What's common knowledge about WWII in Japan?

This came up in a discussion here a few days ago, and it was generally assumed that Japanese basically don't know anything about the particulars of the war outside it happening. That obviously can't be true since Tamiya and Hasagawa wouldn't be selling WWII model kits of japanese ships/aircraft.

Knowledge of the war does vary from country to country though. Geesh, if you really want an earful go to Guam. Anyway, what's common knowledge in Japan?

 

America won the entire war, without them we would all be speaking German.

/thread

 

America and the allied forces, they didn't do it on their own

 

Not if you ask an American, which is the point.

 

This is a mainly american forum, me being polish I will spare the useless argument and I will say that the US won the war.
Besides, can we count germany actually lost the war? look at it now... and say that it lost the war.

 

x

 

They stole my bike... the Americans !! (Joke, turned arround XD) ok sorry. but what do Japanese know about the WWII? ive seen cosplayers wear SS suits, what abou that ?

 

I met a guy from India who thought North Korea was peaceful and not communist. I find it hard to imagine they don't teach what happened in Japanese high schools. Like the Enola gay and the holocaust. Plus if they didn't teach it, what would stop somone from using the Internet or going to a library? It's not like Japan is North Korea and the Internet and books are illegal.

 

I'm American and I don't think that, It was joint effort of a bunch of countries ( Canada, England, Russia ,China ,U.S.A and France)( I know I'm forgetting a few). We were giving a bunch of weapons to the English before formally entering the war.

 

the english royal family do that when they party, and probably in secret

 

This could be a really interesting thread. I'm actually currently translating some Japanese texts for a friend of my father's. His father was a WWII vet in the Pacific. There is one record of an Allied win (Japan's first defeat on New Guinea) which is largely credited to the Aussies. According to his father though, it was a platoon of American engineering infantry that did most of the ass kicking.

Anywho, Japanese don't go around brooding about the war. Most people don't care, although you will at times find some who say that America tricked Japan into bombing Pearl Harbor, or at least that they knew about it before hand and that America chose to do nothing to draw the sympathy card. Not too big of a deal, but hard to gain anything out a debate w/ someone who plays that defense. More recently, and officially, Japan has wiped out a lot of it's WWII and pre-WWII atrocities in Asia from school text books, based on the fact that "it's too violent". If you were to go through the Japanese education system from start to finish and do no investigating on your own, not only would you study English for 6 years and not be able to string even a simple sentence together, but also would likely never have heard of Nanking. This was about a decade ago that they stripped the books, and the Asian community in Japan was up in arms. I think they have a pretty logical complaint.

I believe it was about 5 years ago that Japan and China created a team to finally get all the numbers lined up so they could all agree on just how shitty pre-war Japan was. The goal was mainly to quantify the damage the Japanese invasion had done. After 3 years of research they announced they could not agree on the numbers, with a difference of somewhere around a factor of 3. I believe Japan wanted to claim less than 100,000 deaths and China more than 300,000. So, now they're fighting over some fucking rocks in the Pacific.

 

Yes, because we all know that's a petty lie and the poor, little Americans didn't know nuthin' and were totally surprised

 

Does that make it okay?

 

I was going to mention this, as most of what I've gathered about what the Japanese put in history books about the war was from reading "The Rape of Nanking", although there is of course a healthy dose of bias in that book as it's written by a Chinese-American author. Although the Japanese maybe do it to a greater extent, I think it's normal for countries to gloss over atrocities committed - how many British textbooks mention the Mau Mau or Boer internment camps? I doubt it's too many. Likewise, when I was studying WWII at school in Italy, it was impossible to tell from our textbooks that Italy were ever part of the "bad" side or had surrendered and switched sides in 1943; the gist of it was that Italy had somehow managed to be on the winning side in 1945, despite being entirely occupied by either German or Allied forces for the last two years of the war.

 

I think the main difference is that

1) Most countries have traditionally done that. Japan actually went back recently and erased more, even though it was most likely pretty watered down in the first place.

2) We're becoming more enlightened and internationalized. Looking back and admitting wrong isn't as hard as it used to be. Yet, Japan is becoming more reclusive, and not exactly being a positive member of the international community in some ways. This was one.. I admit, I'm biased as I've lived as an "international person" in Japan for a long time.

3) Nanking was probably one of the larger of the atrocities of the time. It was no holocaust (in terms of numbers), but from what I've read it was military policy to completely dehumanize the enemy: rape, pillage, kill for sport, and in very large numbers. Does that count as genocide?

Bad shit always goes down in war, and all sides are guilty. But the policy of Imperial Japan was that they were chosen by the Gods. They basically took a shit on the rest of Asia, and are trying to hide that fact now b/c it's not suitable for children.

But back to the OP, other than the uyoku, you will be hard pressed to find a Japanese that gives two shits about the war.

 

Four things tend to make Japan put the blinders on and get out the whitewash when it comes to WWII.

1. Nanking
2. Unit 731
3. The treatment of POW's, Civilians, Comfort Women, ect
4. The Emperor's role and accountability in the command process

For a long time if a Japanese scholar were to publicly speak on those subjects they were pretty much inviting death threats from the hardcore right. It has gotten easier lately but those four are still pretty taboo.

 

Make what OK? You didn't mention anything to be justified by Pearl Harbor in your first post?!

Wow, so unlike a certain other country we know all too well... Chosen by God to conquer America and eradicate all those Indians, be it by outright slaughter or wanton spread of disease. Or killing those Bikini atoll tribes off with testing of the nuclear bomb, not giving a fuck about compensation or reparations -- but I bet there'll be a great speech once the last survivor is dead. Or former president Bush declaring war because God told him to cleanse the Middle East... Or unlawfully holding innocent men in no man's land without any fucking rights whatsoever -- in cells that are so small that European laws only allow one pig to be held at such conditions!

Maybe you should come off your high holier-than-thou pedestal and look at the world with a bit more scrutiny.

 

GP was saying how Japan is, not how he thinks about the subject. Don't go throwing shit at him. Although I do understand where you're coming from. There are many groups of people saying that they were chosen by God.

 

Hey Laternenschein what country are you from? Since every country has some dark spots in their history books I'm sure yours does too. Must be nice to stir shit from the shadows.

Oh yeah, You forgot to bring up slavery.

 

And in fact it's not a communist or socialist country. It's their very own ideology. There's a lot of different opinions on what communism is but it's surely nothing like when you worship your country leader like a god. It's in fact opposite to ideas of communism and more like absolute monarchy taken to the extremes.

For peaceful. Well they aren't of course but name the country they conquered, or just war they started recently Also who's peaceful? Vatican? Even Monaco has an army (smaller than average company though).