ChezDaJez
Posts: 3436
Joined: 11/12/2004 From: Chehalis, WA Status: offline
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quote:
How do you prepare the population? You have to use some “opiate”: “japanese nation and people are superior”, “europeans/americans are decadent”, “chinese are sub-humans”... Sounds familiar? Of course, Hitler did the same in Germany to prepare the german population for war. The ultimate goal: you must increase the self-confidence, an irrational feeling of superiority. In other words: propaganda at work. In fact, japanese were not even original. They merely copied the racist, imperialist european clichés... The army (and recruits) who fought in China and then in the Pacific War were forced to swallow these “ideas” at school. Then you have a barbaric army. Why should we be surprised? Not me. Not disputing anything you said however Japanese feelings of superiority over its asian neighbors were in place well before WWI or II. Its what happens when you have a closed society. And, yes they did have some western role models to emulate but still no excuse. The barbarism practised by the Japanese military during WWII should come as no surprise to anyone. It began within its own ranks. It wasn't just how they treated other people, it was how they treated their own. It has been well documented the treatment junior enlisted received at the hands of their superiors in the Japanese military. They were brutal. Recruits died in training with no questions asked. Obviously the recruit wasn't tough enough or he would have survived. When a nation has that level of brutality for its own people, is there any wonder that they would treat others differently? And they weren't "forced" to swallow it at school, it began at home. Either way, we are pretty far off track here. Chez
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Ret Navy AWCS (1972-1998) VP-5, Jacksonville, Fl 1973-78 ASW Ops Center, Rota, Spain 1978-81 VP-40, Mt View, Ca 1981-87 Patrol Wing 10, Mt View, CA 1987-90 ASW Ops Center, Adak, Ak 1990-92 NRD Seattle 1992-96 VP-46, Whidbey Isl, Wa 1996-98
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