Don’t forget the atomic bombs. The atomic bomb museum in Hiroshima which all the westerners love visiting doesn’t mention a word about WHY Japan was bombed, or what they were doing in the lead up to it. Sympathy for the atomic bombings allows Japan to do revisionist history.
Lets be clear that US generals vaporised nagasaki and Hiroshima not because they really cared about some kind of revenge for Japanese imperial occupations, butmore so due to Soviet advances near Manchuria and fears of a potentially USSR aligned Japan. (Among other reasons but I have to rewatch that 6 hour long Shaun video to refresh my memory.)
So I do have sympathy for civilian deaths during war brought on to some extent by American anti communist geopolitics.
I always point out the members of Unit 731 were sipping champagne with American diplomats ten years after the war ended, while the blast shadows of Korean slave labor and Japanese working class people painted the masonry
Too often when discussion of Japanese warcrimes comes up and the lack of “remorse” by Japanese elites, it’s never pointed out it was the Americans who pardoned or refused to prosecute the war criminals, the Americans had total control of Japan and Japanese society and yet anti-communism was more important than any conception of justice
Hell nobody even clocks the incredible and sickening irony that the US killed more Koreans in three short years, than compared to the totality of Japanese colonial history
The US absorbed and perfected Japanese colonialism
Yes it’s true that was the actual reason for dropping the bombs, and yes civilians and POWs did die from them, but my criticism is towards Japan reinventing the narrative to make them look like the victims of WW2 and not the perpetrators which the atomic bombs do help them achieve. I’m not trying to make any arguments about whether using nuclear weapons were justified, but it’s very hard for me to have sympathy for a nation that was employing biochemical weapons in China at the same time.
I feel like Japan uses Hiroshima and Nagasaki the way Isreal uses the Holocaust. Silence all criticism of the existing government with no reverence for the actual victims.
There’s a similar attitude in Japan, I agree. However, Japan doesn’t go anywhere close to the lengths Israel does in preventing any criticisms of its policies. Worst case scenario is you get socially shunned and blacklisted from some public institutions in Japan, but outside the country you wouldn’t get much lashback from calling out their past wrongdoings.
Also, Israel does this to defend something they’re CURRENTLY doing that is extremely unpopular, Japan does it to defend something they used to do (but wouldn’t mind doing it again) and is largely ignored by the western world.
Don’t forget the atomic bombs. The atomic bomb museum in Hiroshima which all the westerners love visiting doesn’t mention a word about WHY Japan was bombed, or what they were doing in the lead up to it. Sympathy for the atomic bombings allows Japan to do revisionist history.
Lets be clear that US generals vaporised nagasaki and Hiroshima not because they really cared about some kind of revenge for Japanese imperial occupations, butmore so due to Soviet advances near Manchuria and fears of a potentially USSR aligned Japan. (Among other reasons but I have to rewatch that 6 hour long Shaun video to refresh my memory.)
So I do have sympathy for civilian deaths during war brought on to some extent by American anti communist geopolitics.
I always point out the members of Unit 731 were sipping champagne with American diplomats ten years after the war ended, while the blast shadows of Korean slave labor and Japanese working class people painted the masonry
Too often when discussion of Japanese warcrimes comes up and the lack of “remorse” by Japanese elites, it’s never pointed out it was the Americans who pardoned or refused to prosecute the war criminals, the Americans had total control of Japan and Japanese society and yet anti-communism was more important than any conception of justice
Hell nobody even clocks the incredible and sickening irony that the US killed more Koreans in three short years, than compared to the totality of Japanese colonial history
The US absorbed and perfected Japanese colonialism
Yes it’s true that was the actual reason for dropping the bombs, and yes civilians and POWs did die from them, but my criticism is towards Japan reinventing the narrative to make them look like the victims of WW2 and not the perpetrators which the atomic bombs do help them achieve. I’m not trying to make any arguments about whether using nuclear weapons were justified, but it’s very hard for me to have sympathy for a nation that was employing biochemical weapons in China at the same time.
I feel like Japan uses Hiroshima and Nagasaki the way Isreal uses the Holocaust. Silence all criticism of the existing government with no reverence for the actual victims.
There’s a similar attitude in Japan, I agree. However, Japan doesn’t go anywhere close to the lengths Israel does in preventing any criticisms of its policies. Worst case scenario is you get socially shunned and blacklisted from some public institutions in Japan, but outside the country you wouldn’t get much lashback from calling out their past wrongdoings.
Also, Israel does this to defend something they’re CURRENTLY doing that is extremely unpopular, Japan does it to defend something they used to do (but wouldn’t mind doing it again) and is largely ignored by the western world.