“THEY HAVE YET TO OWN UP TO IT, LET ALONE APOLOGIZE, OR LET THEIR CHILDREN KNOW WHAT THEY DID.”
Causes me to reflect on the massive oppression the German people have had to deal with over the Third Reich history.
The Japanese know of nothing like what the Germans have had to endure.
One could conclude the Germans were ashamed, the Japanese proud, but I am no historian.
I agree completely. The Germans had it coming, but at least they hung their heads in shame, but the Japanese committed
horrible atrocities equal to the Germans (but for scale), but never had to be “REHABILITATED” because they were never called on it in the first place! My wife’s late uncle (a great guy) hated the Japanese with such a passion that he would not have anything made in Japan in his house. He was a 19 yo marine on Iwo Jima, and saw their humanity up close.
You’re right about Japanese pride. They are proud of what they did because to be otherwise, to be ashamed of their barbarity, would make them lose face, which they could never bear, even today when most of that generation has died off.
As an American, as a vet (’67-’68) that refused to execute an unlawful order (I was adjudicated right to have done so), I have less respect for the Japanese than the Germans, many of whom conducted themselves with honor. Not so for the Japanese whose Code of Honor was distorted beyond the understanding of the western mind. Still is.
(BTW, I’ve spent a lot of chopper time. Don’t care for them at all!)