"Japan: We Didn’t Commit War Crimes, the U.S...." Topic

…Just Made That Up.

"In the clearest signal yet of U.S. unhappiness with the rightward tilt of Japan's political leadership — and by extension, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — the U.S. embassy in Tokyo has strongly condemned charges by a top official at Japan's national public broadcaster that Americans fabricated war crimes against Japanese leaders during World War II in order to cover up American atrocities.

"These suggestions are preposterous. We hope that people in positions of responsibility in Japan and elsewhere would seek to avoid comments that inflame tensions in the region," an embassy spokesman told TIME early on Friday.

The charges were made this week by Naoki Hyakuta, a nationalist writer and close friend of Abe, who was recently appointed to the board of governors of the Japan Broadcasting Corp., commonly known as NHK…"
Full article here.
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This guy has to read a lot more about real history.
Now I undestand why Japan has not many friends there.

Amicalement
Armand

Sigh. This bodes poorly for Japan.

Yeah, have fun facing down China without the US backing you up.

That is indeed silly, but to be fair, we apparently didn't do anything to hold them accountable for them, unlike the trials for the nazis after the war, which I always thought was odd.

Agreed with Mako11. Their crimes should have been shown to the Japanese public in order to avoid this type of revisionism.

That's why I refuse to game jap's in any period….

Yes, they were treated differently to the Germans.

Just curious Mako11/TSM but there were War Crimes Trials in Tokyo as well as Nuremburg – are you referencing something else?

I don't think it's a worry that some Japanese don't accept the war guilt handed down – it's not that exceptional (ref David Irving's views on the Holocaust) but I do think it's a worry if it were to go unchallenged domestically, or gain political traction and become a mainstream view.

He might be referring to Unit 731. They did a lot of horrible things and were pardoned by the US gov't. A lot of other Japanese officials were also pardoned for war crimes they committed

Worrying.

As it was in the beginnning so shall it end. How can an Emperor become just a friend?

- Hugh

I am sure they feel they don't get enough credit for liberating China.

The various war crime trials in Asia were actually quite extensive though perhaps not as well known in the West.

A fairly balanced discussion:
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I am sure the Chinese will bear witness that Japan did indeed commit warcrimes and in so doing back up our "claims ".

I guess "Revisionism" does not only apply to the victors.

The world knows both the Nazis and IJF committed a huge number of war crimes. And the trials on both fronts after the made it pretty clear. But the Germans have seemed to come to grips with what they did … the Japanese have not in appears … It appears their history of WWII in many cases concentrates on the US A-Bombs use. Maybe they think down deep the use of such weapons evens out their war crimes some how ?

After working in Japan for 3 years with lots of local nationals, when asked what was being taught in their schools about their role in WWII they simply replied,"Not much more than we fought and lost the war."

German vehicles, soldiers and almost anything German from WWII were big hits in Japan with modellers, publishers of magazines and the POP culture at the time (87-90), Does not seem to have gone the other way much.

…and to be fair, the Koreans seemed to have gotten an apology and some compensation from the Japanese Government a few years ago. "Face" was lost in that admission!

when asked what was being taught in their schools about their role in WWII they simply replied,"Not much more than we fought and lost the war."

Not much different than what is being taught here in the US. Just substitute "won" for "lost".

I'm not too worried about WWII revisionism in Japan. I think the people are smarter than their politicians. I'm more worried about Iran and the rest of the Middle East.

With the current demographic trend in Japan where adult diapers now out-sell infant diapers, even their famous longevity will not prevent their eventual extinction in a little over a century. Perhaps they blame that on the West too…..

With all that is taught in US schools, in many cases, history is covered with a broad brush. And Vietnam for example is like to many … as say … WWI may have been to past generations … unfortunately … very unfortunately … And with the internet, information of all types including history is literally at the click of a button … But it is said, 1 out of 3 hits on line are for porn … so take that for what its worth …

'I think the people are smarter than their politicians.'

Smarter is not the issue. People will believe what they want to believe, and a well told lie that mtches peoples expectations and wishes will usually work.

The question that goes with this of course is… what lies do we believe?

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"Just curious Mako11/TSM but there were War Crimes Trials in Tokyo as well as Nuremburg – are you referencing something else?".

I wasn't aware of that, so thanks for the info.

I do know that many/most were not held accountable for their actions, including the horrific treatment of, and yes, the despicable experimenting done on some prisoners.

Willful ignorance, revisionism, it is difficult to imagine why this sort of nonsense is perpetuated by senior Japanese figures. My father's uncle was in Burma and saw a few things as an infantry medical section leader which don't bear repetition. The house that occupied the plot directly behind my own was home to a gentleman captured by the Japanese who in captivity watched them behead his own brother in law.
The impression I have had, and one not dispelled by reading,is of cruelty wrapped up in a twisted honour code. Love to look at well painted samurai miniatures, don't much care for a collection though.
I don't think the Japanese of today, from what I can gather, are of the same mind set as those engaged in those activities but they do seem naive about their own forebears actions and the effect their shoddy pronouncements have on foreigners.

Might not be the same mindset, but the official denial if not ignorance is not acceptable either.

Problem is after the war, the only ones tried for war crimes tended to be those who embarrassed MacArthur in battle, like the general who ran rings around him in the Phillipines. Anyone else tended to get loosed back into the population.

Slim had the right idea. Let the men see their officers surrender to the Allies publicly and let there be no doubt about losing the war. No postwar myth about being cheated like Germany post great war.

Even worse was the treatment of allied governments who signed away the rights of their former POWs as part of their peace treaty with japan.

Horrific treatment as meted out by the worst of them.
Let them own up.

As I understand it there are complex cultural issues involved in why the Germans were able to 'fess up and get over it and the Japanese have not

The Allied governments did actually "overlook" a number of war crimes – the doctor in charge of the infamous Unit 713 was never charged in exchange for his info, Japan having what was probably the most advanced biological warfare program in the war (as a note, the second most advanced would probably have been British/Canadian); von Braun et al. also got a free pass in exchange for their rocket science

The recent sabre-waving over a bunch of what appear to be near-worthless rocks in the middle of the ocean is pretty worrisome – strong economic ties don't necessarily preclude dumb actions

To be fair, it's not like the whole country buys into this. I would say that the "no war crime thing" is fairly recognized as perpetuated lie by those in charge.

The fact that the war crimes happened and isn't acknowledged shows up in main stream Japanese movies regularly, so it's not like the Japanese people don't know the truth.

A local judge who died recently was an acquaintance of mine in that we both used to regularly visit the same restaurant and we would always each be reading a book. We would politely ask about each other's book and then sit separately and enjoy our lunches. One day I was reading "The Great Raid." I had known that this judge was once incarcerated in a Japanese camp with his mother and sisters. His family lived in the Filipines at the outbreak of the war. He was nine when the Japs incarcerated his father in one camp, and the rest of his family in another. They were civilian prisoners of war for the next few years. Shortly before the raid to liberate Cabanatuan, the Japs shipped out about 800 prisoners to be used as slave labor in Japan. His father was on that ill-fated ship, which was unmarked and was sunk by the Americans. His other family members never recovered their health, and he watched as many people were beaten or starved to death in the camp. He looked at my book and said, "Two was not enough," in obvious reference to Fat man and Little Boy. He could not forgive the Japanese, even though he was one of the best judges and one of the nicest people I have ever known. When people try and excuse or ignore the past, well, isn't there some phrase about being doomed to do something similar down the road?