Japanese wartime narratives hide ugly truths

polaris1120

Japan always mentions how paiful their people were to be bombed with nuclear weapon, but never says why they're attacked by the US army. Without the nuclear bomb, the WWII may continue for more years and Chinese people would suffer more with the japanese invasion. I personally support the drop of the bomb, because I'm chinese and I hope our people not to be hurt by Japanese. although our bodies are not attacked by them now, our feelings are hurt by them when they denied their invasion truth. what the hell is the "war" beween the two nations? it's an invation! a one-side attack. Japan must tell its people it's the country's faulty which caused it's people to suffer from the nuclear bomb. it wasn't US fault, not Chinese fault, but their fault. they should pay for what they did to other asian countries, especially china.


global times

Nagasaki, a city laid to waste in 1945 after the US dropped its second atomic bomb, is now known as a city of peace.

Near the center of the explosion, twisted steel inside the remnants of destroyed walls remind visitors of the devastating blast that killed more than 73,000 people.

A 10-meter-tall Peace Statue sits in the Peace Park. A local tour guide told us that the statue's right hand points to the sky, where the bomb fell, while the left hand extends out, symbolizing eternal peace.

The atomic bomb museum nearby demonstrates the atrocity of nuclear weapon with pictures showing the debris, the burnt skin, the melted bottles, and the haunted eyes of the injured.

A 73-year-old lady, who survived the blast and the injuries that have scarred her for a lifetime, told us her story.

She was only eight years old when the bomb fell. She never saw her parents again. Her younger brother died several months later, suffering from severe burns.

The lady sobbed, unable to continue her story at several points.

I was moved and shocked by the harm that a war can bring upon a real person, and an innocent family.

It's not simply the vague idea of killing your enemies, or annihilating a city for victory of a war.

I could feel how sincerely the city hates any war in any form, as was also shown by the notes Japanese school kids had left on hand-folded paper cranes at the museum's hallway, which reads, "No war, no nuclear weapons."

Paper crane became a famous anti-nuclear symbol after Sadako Sasaki, a victim of the other nuclear bomb at Hiroshima, attempted to make a thousand of them while dying of leukemia.

Yet when I saw a poster at the same museum, which outlined the cause of all the suffering inflicted upon the Japanese people, I sensed a sad irony.

The poster didn't mention anything about Japan's invasion of China and other Asian countries, but simply termed it "the War between Japan and China and the Pacific War."

The text began like this "Japan was engaged in war constantly for 15 years, first from the Manchurian incident in September 1931 to the outbreak of war with China."

After explaining how Japan, in a policy of "expansion," went into confrontation with Western countries such as the US and the UK in the Pacific War, the poster's text in Chinese ends with "Not only Japanese people, but the people of other Asian nations were also dragged into the conflict and victimized in various ways."

In Anglo-Dutch writer Ian Buruma's book, The Wages of Guilt (2002), he pointed out that the Japanese are much less courageous to face up the history than their German counterparts, who were never reluctant to speak about the Holocaust.

[ Last edited by polaris1120 at 2010-4-7 02:01 PM ]

polaris1120

"The Japanese can be just as betroffen [afflicted by guilt and sorrow] as the Germans. But you see it less because in Japan the war is remembered much more as a misguided military conflict and not a nation responsible for a huge and horrendous crime," Buruma wrote.

As many of its postwar literature and art works have shown, popular Japanese memory of World War II is more about how its people were victims of the war. Little is said about the insanity of its troops killing and looting in other countries.

Although German war guilt was equally downplayed in the nation until the 1970s, and it was the Allies and Israelis who were responsible for prosecuting and convicting war criminals, the repudiation of Nazism and the process of self-examination the country began in the late 1960s and 1970s have won respect worldwide.

Modern German education emphasizes teaching children to examine and question the blind acceptance of authority and the cultural roots that led to the horrors of Nazi conquest.

Many younger Japanese people may wonder why the Asian countries keep asking for apologies while Japanese leaders have expressed regret or apologies on various occasions. The answer is simply that Japan has never fully come to terms with the dark side of history, even in one of the most suitable spots, Nagasaki.

Indeed, some Japanese are still honoring the memory of war criminals at the Yasukuni Shrine, though their leaders have been avoiding provoking their Asian neighbors by visiting the shrine in recent years.

In East Asian culture, people tend to forgive sins the deceased may have committed, and prefer to remember their good deeds only. This not only applies to family members, but often also their enemies.

Yet forgiveness does not necessarily mean forgetfulness. The Japanese were victims of the nuclear bombs, but it's only part of the painful wartime history.

If Japan consciously or unconsciously chooses to wipe out the key part of history, such as who started the war and why, it will risk a more rugged road in its relations with its Asian neighbors.

nebula1

Well, apparently the Japs were more afraid of the Russians than the Yankee atomic bomb and only surrendered when the USSR declared war.

polaris1120

japanese is used to bully weak neighbors