Watching too much Hollywood movies makes you a believer of the lie that Americans are alway for the good and is a hero. Good my a$$. You actually killed more civilians than the Japanese. Add Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq to World War II and you have practically the worst armed forces in the world in terms of committing genocide and crimes against humanity. Nanking is nothing compared to what your army did in Vietnam...
shareYour assessment is quite ridiculous because it is based upon absolute ignorance and biased information. Do you really want to be convincing?
-Try to organize a little bit better your ideas and avoid unnecessary exaggerations. It really harms your credibility.
-Add some sources, quotes, provide links. If you expect us to believe what you're saying, show us some data and statistics. Otherwise we will assume that your post is just a crappy attempt to pollute minds showing total lack of respect for history.
-The most important thing is: read about the subject before telling your opinion about it. You clearly have no idea about the events you're talking about. My retarded friend, get serious and realize that you look like an idiot.
It's embarrassing for me, I hate to bash other posters but someone has to be sincere with you and tell you the truth...your post stinks like bullsh!t.
Watching too much Hollywood movies makes you a believer of the lie that Americans are alway for the good and is a hero. Good my a$$. You actually killed more civilians than the Japanese. Add Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq to World War II and you have practically the worst armed forces in the world in terms of committing genocide and crimes against humanity. Nanking is nothing compared to what your army did in Vietnam...
I've crapped smarter than this OP.
shareNanking is nothing compared to what your army did in Vietnam...
Where did you go to school smart-arse? The US?
I don't know what they teach in high school over there, but here in Australia, it's taken as pretty common knowledge that US troops killed at least 2 million Vietnamese civilians.
If you actually used you brain, or had studied the Vietnam War at all you'd know why so many died. Basically the Vietcong had the support of the people (used villages to hide, received supplies, new recruits etc) to such an extent that it was impossible for US forces to tell the difference between civilians and the soldiers. Most of the time if they saw anything move, it was shot/bombed/napalmed. Villages were destroyed, innocent or not, to deny the Vietcong refuge.
For those who will shout 'no sources, where're yer sources, SOUUURRCESSS!!!', this is part of the modern history syllabus in Australian high schools. Part of the course involves talking to Vietnam veterans. I'm sure I could find out the names of the textbooks we used (many were written in the US), but you get the picture.
On another point, I'd like to draw a parallel to civilian casualties in Iraq. If you haven't seen the video yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0 EDITED: Found full video.
How many times has this happened now? The weapons are more hi-tech, but they're doing the same thing as they were 30 years ago. If you listen to the video, after the Reuters journalists and civilians in the street are killed, the apache launches missiles at a house 'suspected' to contain hostiles, yet in fact contains three families. What the *beep* sort of checks do they go through that 'suspected' becomes a death sentence for innocent people?
Pretty much shows that the US military doesn't give a *beep* about civilians in countries that they've invaded, and never did. Mind you, I realise some collateral damage is inevitable in war, but what really pisses me off is the hypocrisy of a country that claims to be fighting 'for the people'. More like 'for the oil'.
I'm going to preface this by saying that I'm from America, so hopefully there won't be anyone to accuse me of being biased.
Anywho, most Americans have little knowledge about other countries. My high school was complete crap, and many things were either mentioned for a sentence or two, or (even better) completely ignored. We were not taught about the US soldiers killing and raping people in any war, we weren't told about Japanese internment camps during WW2, Agent Orange was mentioned as being a chemical used in the war but nothing was mentioned of the harm it did. I specifically remember starting to dislike US history courses in middle school because our textbook was so biased to speak of American soldiers as heroes during the first Iraq War without speaking of any of the problems we caused. Not to mention the fact those occasional stories about current soldiers raping women and school girls who happen to walk by military bases--how often do people hear about that?
Media also tends to brush America's wrong-doings under the rug (Anyone remember Guantanamo? There's a reason it isn't on US soil, and it isn't because the soldiers want to be nice to the prisoners), so most people just wallow in their ignorance about everything outside of bad pop music and new flavors of Doritos.
Even if no one else will say it, I'm sorry for how awful my country can be at times.
This is probably a buck too short and a day too late, but let me break it down to you in very simple terms anyways:
Vietnam = Country
Nanking = City
I do believe that you don't need me to re-iterate the difference between a city and a country?
Total casualties in Nam - entire war
Total casualties in Nanking - one episode of a war
Point is: you're comparing apples to oranges. Wanna be fair? Then compare Nanking casualties to, say, those in Saigon.
The alternative would be to compare Vietnam to all of China. And we have not even gotten to civilian lives lost indirectly as a result of the war...say, maybe various plagues as a result of Japanese germ warfare testing?
Who's the one that doesn't know Asian history?
The point of the movie (IMO) isn't JUST about the rape of Nanking as an isolated episode in a long, drawn-out war. It's more about the sheer inhumanity and savagery of the invasion. If the Japanese can ravage a city like that, how much can you magnify the atrocities to China as an entire country? The American troops killed civilians because they didn't have a realistic choice not to. IT WASN'T THEIR INTENTION TO DO SO!!! The Japanese killed because they LIKED it, especially to people they deemed to be beneath themselves. Now, tell me which was worse?!
Oh, BTW: it's okay that you don't get my sarcasm.
I don't know what they teach in high school over there, but here in Australia, it's taken as pretty common knowledge that US troops killed at least 2 million Vietnamese civilians.
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Oh really now? Never mind the fact that the NVA and the VC as well as the South Vietnamese killed civilians themselves - not to mention deaths of civilians inflicted by Australian, Cambodian, Laotian, New Zealander and South Korean troops who fought there.
2 million is the generally accepted number of people killed during the entire war by both sides, not by the US alone - that also includes those that died from starvation and illness along with other causes not related by military.
Also, 2 million civilian deaths from a war that lasted from 1965 to 1973 (for the US military as a whole) is comparatively low, unless the number of those killed since the French-Indonesian War back in the 50s are counted. The Korean War alone had just as many deaths and that only lasted for three years.
And even so, the number of civilian deaths is widely up to debate given the fact that it was notoriously difficult to distinguish between a VC and a civilian.
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How many times has this happened now? The weapons are more hi-tech, but they're doing the same thing as they were 30 years ago. If you listen to the video, after the Reuters journalists and civilians in the street are killed, the apache launches missiles at a house 'suspected' to contain hostiles, yet in fact contains three families. What the *beep* sort of checks do they go through that 'suspected' becomes a death sentence for innocent people?
Pretty much shows that the US military doesn't give a *beep* about civilians in countries that they've invaded, and never did. Mind you, I realise some collateral damage is inevitable in war, ================================================================================
Neither did any other country in every other war. Frankly, I don't see what makes the US any exception - probably because it's portrayed by the media almost 24/7 (and yet, Russia's invasion of Chechenya is a similar scenario, yet is rarely detailed of compared to Iraq or Afghanistan).
In any case, the Germans and the Japanese racked up a higher body count in WW2 alone than the US has in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
Regarding what goes in Iraq, it was the same in Europe in WW2 = neither the Americans, Germans, British, Italians, French, Soviets, Romanians, Hungarians, Dutch, Polish etc. bothered to warn possible innocents in a house that they were going to be blown up by a tank or an air strike - that's the reality of war. It usually just depends on the threat level of a zone they're at - which means they don't take chances at all.
Every war has been fought for resources as a main purpose along with a strongly-backed ideology.
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but what really pisses me off is the hypocrisy of a country that claims to be fighting 'for the people'. More like 'for the oil'.
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It's called propaganda - something all countries utilize to gain public support when going to war. It's nothing new.
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Basically the Vietcong had the support of the people (used villages to hide, received supplies, new recruits etc)
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Some of my grandfather's colleagues and a few mates of his fought as part of the ROK Army's White Horse Division and Marine Corps' Blue Brigade in Vietnam - the VC having support of the people is a myth - one of them told that VC also commonly forced villagers to hide and supply them as well as use their homes as a base, which of course many villagers knew would simply bring trouble.
Let the world change the punishment for sexual-related crimes to execution