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To: yarddog
The Germans have accepted their sins in WWII but the Japanese mostly deny the truth of how they behaved. Such brutality as the “Rape of Nanking” are not taught to them. Many Japanese war criminals are still treated as heroes.

The Japanese deliberately massacred a fraction of the civilians the Germans did, for the simple reason that they were simply operating much as previous empires did - to add people and land to the empire while destroying those who resisted. The Germans were mainly interested accumulating land while wiping out those considered subhuman much as one would attempt to exterminate vermin.

Nonetheless, more Japanese were executed as war criminals. Joachim Peiper, prime mover behind the Malmedy massacre, had his death sentence commuted by the German government. The Germans made a show of penitence, but freed most of the war criminals who should have been drawn and quartered, never mind simply hanged. What's interesting is that despite monstrous German atrocities almost an order of magnitude greater than Japan's, Germany got to keep most of its prewar territory, whereas Japan had to given up Manchuria, Korea and Taiwan. I have to hand it to the Germans - they have a much better PR operation going.

13 posted on 12/05/2014 8:42:17 PM PST by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Zhang Fei

I am not certain where you get your information. It is estimated that the Japanese empire killed somewhere between 30 to 40 million Non combatants. The Germans killed about 12 million in the Concentration camps.


16 posted on 12/05/2014 8:54:31 PM PST by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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To: Zhang Fei

“I have to hand it to the Germans - they have a much better PR operation going.”

They also had technology we needed, with the possibility of the new Soviet enemy getting control of it. That, and the much-needed buffer between Europe and Soviet territory made for a completely different political situation.

Many times, Japanese leaders paid the price for the actions of subordinates, as well, such as Yamashita being executed over atrocities in Manilla, that were committed by a subordinate who refused to follow orders.


36 posted on 12/06/2014 12:16:03 AM PST by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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