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WW2 Japanese atrocities - it should be mentioned SO MUCH more in school

I was unaware about the extent of the Japanese atrocities during WW2 until relatively recently, simply because it was never taught to me in school and there just doesn't seem to be much knowledge at all about the Pacific war in the general knowledge of western countries beyond 'Japan bombed Pearl harbour and the US Nuked Japan'. I know a lot about WW2 / the Holocaust and have visited Auschwitz (and Japan) and yet I did not know how bad the Japanese were.

For those in the dark, during WW2 Imperial Japan was in some ways worse than the Nazis. Just like the Nazis, they started an aggressive, imperialist war and completely de-humanised their enemies to the extent that their soldiers became total monsters and undertook the most vile and horrific acts you would not even be able to imagine against their enemies, whom they considered subhuman (especially the Chinese). There are two main events that are considered to be the worst instances of Japanese atrocities, the Nanking Massacre and the actions of 'Unit 731'.

The Nanking Massacre was the barbaric murder and rape/torture of approximately 200,000 - 300,000 Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants. I think it is probably against the rules of TSR to list the depraved acts that the Japanese did during this massacre so you can just google the event yourself. It really made me upset reading about it though. Even a Nazi officer who was stationed at Nanking was incredulous at the absolutely bloodthirsty and unfeeling nature of the Japanese soldiers.

Unit 731 was essentially Japan's equivalent to the experiments run by the Nazi scientist Joseph Mengele. They referred to the Chinese as 'logs' - as in a log of wood. You can probably imagine what that entails to the way they treated them.

These are just single events. In all the Japanese killed millions upon millions of people across Asia. They also treated POWs horrifically.

Whilst Germany is super apologetic about its history and it is against the law to deny the holocaust, the Japanese have never really acknowledged the extent of their terrible past to the satisfaction of the rest of Asia, particularly China.

It just seems crazy how little mention of these events there are in history lessons. There are (rightly) whole lessons devoted to the Holocaust but almost nothing about Japan. Few of the scientists or generals who lead the way for these atrocities were sentenced because the US wanted to get their hands on the chemical weapons data that the Japanese had gathered from their experiments after the war. So the US agreed to absolve them of ALL responsibility in exchange for the data.

There is little justice and it just feels like this should be a much bigger deal in schools.
(edited 9 years ago)
Besides their colonies getting nicked from them, the British were not hugely involved in the Pacific part of the war. Not nearly as much as the Americans were at least.

How about they teach the Opium wars? :borat:
Reply 2
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Jebedee
17
If you want to know about unit 731 then watch the Russian documentary called Psychology of a knife.

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I definitely see where your coming from, and it is shocking the way the Japanese tend to try and white wash their history, but the thing is, so many horrific things have happened throughout history that if equal attention were paid to every topic there would absolutely no time for any in depth analysis.
Reply 4
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Pulse.
18
Wow; I have never read a whole wiki page before until this. Makes you wonder about the true cost of war reported and unreported.

So sad. Not trying to troll here but definitely puts gassing a few million people into perspective in relation to the brutality a human is capable of.

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[video="youtube_share;tHgxb5kQYGg"]http://youtu.be/tHgxb5kQYGg[/video]
Original post by Blackshadow
[video="youtube_share;tHgxb5kQYGg"]http://youtu.be/tHgxb5kQYGg[/video]


Ok yes there are always bad things that happen on every side and every story is sad but this doesn't really compare to the magnitude of what the Japanese did as a whole in my opinion...
Reply 7
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Original post by Mr Smurf
Besides their colonies getting nicked from them, the British were not hugely involved in the Pacific part of the war. Not nearly as much as the Americans were at least.

How about they teach the Opium wars? :borat:


That is because, you lunatic, the Pacific was the US main concern - Japan attacked them, remember.

Did you forget about Burma? XIV Army under William Slim? 4 Corps? That's an Army ten times the size of the current British Army in SE Asia alone.

Burma was the only land campaign that lasted the entire War.
Original post by Clip
That is because, you lunatic, the Pacific was the US main concern - Japan attacked them, remember.

Did you forget about Burma? XIV Army under William Slim? 4 Corps? That's an Army ten times the size of the current British Army in SE Asia alone.

Burma was the only land campaign that lasted the entire War.


Exactly, hence why we learn about the European part of the war over here while I am sure American kids spend some time on the pacific.

Quick Google search said it was from 1942 - 1945. :erm:
My dad used to tell stories to me as horror stories as a child. They'd been passed down from his veteran grandad who spent the war in Burma. Liberating POW camps and the like. Awful.

Upon reflection they probably weren't appropriate stories to raise your child up with.
Reply 10
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Clip
19
Original post by Mr Smurf
Exactly, hence why we learn about the European part of the war over here while I am sure American kids spend some time on the pacific.

Quick Google search said it was from 1942 - 1945. :erm:


Why did you need Google to tell you that? We weren't at war with Japan until 1942. (Ok dec 1941). We were at war with them 42-45 and in Burma the whole time.
I think growing up with a notion that everything you need to know or might be interested in is going to be provided "at school" is mistaken.
I suppose it's because during WW2 we focus more on the European side of things. Honestly though you can't expect to be taught all of history at school. even significant events. There have been many horrific massacres throughout different areas of the world over the past century....humans can be so disgusting...
Original post by Clip
Why did you need Google to tell you that? We weren't at war with Japan until 1942. (Ok dec 1941). We were at war with them 42-45 and in Burma the whole time.


You said the entire war so I thought you meant 1939 to 1945.
Reply 14
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Original post by Mr Smurf
You said the entire war so I thought you meant 1939 to 1945.


Fair enough - Japan was only in it against us 42-45, so that was the Far Eastern War as far as we were concerned.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by joey11223
I suppose it's because during WW2 we focus more on the European side of things. Honestly though you can't expect to be taught all of history at school. even significant events. There have been many horrific massacres throughout different areas of the world over the past century....humans can be so disgusting...


or maybe it's because people don't want to highlight the fact that we were fighting the Japanese to protect an Empire.

on a more serious note though, I think that WW2 from a truly global scale was so enormous and complex its you could spend all of your time at school, college and university studying it and still not learn all if the facts.


Its a bit like the Romans in Britain. The Roman Empire did more than just pop over with Julius Ceaser in 55BC.


Do yourself A favour. get hold of the world at war box set, set aside a weekend and watch it.
(edited 9 years ago)

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