What Japanese History Lessons Leave Out

BBC Magazine ^ | 2013 | Mariko Oi

[GoldenState_Rose]

Well in the end it matters what God thinks about our handling of history I guess...but in my opinion, we’ve been blessed as a nation and rewarded.

This largely has to do with the fact our founding fathers were obsessive about absorbing the lessons of history: the rise and fall of nations and empires...The causes, the frailty of human nature, of kings, and human governments....

Their wisdom allowed them to place mechanisms in our system so that we’re able re correct course as we stumble along.

Thomas Jefferson, a slaveowner penned the “Declaration of Independence” yet Martin Luther King Jr. was able to echo the creed “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal...” years later to address our failure to live up to what we claim we stand for...

King didn’t have to outright disown the Declaration itself due to the sins of its writer. That’s the genius of America.

[elcid1970]

Being snarky here. For most Japanese, WWII began on August 6, 1945 with the A-bombing of Hiroshima and ended a month later on the deck of the USS Missouri. The Emperor was replaced by MacArthur as Japan’s ruler.

All that the 1930’s and 1940’s consisted of was a benevolent Japan guiding its Asian brothers and sisters into the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere while throwing off the yoke of Western imperialism.

Simple.

[Vermont Lt]

There seems to be some people here who think that it’s OK for the Japanese ignore some horrible parts of their history. I wonder if a relative of someone that Japanese officers ate would agree with that. I know that I want Japanese children to know that my uncle died of a bayonet wound to the throat. I want Japanese children to know why we incinerated most of their cities.

I don’t care about their patriotism. I don’t care about their feelings. I don’t think they have a right to be proud.

[wally_bert]

They were all on vacation.

[GraceG]

[ I like the Japanese, but their attempts to rewrite, if not ignore, their history is in high contrast with how the Germans handle things. ]

We are seeing the results of both diametric policies in real time.

Germans are inviting in invaders who rape their women as their politicians call for importing of more savages.

Japanese are distorting their own past but they are not beating their own people over their head with it, and they are not importing in millions of low IQ violent savages to replace their own High IQ peaceful citizens like Germany is.

Granted the Japanese could be a little more frank about their past, but that would give the communists agitators in japan more power to mess up their social cohesion.

Both options are bad, but I’ll take Japanese model over the German Model any day.

[DiogenesLamp]

Plenty of people have radically different views on these things. And now we seem to be at a point where we need to ask if the American Government is what we think it is. Are we wacky conspiracy theorists who actually think that Obama and Hillary were serving the New World Order and completely subverting the rule of law and the US Constitution? Is that what the history books will show?

I hear you. Over the last three years, my understanding of why the nation fought the civil war, and who has been running things ever since has radically changed, and it was changed because of facts which I did not previously know had come to light.

I know know more about it than I ever knew before, and it makes the history a lot uglier than I had been led to believe most of my life.

Basically the Civil War was fought to benefit New York and the wealthy and powerful of that region, and they have been running the nation through power and influence in Washington DC ever since. The "establishment" is basically the lap dogs of these people for whom the civil war was fought, and who have acquired and maintained their power as a consequence of it.

New York and the "elite" run the nation. That's why most of the media corporations are headquartered there. It's to keep their hold on power by controlling what the public hears.

[GoldenState_Rose]

“I don’t think they have a right to be proud...”

Or rather, sifting between the dark pages of the country’s past and “bright” pages make the bright pages that much brighter, and allow the stories of real heroes to emerge. And they’ll be able to understand for what they actually should be proud...

This kind of false pride rooted in lies is rather fragile. And Japan to this day is notorious for its social insecurities...at the moment most manifest in their low birthrate, high suicide rates, etc..

Also in the meantime, Japan remains one of the least Christianized countries in Asia. Missionaries throughout history have lamented the hardness of hearts they encountered there...Spiritual strangleholds on people’s souls have remained strong through their history. Repentance is one of the factors that can break the spell...

[GraceG]

[ I’m not as familiar with this issue as I’d like, but I have some sympathy for the Japanese of today. How many of those who committed atrocities in WWII are alive today? I don’t feel any responsibility for slavery because I wasn’t there. Should today’s Japanese feel responsibility for the actions of their grandparents? ]

While Cultural Marxism is still around, it is not safe to acknowledge the sin of your people’s past because they will use it to destroy your country, your culture, and your race.

If we can someday throw Cultural Marxism into the toilet hole it deserves to be in we can discuss and acknowledge all the sins of the past, until then I don’t blame any civilized country who doesn’t want to lest they give their enemies a giant “guilt button” they can press repeatedly for resources.

[yarddog]

To make things even more controversial, the hero of Nanking was a Nazi. He saved thousands of Chinese lives.

I just finished a book on the history of Japan. Very complex and hard for me to understand.

I will say they are among the smartest people in the world. They went from what is almost a medieval culture to a world power in less than 50 years.

Their behavior in WWII can only be described as barbaric if not even worse.

They also pretty much consider their treatment of the Ainu as a taboo subject.

[gaijin]

Later

[Secret Agent Man]

yup, he painted with waaaaaaay too broad a brush there.

[beergarden]

My frat mate from university teaches English there. The article is completely true. Even the principal told him not to talk about the war to students in his gakuen’ or high school.

[Vermont Lt]

I guess he up side is that Kim is likely to drop a nuke on them before us. Those countries hate each other.

[sparklite2]

Let’s not confuse the issue here. By ‘how the Germans handled it,’ I refer to their de-Nazification and forthright acknowledgement of their actions in WWII. The Japanese don’t even acknowledge the rape of Nanking, IIRC.

[Snickering Hound]

Can't even get them to own up to 'Comfort Women'. Women from occupied territory transported against their will to service the troops.

[Bull Snipe]

As opposed to those that tried to aquire power and lost power as a result of the Civil War.

[tet68]

Are we wacky conspiracy theorists who actually think that Obama and Hillary were serving the New World Order and completely subverting the rule of law and the US Constitution? Is that what the history books will show?

I don’t know about the history books but I was there
to see it happen.

[DiogenesLamp]

As opposed to those that tried to aquire power and lost power as a result of the Civil War.

The South tried to trade directly with Europe without sending 40% of the profits to the people who ruled New York and Washington DC.

Those powerful men into who's pockets this money flowed, objected, and used their influence to launch a war against the South to stop them from trading directly with Europe.

Money. The Civil war was about greed and power from the North East, and these people in that region still control and rule the country to this very day. They are the "establishment" who own the media and fund the party of Government known as the Democrats. (Also the Rinos.)

The "Empire State" is aptly named.

[Bull Snipe]

Greed and power in the South. Enslavement of 3 million people to produce the cotton that made the South wealthy.
Own slaves, avoid war, don’t own slaves, it’s Cemetery Ridge, Franklin or Malvern Hill for you. The Southern Slave holding landed aristocracy own as much responsibility for Civil War as your one trick pony show of Lincoln/New York banker cabal planning and planning for a Civil War.

[Oatka]

During the ‘50s, some newspaper sent a couple of reporters around the world, asking people what they thought about the U.S. dropping the atom bombs on Japan. I was in my 20s then, but even then, it looked like a “Lay the Guilt on America” tour.

Usually it was mixed reviews, but when they got to the areas Japan occupied, the general response was “Why did you drop only two?”