Vj Day

[allenlondon]

How do older Japanese view the tragedy of the 2nd World War?

A gentle and cultured people, how do they explain the dreadful acts of their parents’ generation?

[waterboatman]

That was a different world.

[emmie]

i wonder that too, but in war there are no winners, how does one explain what the Nazi's did.

[emmie]

how do we know they are gentle and cultured. They certainly were brutal in war time, never give in spirit. They were prepared to die to the last man, however they did finally surrender but it took Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end their fanaticism

[allenlondon]

And Tokyo; the West conveniently omit Tokyo.

[emmie]

of course, but the mindset was such that they would have fought on, giving no inch.

[waterboatman]

They surrendered when they were told that Tokyo was the next target for an atom bomb.

[emmie]

i watched the Anniversary commemoration on tv yesterday morning, very moving i must say.

[david small]

My father was out in the Far East, Island Clearing...He would not talk about it. I remember the tears in his eyes as he remembered. My uncle was a Japanese prisoner of war for several years. They locked him in a tiny bamboo cage and jabbed him with bayonets. Lest we forget.

[waterboatman]

I was in Malaya for three years in the '60's, there were still some of the scars of Japanese atrocities visible then. A couple of miles outside Malacca there was a house that was once a planters home, a beautiful but abandoned building. When you looked through the windows you could see why, there were still blood stains on the walls where the japs had tortured people. The locals wouldn't go near it.

[allenlondon]

All the anecdotes build a picture of cruelty and depravity.

But none help explain or answer my original question.

[emmie]

i guess one would have to answer that it was a code of honour that the Japanese soldier adhered to, Bushido i believe, never give in, and don't show emotion. Being brutal was part of that regime or so it seems to me.

[waterboatman]

Only the current Japanese people can answer that.

[Old_Geezer]

I doubt those in their POW camps considered the Japanese gentle.

[Old_Geezer]

Unsure what the original question is looking for. I suspect only older Japanese individuals can answer it.

[Peter Pedant]

covered somewhat in the tele programmes

mainly as a victim of nuclear aggression

plus the odd denial - rape of Nanking didnt exist for unbelievable reasons (not enough dead people)

[Bobbisox1]

There was a lady on last nights VJ celebrations on BBC1, her father was Japanese, her mother ,British, she was saying that the Japanese hardly ever mention ( apart from remembering) the atrocity of Hiroshima and they have never pointed the finger of blame at either America or Britain for their part in the War, she was a very dignified lady

[allenlondon]

Of course not, Geezer; all that is true.

But I’m asking about individual, probably older Japanese men.

Like all (ALL) soldiers, there must come a point when, testosterone departed, they look back and shudder. Like Harry Patch, WW1 veteran who, in his extreme old age, said: “War is murder. Bloody murder.”

[Peter Pedant]

// I suspect only older Japanese individuals can answer it.// you can ask them and people have

the events are slightly modified - -
Bombs a way with Curtis R Lemay - running candidate of George Wallace of Alabamee ( sort of like Trump but fifty years ago - he wasnt elected )
Lemay really had flattened Japanese cities - "deroofing the population" - 80% were refugees - if you allow internal refugee status.

In May 1945 the americans had air superiority and air supremacy surprisinlgy and that accounts for so many retinal burns in Hiroshima.

Only two cities were untouched - saved for showing the effects. The refugees collected in H and N as they noticed that as well.

Lemay had flattened 20 sq mi of Tokyo in March 1945 and he reflattened it after Nagasaki because the japanese werent surrendering fast enough ( and they didnt have a third bomb)

As for Japanese POWs - everyone knows they were terribly badly treated. As children we were told, just let them go what they wanted. The japanese had no idea JN 25 and Purple had been broken by the British and Americans and concluded there must be a spy system in the camps. Plan A was to massacre all the POWs in Sep 45. Plan B was to inflict at least a million casualties on the Americans as that might deter them from a mainlaind conquest

[iluvmargie]

Oh yes, very 'gentle and cultured' - didn't they resume barbaric whaling ??

[douglas9401]

"A gentle and cultured people", in part, just like any other country.

As to explaining dreadful acts, they may not want or need to do that seeking instead to move on leaving self-flagellation to others.