only because there would've been another Anti-Communist nation in Asia, but also it could restrict Soviet access to the Pacific. (Also Okinawa serves as a pretty useful military base, and it still does even under Japanese rule)

As a part of smoothening out relations to Japan most of their warcrimes were pretty much mostly whitewashed by both the Americans and Japanese, and with the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki it gave Japan a perfect excuse to victimise themselves, which went unopposed by the Americans.

[Ethel mermania]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe

Read up on this guy.

He, as a member of the Nazi party high ranking enough to entrusted to act as the Nazi representative to China, protected 250,000 chinese citizens from the Japanese during the Nanjing Massacre.

For someone who clearly aligned with the ideals of the Nazi's ideas of racial purity dear to discard such beliefs to protect an 'inferior' race from the Japanese, just goes to highlight how fucked up Japanese atrocities were.

He was fired when he got back to Germany

[Bahrimontagn]

Calling modern Japan a democracy is a bit of a stretch.

[Durius]

Calling modern Japan a democracy is a bit of a stretch.

No. It's not.

[Jewish Underground State]

Well its likely in the west Japan's crimes aren't as talked about is because they didn't happen in the west. The german crimes like the Holocaust are talked about more since they happened in the west and on the west's doorstep.

[Portzania]

American and Allied failure to implicate the Japanese Imperial house in the crimes they knew were committed in their names lives on today in a deeply right wing Japan that in recent years has sought to not just ignore but flatly deny the atrocities committed during the Second World War. Yes I know MacArthur's reason and it was a bad one.

Time in history classes, so obviously subjects have to be carefully selected. Japan role in WWII didn't impact most of the West, in particular Europe, so it's understandable that it's role is mostly ignored in western history classes. I have little doubt that students in Korea, China, etc., learn about Japan's atrocities even more than Germany's.

I mean, the answer to the question there is racism. Japan significantly affected the West as well, but in there colonies. Indonesians, Vietnamese, and Filipino deaths didn't matter to the west for the same reason the kids are taught the Invasion of Poland in 1939 as the start of the War rather than Marco Polo Bridge in 1931 or the Battle of Beijing in 1937.

Why was it a bad reason? Speaking from a geopolitical stance, not a moral one, it would have been much easier to control a puppet Japan through an emperor than executing them. Besides, Tojo Hideki, the real person behind the war, (the emperor was a puppet) was actually brought to justice.

[Bahrimontagn]

Calling modern Japan a democracy is a bit of a stretch.

No. It's not.

It is not an accident they call Japan a 'one and a half party system.' Not exactly democratic eh?

[Countesia]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe

Read up on this guy.

He, as a member of the Nazi party high ranking enough to entrusted to act as the Nazi representative to China, protected 250,000 chinese citizens from the Japanese during the Nanjing Massacre.

For someone who clearly aligned with the ideals of the Nazi's ideas of racial purity dear to discard such beliefs to protect an 'inferior' race from the Japanese, just goes to highlight how fucked up Japanese atrocities were.

He was fired when he got back to Germany

Yeah, the city of Nanjing supported him with money and food parcels till he died.

[Heloin]

American and Allied failure to implicate the Japanese Imperial house in the crimes they knew were committed in their names lives on today in a deeply right wing Japan that in recent years has sought to not just ignore but flatly deny the atrocities committed during the Second World War. Yes I know MacArthur's reason and it was a bad one.


I mean, the answer to the question there is racism. Japan significantly affected the West as well, but in there colonies. Indonesians, Vietnamese, and Filipino deaths didn't matter to the west for the same reason the kids are taught the Invasion of Poland in 1939 as the start of the War rather than Marco Polo Bridge in 1931 or the Battle of Beijing in 1937.

Why was it a bad reason? Speaking from a geopolitical stance, not a moral one, it would have been much easier to control a puppet Japan through an emperor than executing them. Besides, Tojo Hideki, the real person behind the war, (the emperor was a puppet) was actually brought to justice.

It didn’t really help and allowed people to believe that the Emperor was not a fully willing and active participant in Japans aggressive expansionism and the atrocities committed in his name often with his full knowledge. The strength of Japans modern war denialism is directly tied to an bullshit unwillingness to end the Japanese monarchy.