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mdiehl -> detente (4/11/2002 10:06:53 PM)
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I have to agree with Tohoku. The remark about the Enola Gay was crass. Maybe even provocative. That aside, Tohoku's comment:
"Atrocities were indeed committed. Maybe every day. But even so, other country military also commit attrocity during war. Maybe every day. I *have* said that some of the things Japanese forces are accused of are, IMO, not attrocities - what one culture calls an attrocity another may not. This saying of mine is not the same as saying they never happened. I could give an example if you wanted of the culture difference about that things."
The waffling, evasion and moral ambiguity of that paragraph really concerns me. All military powers did not commit "atrocities" in the sense that one means when one refers to WW2 war crimes.
The "Rape of Nanking" was organized massacre. You can't blame it on reservists. It was the 6th Division. We can't know how many people were murdered outright. 100,000 is probably a good lower estimate. Even Nazi SS divisions did not engage in rapine on such a massive scale over such short terms. Japan, the government, owes China, the government, a formal apology for that.
The systematic starvation of civilians in occupied areas (Korea, China, PI) to feed the Japanese homeland. During WW2, only one other power stole food from occupied nations: Nazi Germany. By comparison, standards of living among Italian, German, and Japanese civilians actually improved under Allied occupation. Japan, the government, owes Koreans, Chinese, and PIslanders a formal apology for that.
Japan conducted widespread tests of biological agents on Chinese. Japan, the government, owes China a formal apology for that. By comparison, only two other powers are known to have conducted germ warfare tests on living humans (although I'd bet money that the USSR did as well): Nazi Germany (who have apologized profusely and made nominal restition), and the US (who have apologized to the survivors and families of the African Americans who were subjected to such tests, and made nominal restition).
Japan, the government, maintained an infrastructure, a service organization if you will, that enslaved Chinese, Korean and PIsland women for sex. Japan, the government, owes these women and their families, a formal apology for that. No other power had an organized sex-slave industry. Not even the Nazis.
Japan failed to make adequate provisions for the maintenance of Allied POWS. Japan transported and housed pows in filthy conditions that promoted the rampant spread of disease. Japan forced prisoners to work in labor camps, often in combat areas where the prisoners were exposed to fire. Nazi Germany did not do that to Allied prisoners. Japan routinely executed allied prisoners, particularly fliers. Germany didn't do that either. There were known alternatives (I have mentioned parole) that were available. Japan, the government, owes the POWs (those that are still alive at any rate) a formal apology for that. By treaty, no monetary compensation is owed, so the issue of money is (in my mind anyhow) a non-issue.
Forget the declaration of war thing. Japan intended to declare war. They blew the timing of it. No apology for that is necessary. No apology is required for duplicitous "surrendering" Japanese soldiers whose last act in life *after* "surrendering" was to try to kill one more Yank, Aussie or Kiwi. No apology required: it was a really idiotic cultural thing.
"Who you judge as worse, the Japanese for committing attrocities and acknowldging they happened (but not apologising the way you want them to), or the Germans for attempting outright and organised genocide (but saying sorry afterwards), or the US for commiting attrocities (and ignoring them afterwards, not apologising at all)? Don't take this an accusation. It isn't. I'm simply trying to get you to realised that the situation is more difficult than you seem to want to think about."
I have seen estimates that 10-20 million Southeast Asians died under Japanese rule. That puts Japanese genocide on the same scale as Nazi Germany's and Joe Stalin's. There is no moral comparison between the Allies and the Axis in regards to the subject of war crimes. More importantly, while "atrocities" often occur during warfare (extramilitary executions by soldiers who would rather not take prisoners, for example) do, indeed, happen, the Allies never formally organized such efforts. Japan and Germany did. Japan's crimes in WW2 go *way beyond* "atrocities."
But as I said, the US does not need an apology. The Chinese, PI and Koreans do. They're not about to just "drop it." So Japan will continue to live with the diplomatic consequences in Asia of its failure to apologize to Asians. Whether they do or not only interests me, as an American, insofar as US military strength shelters Japan.
Frankly, if a new Asian war breaks out, I won't be voting to spend American blood and treasure to defend a nation that won't own up to its past. It's pretty unlikely, and I'm just one guy, so you are probably "free" (courtesy of the US) to continue to pretend that Japan did nothing wrong or to revise history in any way that makes you feel good about your national past.
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