Yeah, the Japanese were much like the Germans, in a way. They had an idealistic vision that they were “helping” by being imperialists, and almost all of them didn’t know about the atrocities the Japanese military were conducting overseas. When the Americans made the brilliant choice of forcing the emperor to surrender on radio, the veneer of all that idealism came crashing down.
The irony now is that both the Chinese and Koreans are flooding Japan with tourism. It’s quite annoying to see some of my old haunts in Kyoto now infested with Chinese tour groups that are not the most scrupulous of sorts.
The Rape of Nanking is something else. So was the stuff Unit 731 used to do.
Some of it made the Germans look like Catholic school bullies.
They would have contests to see how many heads could be lopped off in a single swing. They’d stand Chinese people in a line 2 to 4 deep and then swing.
At least the end was quick. The Japanese tried to wipe out Korea, ethnically, as well.
It’s a funny place. Their culture is pretty cool, but they’ve been capable of some pretty weird stuff.
Every culture has those stories I suppose, but Japan’s was mucho.