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?

[lady-janine]

one of my uncles was a Japanese POW. He was a kind forgiving man but would never talk about his time there or explain why he could not tolerate the colour pink.

[Peter Pedant]

yeah I saw the hundred year old veterans and thought that examination of contemporary documents may be a better way of getting information

The Japanese also did germ warfare experiments using POWs here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731
and one old boy was cornered and he said
"we didnt do anything"

CIA traded immunity to the commandant in return for the results. They were particularly interested in the effects on American POWS (Brit and Indian also used)

Staked out in a field - they let a germ bomb off and saw who later died. who were dissected alive

[1ozzy]

How do you explain the dreadful acts of your parents/grandparents generation?
No racial profiling please

[lady-janine]

The poor man was part of the Burma railway and came in for special treatment as he was a priest. Would never say anything about it.

[Zacs-Master]

Problems in answering the OP:
1. ThE number of people on here who know several Japanese people.
2. The number of those who know Japanese people who fought in WWII.
3. The number of those who admit to taking part in the alleged atrocities (im not saying they didn’t happen).

Always a bit of a long shot of a question

[Peter Pedant]

// How do you explain the dreadful acts of your parents/grandparents generation?//

when the grandson of Curtis LeMay who ordered the flattening of the Japanese cities - visited Japan, they Japanese took the view - nothing to apologise about, it was your grandfather

strong rejection of blood curse or collective guilt ( someone asked ) . The Beeb fluffette was outraged by this and tried to impose her western views on the scenario and was rebuffed. "They didnt say that"

[Peter Pedant]

// who admit to taking part in the alleged atrocities (I'm not saying they didn’t happen).//

even in Japan they are aged about a hundred ! - Yeah like in Germany, men going around saying yeah I was a guard in a special camp .....

Last year on la dia de los muertos - someone turned up in Imp Japanese uniform ( private ) at the shrine of the dead. Came out with the eastern version of neo-nazi crap I think.

It is a bit like the betrayal of Yalta - you hardly ever hear me speak about it.

[Peter Pedant]

'good' as in informative piece here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes

you do know there were war crimes trials?
5000 found guilty 900 hanged

and a book
The Knights of Bushido: A Short History of Japanese War Crimes....Buy The Knights of Bushido:from ama

which I dont recommend

[youngmafbog]

As per ZM. Impossible question for us to answer.

[allenlondon]

If we could only understand the actions of others by personal knowledge, by who our friends are, then most of the answers to such questions here would be blank.

There is other knowledge, from learning, from books, from a lifetime’s listening and trying to understand.

If we only relied on personal experience we would be in a sorry state. Actually, as my dear pal Ron used to say, “We ARE in a sorry state.”

[tamborine]

"How do you explain the dreadful acts of your parents/grandparents generation? "

Japan attacked & invaded offshore lands that we defended.

[Zacs-Master]

‘ There is other knowledge, from learning, from books, from a lifetime’s listening and trying to understand’

Then go and research it. Local library maybe?

[ToraToraTora]

they basically had a superiority complex from about the late 19th century coupled with a sort of collectinve "little bloke" syndrome. Interesting article here:
https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/gi-roundtable-series/pamphlets/em-15-what-shall-be-done-about-japan-after-victory-(1945)/why-did-japan-choose-war
they essentially believed that they were the master race, ordained to dominate and rule the rest of us.

[allenlondon]

Dear Zacs,

Thank you for your kind, if unnecessary, advice.

Perhaps we should all follow your lead and abandon the internet and sites such as these.

Yours humbly,

Allen

[ToraToraTora]

harry Enfield demonstrates:

[allenlondon]

Tora “ they essentially believed that they were the master race, ordained to dominate and rule the rest of us.”

But that applied to the Yanks, the Romans, to every barmy nation that tried to rule the world - including the English.

[ToraToraTora]

to some extent, possibly, but not to the level the Japanese did.

[Zacs-Master]

Ooooh, so you wanted someone to do,some research for you. My bad.

[ToraToraTora]

Japan had installed a deep contempt of foreigners within it's own people from cradle to grave, their fanaticism was ingrained. That is why it took two Atomic Bombs to get them to surrender. I once saw some Japanese propaganda films that they played to their own people, a real eye opener.