In response to 'omfg, what biased crap'

I'm reposting this as an individual thread because I hope that I make some valid points. The original thread can be read here to read what I'm arguing with: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0893356/board/nest/105527131

I'm also reposting this, because I want as many people to read the info that I posted using a large amount of my time, because this post actually took some time to research. Enjoy... or don't enjoy, subjectivism being what it is in the historical context:



Why defend the Japanese Army? There are SO many accounts of atrocities that were committed by the Japanese (especially in China), though this is not an attack on the individual soldiers on my part, but rather an attack on the system, which I shall address later.

First off, arguing against the Japan/Nazi Germany link is pure semantics and a pointless argument. One doesn't HAVE to be allied with the Nazi state to have committed atrocities during WWII (though I admit, it was an unnecessary addition of information).

Second, there is tons of believable information regarding the "contest to 100". It is certainly not recognized as being fabricated. There is one single study that has claimed that it is fabricated. And although it is proclaimed as being fabricated, don't forget that it was "fabricated" by Japanese journalists. What does that tell you? It tells you that believing that your Army's second lieutenants beheading 100 people is a fine pursuit in their free time.

Third, the time-line of the "three alls" timing as official policy is again an argument in pure semantics. Merely because the official dictate was not given until 1940, by no means means that it was not practiced. Again, there is ample evidence of this, whether it is believed or not.

And now to finish, let me say that none of this is the fault of the individual Japanese soldier. I firmly believe in the ingrained goodness of the human being and I don't believe that Japanese soldiers of WWII differed from this at all. Rather, they were a product of the system that they were brought up in. Starting with the reign of the Emperor Taishō there was a strict military code in Japan. Orders were to be followed unquestioningly and very little respect was put on human life. To contrast, during the Russo-Japanese war from 1904-1905 (under the reign of Emperor Meiji) Russian POW's were treated under the rules of the Geneva Convention and were actually paid BETTER wages than they were while with the Russian army. However, the Japanese "Spirit Warriors" under the Taishō (and later, Hirohito reign) had no respect for those who surrendered. They believed that every soldier had the responsibility to fight to the death or all honor was lost. In turn, they treated opposing soldiers with that same outlook. Opposing soldiers who surrendered had lost all honor and all humanity, thus they were treated with contempt. This certainly bleed over into the civilian population.

The stories in "Nanking" don't even begin to scratch the surface. There was a disturbing amount of cannibalism on the part of the Japanese in WWII... but yet again, this was not the fault of the individual. Often, thousands of Japanese soldiers would land in a foreign nation to concur, only to be told to "live of the land" in lands that could barely feed the native populations. There were very little supply lines. Soldiers were expected to win out on their fighting spirit alone (there is a specific Japanese term for this as I read in the book "Flyboys" but it escapes me at the moment). These Japanese soldiers were treated as "issen gorin" meaning "one yen, five rin" the cost of mailing a draft notice. That is to say, the average Japanese soldier was not treated as a human, rather he was treated as a postage stamp, and his training and life reflected that. So to, too often, did his treatment of the enemy, be it soldier or civilian. In the end, the Japanese atrocities in WWII shouldn't be surprising, given the environment that caused them.

Let me finally, FINALLY end by saying that war is hell. For all the horrid evil that Japan turned upon China during WWII, it was met two-fold upon them. The fire-bombings that took place (as committed by the United States) killed horrendously large amounts of the Japanese population and reduced a huge amount of the infrastructure to almost zero. Again... War is hell people. Lets not try to defend anybody in it. I am sickened by what my own country did to Japanese civilians during WWII with simple incendiary devices and I would hope that everyone would so to be sickened by the general destruction that took place. If you made it this far, thank you for sticking out my rambling arguments so long and I hope that my point is made... War is Hell. Nobody is Without Blame.