I guess Japan can Nazi what the big deal is about WWII.

[Insomniac]

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k80/InsomniacByChoice/bad.png
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k80/InsomniacByChoice/geb.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k80/InsomniacByChoice/hitchan.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k80/InsomniacByChoice/japnazi.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k80/InsomniacByChoice/moehit.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k80/InsomniacByChoice/moehitchan.png
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k80/InsomniacByChoice/wtf.jpg

I'm sure some of these are drawn by Americans (or others) in the anime style, but the phenomenon still exists in Japan, and the larger point is that the Japanese have never really taken to heart the lessons of World War II in the same way the Germans did.

My opinion is ignorant on this, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Japanese decided to rapidly re-militarize if the U.S. could no longer protect them, while the Germans I couldn't see doing much more than defending themselves just because the specter of Hitler still haunts everything in Europe so much.

Do you think the difference between Germany and Japan is primarily a difference of law, how the war crimes trials were handled, that Japan didn't have to face the costs of war the same way Germany did, that Japanese culture has never faced and accepted the atrocities Japan committed in the way Germany did for the Holocaust, or something else entirely?

This is important because the Japanese are very nice people, but as I said, it's easy to see why history might repeat itself if Japan felt it was necessary to expand (even just as a counterweight to China), while it would take a lot of work to get Germans to swallow rounding up Turks and shooting them in ditches.

[Archangel]

An Asian nation never will admit that it was wrong. Losing face on a national and historical scale is simply not an option. So for 60-odd years now, Japan has lied to itself. The bastards who murdered more Chinese than the Germans killed Russians still insist that they were trying to "bring civilisation to our less fortunate Asian cousins", which is supremely ironic when you consider that Japan's expansionist tendencies were always fueled by the inferiority complex that came with being both nothing but bastardised Koreans ethnically, and having hardly been civilised when China and Korea were already great cultures.

They simply do not know. It is not taught in schools. I always laugh when I see nazis depicted as satanic super-villains in Japanese comics, because it speaks of the greatest self-deception in history.

This, however, has consequences. The Japanese are the most reviled people in Asia. Put simply, everybody with slanted eyes hates their fucking guts. I remember millions of Koreans literally celebrating in the streets when the former Japanese governor's residence in Seoul was torn down on the 50th anniversary of liberation from Japan. It's just that because of their economic hegemony, people had to grin and bear dealing with them.
However, with the rise of China, whose memory is fresh and long, this argument is getting weaker by the year. Remember those riots in China because official Japanese school books white-washed Japan's heinous crimes (Nanking was worse than any single thing the Wehrmacht, hell, the SS ever did. At least Germans didn't toy with their victims)? The whole of Asia stood by and secretly rejoiced. Especially Korea.

Japan's pathetic failure to come to terms with its past will be its undoing. The day national resentment will be greater than the need to deal with Japan, every country in the region will drop them.

The ridiculous thing is that all they have to do to prevent this from happening is to say "we're sorry"; hell, even "maybe that wasn't cool" might suffice. But it will never happen, because Japan WILL prefer national suicide to a national apology. So they WILL go on lying to themselves and their children, lest somebody question that idiotic notion.

It's hard enough to remember your entire family being murdered by a bunch of bloodthirsty barbarians.

It's worse to have those people tell you for generations that they either never did it, or that it was the right thing to do.

Fuck Japan.

[UNC]

I really don't have time to address this properly at this moment.

I will say that I am against bad things and firmly support good things.

[wonderllama]

I think I've mentioned before that Australia still has an interesting relationship with Japan. Sure, they are one of our largest trade partners, but then aren't they for everyone?

The stuff dished out to Australian folk during WW2 by the Japanese was pretty appalling, and of course war isn't super nice at any time, but there is generally an accepted protocol whereby torture, abuse, taking women in to sexual slavery (or was that the Cardassians?) all the really bad stuff isn't done (not sure why however as it's a reasonable way to win), however...because Japan has never apologised to Australia for this stuff, a pretty sizable chunk of our population remains very anti-Japanese.

The irony for me being that our own government only just apologised to our Aboriginal people for the wrongs of the past, a past which pre-dated WW2, so we enjoy a double standard every now and then.

Japan couldn't conquer the world via war, so they tried to do it through their efficiency and ability to produce cars and ipods, however now we have a economic drama.

I'm not so fussed with their inability to apologise, after all, it's just words and even if they say it, they may still not mean it. Warm fuzzies don't amount to much.
What I AM fussed about is what Arch mentioned, the inability to educate their people about what actually happened. Shame and denial aren't the same thing. Germany has seemingly gone to a lot of trouble to ensure people know about the wrongs of the past and yet Japan seems to deny it.

Saving face is one thing, but a continued denial is another.
I think facing up to the past is the only way they will learn and understand, because as it is, they've simply changed tack.

[Okie Medicvet]

Saving face is one thing, but a continued denial is another

Exactly. Without education, it is impossible to learn about the mistakes of the past and to not repeat them.