Japan - True feelings?

[Paul22118]

I think the tradegy in Japan is horrendous as many have said on these pages. May I share a comment with you made by another (which I happen not to agree with but understand)
He is a Scot who was captured by the Japanese in WWII and badly starved and tortured. He survived but has always hated them for what they did to him as a man. In reespect to recent natural events he said "I was captured by the Japs in the war and was beaten, starved and tortured. They hit me hard and broke my legs and punched me so hard my stomach has never recovered. At my lowest darkest days I used to think where are you Lord when I need you most. Now I know".
Tragic is it not?

[karenmac60]

Would your friend think the Japanese were justified if they had said 9/11 was deserved because the Americans dropped the bomb on them? I doubt it.

[Lonnie]

I can fully understand, and if I'd been captured during the war, and spent time in Changi or on the railway of death, I would also agree, however,

I think that whats happened, and the magnitude of it, puts everything else into perspective, our quarrels, piddling wars etc.

My heart goes out to the Japanese at this time, as it did to the New Zealanders, although you can't really compere.

You wouldn't, and shouldn't wish this on anyone.

[I.Don No]

What has happened recently in Japan is, of course, tragic. But, thankfully, I was not in a Japanese POW camp or involved in what Japan did to the Chinese, but I fully understand why this man feels the way he does.

[tearinghair]

I do feel for those who suffered in the war; my uncle fought in the Far East and was never able to talk about it. But....where, and when, do we stop? Hate the French for the Hundred Years' War? The Saracens for the Crusades? The Normans for the 1066 invasion? The Vikings for their rape and pillage? I'm with John Donne on this: 'Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind'. The Japanese need our support now, not our hatred.

[modeller]

lonnie // piddling wars etc.//
Your piddling little war cost 60 million dead 10 million by the Japs two thirds of which were unarmed civilians and POWs.
Interesting values you have got comparing 10 thousand missing in an earthquake with
60 million in a piddling war.

[Count-A-Strong]

Anyone who sees this tragic NATURAL disaster as some kind of retribution for Japan's actions in the second world war needs psychiatric help.

[Poor-Alfie]

Most nations have committed atrocities.
Lets be honest here, Britain has been in the premier league..

I don't understand the mans feelings. Japanese civilians did not torture him.

[modeller]

poor alfie // I don't understand the mans feelings. Japanese civilians did not torture him. //
Oh really ! They were not only involved they cheered encouragement at public torture and
bayonetting sessions of prisoners. It was disclosed at the war trials that prisoners were kept in some towns for the weekly entertainment of the local populous.

[modeller]

tearahair // Hate the French for the Hundred Years' War? The Saracens for the Crusades? The Normans for the 1066 invasion? The Vikings for their rape and pillage?//

This is a silly comparision . We are talking about events within the living memories of a generation who are alive today . I was once beaten up with rifle butts. Should I forget and forgive. Maybe I should campaign for them to be given a pension . I'm sure you and sandie would approve.

[Poor-Alfie]

I am currently living above a pub, modeller, the man who owns the pub, has pictures up of his father. His father was an SS officer. My grandad was killed in the war, by Germans.

do you think I should leave ?
should I feel anger toward the bar owner?

[B00]

Only if he starts goose stepping round the pub Alfie

[DTCwordfan]

Modeller - whilst understanding your comments, you are condemning most of the Japanese people. Assuming a person who inflicted these horrendous acts o,r prima facie, consoned it, was 20 in 1942, they would now be 90 or over......so what percentage of the population who were capable of this up to 1945 are still alive, perhaps 5%, 10%. So you are prepared to smear the other 90% with this.

I am not condoning their actions, I am not saying that their future generations should pass through life unaware of what happened.

However, history and society at large has long moved on. The Japanese people, as a nation, or as the large majority of those who were not involved in WW2, need our help and sympathy and we should give them that - at least for our own advancement at being civil to others in times of genuine distress.

[DTCwordfan]

sorry line 3, condoned it - heavy typing fingers.

[Poor-Alfie]

lol Boo, when I have had some sherbets, i might do that.


btw, modeller, one of my workmates is an ex Royal Marine. He has no problem either,

it's in the past

[modeller]

Have I anywhere condemmed the present Japanese people ?
Have I called for retribution ?
Have I in fact even criticised any Jap who has been born since 1945.?

I have however answered some of the nonsense trotted out by certain ABers who have more sympathy for evil than they do for the victims.
What I have done is restated documented facts of the events leading up to and during WW II
and why many of my generation can not just forget and forgive. It is still too fresh in our minds.
That does not mean that I in anyway don't sympathise with the present suffering of that nation and I have great admiration for the way they have accepted and are tackling the problems.

[sandyRoe]

The Japanese seem to have been monstrous to want to build an empire in China and other parts of Asia. Was the British Empire totally altruistic?

[tamborine]

The japs surrendered in Singapore but not before thousands were tortured & killed - it was war & both sides suffered.

[anotheoldgit]

sandyRoe

I cannot deem from your name that you are British, but by your frequent anti-British posts you don't appear so.

You wrote,

/// The Japanese seem to have been monstrous to want to build an empire in China and other parts of Asia. Was the British Empire totally altruistic? ///

Please inform me how our Empire, which was mainly formed through trade and exploration, can in any way compare with Japan's quest for an empire.

Read your history books at Japan's carpet bombing of innocent Chinese civilians, and the atrocities they carried out on their invasion of China the Far East and the lands of the Pacific.

[sp1814]

AOG

British Empire (some perspective):

The British Empire has done many different distasteful things in its time such as when it quelled the Indian Rebellion which happened. The main reason for the Indian rebellion was because they believed that the British were attempting to convert them by force or by gradual change to Christianity, and because of that they would lose the caste system that they had held up for hundreds of years.

When the fear of this coupled by the upheaval caused by the segregation and also the unfair laws forced upon the Indians they began to fight back. Many of the English sources tell us of how the barbaric Indians slaughtered thousands of innocent British women and children. But the British troops did the same thing, they lined up Indian women in the street and shot them, they threw Indian children down wells, and all this because of the rage that had consumed them, but the rage is not an excuse for the things that they did.

That is one of the Empires atrocities.

[sp1814]

-cntd-

That period in history shows a very negative side of the British Empire but it has also done good things such as: the period during the 2 world wars when in 1942 Australia signed the Statute of Westminster Acceptance Act.

This gave the country independence from the British, they were given their own government, constitution, and is responsible for its own laws police, defence and currency.

This was a very positive act from the British.