Atrocities committed during the Japanese invasion?

Question

Japanese textbooks hide them all, understandably, I'm wondering if Japanese today know about these war crimes commited by the Japanese troops in the past since there is the internet and all.

It would be interesting getting an answer from a Japanese

Answer 1

Well, there's a ton of stuff about their cruelty to prisoners of war. All kinds of beheadings and REAL torture that makes Gitmo look like a tea party.

But back to your question:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes

http://www.skycitygallery.com/japan/japan.html

http://www.centurychina.com/wiihist/

http://www.angelfire.com/nm/bcmfofnm/atrocities/atrocities02.html

Answer 2

While I am not Japanese, I can see the fault with your question. While it is understood by most people that you are referring to the Second World War, you have failed to point out which invasion - Japan invaded: Burma (Myanmar), China (including the British colony of Hong Kong), Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), French Indo-China (Vietnam), Malaya (Malaysia), New Guinea, Philippines, Siam (Thailand), Solomon Islands, and the other groups of islands between Hawaii (Caroline, Gilbert, Marshall). Of course there were atrocities committed, but the Japanese are not alone in not knowing the extent or the locations.
p.s. Mahatma, if you are going to make false accusations about Canada then tell us why Canada went to war in 1939, served as a training base and shelter for Special Operations and European refugees, sent a force to Hong Kong in 1941, served as sub-killers in the Atlantic, served in the air war over Germany, and fought in Italy, France, and Holland until 1945?

Answer 3

It's called psychological warfare and has been used for as long as warfare has existed. The idea is that legends of barbaric treatment will have soldiers scared and unable to effectively fight their enemy. Vlad "Count Dracula" impaled his enemies on greased wooden spikes. British forces would leave the corpses of pirates hanging in the harbour as a warning to other pirates. Many castles in wartime would adorn their walls with the heads of their enemies on spikes. You are only seeing 1 side of the story. Both sides, both now and during the crusades, are doing this sort of thing. Strike terror into the hearts of your enemies and the battle is half won.

Answer 4

They tend to know very little and as a matter of culture they don't talk about failings in their history or previous foreign policy. As Americans we have this love to beating ourselves up over things that happened two hundred years ago that we had no responsibility for, at all. The Japanese are not like this. They take great pride in who they are and the level of culture they have achieved and they recognize that digging up issues in the past really does nothing to change what is today.

Answer 5

It really doesn't matter how much information is out there.
If you don't know that you need to look, then you won't seek it out.
I guess, it's all in the point of view.
I wonder if they have programmes about the Thai-Burma Railway, Changi, the Death Marches etc on the History Channel International in Japan.

Answer 6

Mahatma Coat -- where the heck did you get your version of Canada's involvement in WW2? Canadians were fighting in WW2 from September 1939 until August 1945. Canadian pilots were in the skies over England during the Battle of Britain. Our soldiers were at Dunkirk; they went ashore in an ill advised raid on Dieppe in August 1942 and stormed ashore in Sicily on July 10, 1943. Canadian soldiers led the attack on Juno Beach in Normandy and made it farther inland than any other Allied force that day. Canadian sailors were the ones being torpedoed by German U-Boats in the North Atlantic as we shared in the responsibility of keeping the lifelines open to Great Britain.

These weren't poor Irish immigrants, either. And you aren't thinking of WW1 either -- because your version of Canadian history did not happen.

Answer 7

Candadian Guy-Do your history textbooks teach your children about how Canada stood idly by while Germany and Japan unleashed the horror of WWII on the world? Did you know that Canada only allowed "volunteers" to server overseas? That these "volunteers" were typically poor Irish immigrants "volunteered" by their officers? It must be nice to have to moral clarity of the coward.

Answer 8

The question is rather unfair.
I don't think you'll find that many countries
make a point of washing their dirty linen in public.
Remember that it is only the victor who write history.


You would be hard pressed to find comprehensive accounts
of The UK and the USA's less honourable military escapades.

Answer 9

Wonder if American schools teach kids about dropping the Nuke on Nagasaki.