Japan apologises for razing Manila

Herald Sun ^ | 18 February 2006

[RushLake]

I read Mr. Bradley's other book, "Flags of Our Fathers" and choked up more than once. I just finished "Fly Boys", and was not as impressed. Its still a good read. I thought Mr. Bradley spent a lot of time trying to establish moral equivalancy between what the Japanese did to defenseless POWs and Chinese civilians, and the alleged crimes of the US and Europe against Mexicans, Indians, and others.

[Recovering_Democrat]

yes, but are they gonna pay reparations???

[bill1952]

I am unaware of what happened in Singapore or the Kokoda.

[LibertarianInExile]

"yes, but are they gonna pay reparations???"

I knew someone was going to post what I was thinking. And I bet we both know the answer. Not that if they were rebuilding Manila to replacement value circa 1945 it'd cost them much, anyway.

[Aussie Dasher]

You name it, the Japs did it! Total barbarians!

[Eye of Unk]

They were barbarians. Although they were during WW2 they "saw the light" aug 1945 and have become righteously a prosperous technical peaceful country I must admit.

Kinda makes you think, if a couple of cities in Iran were to be like Hiroshima and Nagasaki could Iran eventually submit, surrender unconditionally? Or continue to defy until all are dead?

[bill1952]

I didn't quite understand why he did all of that either.

You can read any one of 10,000,000 books on how bad America was/is concerning anything that has ever happened or will happen, in the World.

What I found most interesting was the documentation on the measures that Japan was willing to go to to prosecute the war until the bomb dropped. (the Ketsu-Go battle plan)

Seems they had no problem with 50,000,000+ Japanese dead.

[Aussie Dasher]

"Kinda makes you think, if a couple of cities in Iran were to be like Hiroshima and Nagasaki could Iran eventually submit, surrender unconditionally? Or continue to defy until all are dead?"


Who cares...either way, we win!

[Androcles]

I saw those pictures in my childhood. My enemy is not the (modern) Japanese it is the twisted, incorrect writing of history the MSM and Hollywood do.

I know what you mean - "Pearl Harbour" sucked, didn't it. As did U571 and several other modern war films & high profile TV series that don't deserve to be named...

[bkepley]

Japan was a seriously sick culture, I think as a result of its isolation.

[Aussie Dasher]

Australia is more isolated, and we've always done pretty well.

[bkepley]

--Australia is more isolated, and we've always done pretty well.

You're isolated geographically.

[bwteim]

Agree - you have to ignore the editorial comments to get to the meat. But overall a good account.

[Defendingliberty]

Aussie, Can you give me and details on Fuzzy-Wuzzy Day. It seems to have been a day to raise money to support the Papuan Natives the helped rescue Austrailians on the Kokoda Trail in 1942. The Day was celebrated in Austrailia from at least 1950-53.

[bill1952]

Pearl Harbour sucked. but the special effects were okay

U571 was a joke.

[B4Ranch]

Add in Christianity and that explains the lack of barbarism in your country.

[PzLdr]

One of the major atrocities that can't be laid at the feet of the Japanese Imperial Army.It was done by Imperial Navy troops and marines under command of an admiral who disobeyed Yamashita's order that Manila was to be an open city [Yamashita was at the northern end of Luzon in a gully at the time].

Don't know what happened to the admiral, but MacArthur had Yamashita stretch hemp after the war in war crimes trials held in Manila [he hanged Homma as well], despite evidence of Yamashita's order to leave Manila to the naval troops, and his inability to control them from his own HQ.Big Mac's court used the rationale that Yamashita was responsible for all his troops did, or failed to do, whether contrary to his orders or not. The USSC refused to intervene despite gross irregularities in the trial [triple hearsay comes to mind]. Came back to bite us in the '60s when some of our lefties [the scum that never sleeps] tried to use that as precedent to force the Army to court martial Westmoreland for the My Lai massacre.

[Fishing-guy]

Talk is cheap. The question is have they truly repented?

[starbase]

Talk is cheap. The question is have they truly repented?

Probably in their twisted viewpoint they have. After all, what's more glorious than a warrior slaughtering the Empire's enemies?

They probably think "apologizing" means saying words the "weaker" peoples will understand, but not actually retracting anything the "higher" people understand.