29 Sep 06
Can the Japanese ever be excused for the attrocities that they did WW2.
I am reading a book at the moment called Prisoners Of War,and the horrific torture and punishment that the Japanese soldiers committed is horrific ,it makes todays terrorists look like choir boys .
I cannot excuse them after reading this book ,do others feel the same?
29 Sep 06
Originally posted by boarmanThere's no excuse for that sort of behaviour. Besides, I doubt whether those soldiers would have made excuses--they knew what they were doing and why. Question is whether they can be forgiven.
Can the Japanese ever be excused for the attrocities that they did WW2.
I am reading a book at the moment called Prisoners Of War,and the horrific torture and punishment that the Japanese soldiers committed is horrific ,it makes todays terrorists look like choir boys .
I cannot excuse them after reading this book ,do others feel the same?
Is forgiveness possible?
(Interview with Derrida, perhaps relevant:
http://www.cardozo.yu.edu/life/fall1998/derrida/ )
29 Sep 06
Originally posted by Bosse de NageYes i agree with you ,should they be forgiven ,my answer to that is no .
There's no excuse for that sort of behaviour. Besides, I doubt whether those soldiers would have made excuses--they knew what they were doing and why. Question is whether they can be forgiven.
Is forgiveness possible?
(Interview with Derrida, perhaps relevant:
http://www.cardozo.yu.edu/life/fall1998/derrida/ )
I accept that there would be few of those soldiers still alive but the way they treated other human beings was plain sadistic ,so i will never forgive them ,no matter what .
29 Sep 06
Originally posted by boarmanHow can you get rid of the bitterness that your justified hatred of them causes you?
Yes i agree with you ,should they be forgiven ,my answer to that is no .
I accept that there would be few of those soldiers still alive but the way they treated other human beings was plain sadistic ,so i will never forgive them ,no matter what .
29 Sep 06
Originally posted by boarmanWould you mind putting up a list in order of egregiousness? The "Rape of Nanking" was pretty horrific if I recall correctly.
Not saying that i enjoy this feeling ,it doesn't bother me ,but this book has really brought a few things up that i didnt think could of happened ,i knew the Japanese were tortuous but these crimes are mindblowing.
29 Sep 06
1 edit
Originally posted by boarmanI meant crimes by the Japanese. I could always do an Internet search,
If i had a list of shocking books i would but i dont so you will have to excuse me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes
but it's usually more interesting to read a list compiled by a person with individual ranking preferences.
"The historian Chalmers Johnson has written that:
It may be pointless to try to establish which World War Two Axis aggressor, Germany or Japan, was the more brutal to the peoples it victimised. The Germans killed six million Jews and 20 million Russians [i.e. Soviet citizens]; the Japanese slaughtered as many as 30 million Filipinos, Malays, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Indonesians and Burmese, at least 23 million of them ethnic Chinese. Both nations looted the countries they conquered on a monumental scale, though Japan plundered more, over a longer period, than the Nazis. Both conquerors enslaved millions and exploited them as forced labourers — and, in the case of the Japanese, as [forced] prostitutes for front-line troops. If you were a Nazi prisoner of war from Britain, America, Australia, New Zealand or Canada (but not Russia) you faced a 4 % chance of not surviving the war; [by comparison] the death rate for Allied POWs held by the Japanese was nearly 30 %."
What did the two cultures, superficially so different, have in them that made them act out so horrendously in parallel?
29 Sep 06
Originally posted by Bosse de NageYou seem to misunderstand me as i dont rank any .
I meant crimes by the Japanese. I could always do an Internet search,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes
but it's usually more interesting to read a list compiled by a person with individual ranking preferences.
"The historian Chalmers Johnson has written that:
It may be pointless to try to establish which World War Two Axis a ...[text shortened]... he war; [by comparison] the death rate for Allied POWs held by the Japanese was nearly 30 %."
Maybe you should use an internet search ,but i doubt that some of these attrocities will be mentioned .
29 Sep 06
I agree: The treatment Allied POWs and civilians received at the hands of the Japanese military was inexcusable. However, I don’t believe we can hold a nation’s progeny responsible for the crimes committed by their forebears, especially if the current generation is repentant and doesn’t act in the same way their forefathers did.
29 Sep 06
Originally posted by der schwarze RitterAgreed, that's the most reasonable thing I've seen you post in ages.
I agree: The treatment Allied POWs and civilians received at the hands of the Japanese military was inexcusable. However, I don’t believe we can hold a nation’s progeny responsible for the crimes committed by their forebears, especially if the current generation is repentant and doesn’t act in the same way their forefathers did.