No looting in Japan: An interesting take

I doubt there are many Japanese who were directly involved in the war effort that are still alive.

 

Every year around this time, the Japanese celebrate the "war heroics" of some of the men that were in charge of the rape and pillage of Nanking.

Every year that it happens, the Chinese population gets up in arms and complains. The Japanese have no concept of the horrors that they put on those people. We, in the USA, at least have some concept about our history of racism.

Japan has also never apologized for what they did during the war. I think that goes towards the character of the people as well...

 

Can you provide a link or some additional information detailing this? There certainly is no formal holiday for this purpose.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan

 

Having read through that list, I stand by what I stated before. Japan has never apologized for the rape and pillaging that they engaged in for sport in Nanking. The actions of Japan continuing to honor the criminals that engaged in those acts far overshadow a few general words of "We're sorry about bad things that occurred during World War II."

 

If Japan had more than 42 million Chinese descendants living in their country today, they probably would have the "concept" of it like we do.

 

On the one hand, I like that this board is intelligent enough to be discussing Nanking.

On the other hand, I don't see it as particularly relevant to this discussion.

This disaster interests me in especial because it largely affects the "hidden" Japanese who don't live in the Tokyo megalopolis, who to me are the most interesting. I've always been fascinating by Hokkaido, for instance. Japan may be homogeneous -- my goodness, is it ever -- but there are plenty of other differences between regions, etc.

 

You still haven't provided a link explaining precisely what you're referring to with these claims. There are no Japanese holidays that remotely fit that description--they don't even have one analogous to a Veteran's day--and I spent a couple years there and don't recall any celebrations of war criminals.

Except that's not what you stated before. Before you stated Japan has never apologized for "what they did during the war." As the preceding link shows, Japan actually has issued a long list of apologies for the war and their crimes during that period. The fact that you don't find the wording specific and detailed enough doesn't change the fact that apologies have been issued.

That said, I'll concede that Japan has been much more reluctant to acknowledge its crimes of the 30s and 40s than Germany, and more reluctant than we have been in coming to terms with the uglier chapters in our own history. As I've been told, some of that reluctance is related to the Japanese cultural trait that places far more importance on honoring your elders and ancestors than in Western cultures. Most Japanese grow up being taught that you simply do not speak ill of grandpa--ever--so the idea of their govt declaring that he might've been a butcherous monster is too much for many of them to handle.

But, once again, I've no idea the relevance to this thread topic. As I recall, all this WWII era stuff first came up in response to poindexter praising the character of TODAY'S Japanese society. The Nanking atrocities were committed by Japanese soldiers in 1937. I don't see how their misconduct reflects the character of today's Japanese any more than slavery and native American genocide reflect my character.

 

Stoney, the board has had this conversation multiple times about the Holocaust. Moving the focus from Europe to Asia doesn't change my basic take.

Nobody holds the Inquisition against Spaniards today. But there are still a few people alive who survived Nanking or the Holocaust. And there are a good bit more who are the children of those survivors.

What happened in the 1930s and '40s may seem as remote to you as the Inquisition. Others less lucky or less young than you might disagree. The good news is time can heal this. Just not in living memory.

 

I bet those still living from Bataan Death March have some memories of brutality.

 

So now we're bringing in the Bataan Death March ...Seriously? So we're gonna turn a thread about the lack of looting as the Japanese are currently suffering through their worst crises since WWII into a Japan bashing thread?

And, Ragu, I never once claimed that the Japanese have "more character and integrity" than Americans. My only point was that bringing up events that occured 74 years ago was not a particularly valid rebuttal to a statement about the character of TODAY'S Japanese society.

Honestly, none of this WWII era stuff ever should've been part of this discussion, and I think I'm done talking about it.