Originally posted by Oda Nobunaga
That said, I agree that Japanesse behavior on average was *very, very, very wrong* during the war. Not quite Holocaust-level wrong (which is why I'd tend to say Nazi Germany did somewhat worse), but very wrong still.
But "Japanesse are devils born in hell and sexual maniacs" kind of post just annoy the hell out of me - just like "All palestinians are devils born in hells with horns on top of their head" posts annoy me.
In fact, anyone painting anything as utterly evil (black) annoys me. Dark gray, yes, very dark gray, yes. but utterly evil just doesn't exist in this world. Just like utterly good (white).
The black and white vision of this world just get on my nerves.
I agree with you here Nobunaga. Some people are intent on saying things like "rape was in the Japanese blood" -- if so, why is the crime rate in Japan one of hte lowest in the world? And no, its not that people aren't reporting it.
People talk of nuclear wasteland, but the fact is that the radiation from a 15 kiloton nuke is very weak and short lived. Chernobyl was/is far more dangerous.
Was Japan as bad as Germany? Well, the Nanjing massacre was deplorable, one of the worst events in World War II. The Japanese treatment of POWs was worse than anyone in the world. Why was Japan so "evil?" Was it in their blood? well, in a sense, yes -- but they believed it to be so.
Starting in the 1820s and gaining steam up to 1868 was a movement in Japan -- sonno joi -- to "revere the emperor, expel the barbarian." Hooked onto this was a revival of the belief of the superiority of the Yamato bloodline. While Japan was humiliated in 1853 by Perry, causing the eventual downfall of the shogunate and the samurai class, the Meiji government was initially still dominated by samurai. Warrior spirit and the superiority of the Japanese blood was paramount to their thinking.
Early Meiji era intellectuals dabbled with Natural Rights philosophy -- Rousseau, Locke, etc -- stuff that founded the US, modern Britain and France -- they even set up the government based on these principles. They said to the West "Hey look, we're modern! Treat us with respect! Revise unfair treaties!" Secretly, they believed they had only been able to do this because of their superior bloodline -- China, Korea, SE Asia were no where near their new level of sophistication.
The west ignored Japan. Japan looked and saw that the most powerful countries werent following rights of man anymore, they were following Imperialsm and social darwinism. Since Japan believed themselves to be a superior race, they latched onto this "scientific" theory of social darwinism and began their descent into imperialism and militarism.
1895 invade and defeat China
1905 invade and defeat Russia
Only then did the West realize that Japan was a new asian force to be reckoned with...and Japan was intent on setting up colonies and controlling Asia. What was their racial plan? To exterminate, like Germany?
No. Japan, although firmly believing they were asuperior race, did NOT want to exterminate other races -- this was foolish. Influenced by Confucian philosophy, they believed that every race held a place in teh heirarchy of society -- Japanese on top. Through the "guidance" (ie Rule, Domination) of Japan, all asian peoples would rise to their natural level in the heirarchy. Extermination wasn't the plan.
Now, regarding the West, they were to be expelled at all costs. They were invaders who planned to rape and kill all Japanese, because they feared teh Japanese superiorty. Their only goal was to humiliate and destroy Japan. That is why Japanese would rather have died than be captured -- they bought into the propaganda. Hirohito in his speech saying that Japan had surrendered asked the people -- who had never heard his voice before --- asked them to "bear the unbearable" -- bear the humiliation of defeat, as well as atrocities against them just as they had done to the US.
Sorry for the long post. got carried away.
