Subj : Re: Japanese Common Sens
To   : LEE LOFASO
From : BOB BREED
Date : Sat Jun 01 2013 09:06:00

....
 

 LL> That is the Jewish version.  The Japanese version is much different.
 LL> In short, Japan invaded China in order to free the Chinese from
 LL> oppression. 

Uhh, I think the Chinese have a little different take on that. :)

 For the Japanese, freeing Asians from the yoke of white
 LL> colonialism was their calling.  People in the West fail to understand
 LL> the Japanese mind, as their culture is too different to comprehend.
 LL> For example, the phrase "comfort girls" is not what you think ...

Well, unless you have a definition that means something beside prostitute,
often forced. Then you're right -it's different than what I think. 
Korea us still trying to get Japan to pay for those women forced into comfort
girls for their troops.

 BB>Well, now ya gotta conflict as the Japanese feel that's
 BB>their role - the chosen ones. :)  So bottom line is no Jews
 BB>were rounded up.

 LL> Only because the Jews had no "comfort girls" to offer.

Point I'll have to ponder a bit.  It could be, but I'm not sure, that only
other Asians were forced into comfort girl status.  Never gave it thought
before, but my gut feeling is others were rounded up.

 BB>End result is yes, Jewish lives were saved, but there was an
 BB>underlying reason and it's not just humanitarian as much as a
 BB>thumb in the Nazi eye. :)

 LL> It is more than that.

 LL> The Japanese consider themselves as being the "white race of
 LL> the Orient."  Culturally, intellectually, and in every other way
 LL> superior to all Asian peoples.  In the Japanese mind, there were
 LL> three classes of people.  The highest class was Japanese.  Below
 LL> the Japanese were all other Asian peoples.  The lowest class were
 LL> whites.

Not sure they feel a lot different today.

 LL> During WWII, the only people in Asia/Oceania who actively opposed
 LL> the Japanese were Filipinos. And some of them were switch hitters,
 LL> changing sides depending on the light of day (or night).  The only
 LL> reason I can think of as to why many Filipinos chose to side with
 LL> Americans was because FDR had promised independence for them once
 LL> the war was over.  Harry Truman kept that promise (FDR had died
 LL> in office prior to the end of the war) knowing what the alternative
 LL> would have been, as Filipinos were prepared to take to the hills.

 LL> There is more that can be said about the Japanese during that
 LL> period.  But that was a different time, a different place.  It
 LL> should also be remembered that not all Japanese soldiers were
 LL> monsters, many of them finding such actions so atrocious to the
 LL> point of going AWOL.

Yes, a few - but they were the exception and pretty rare.

 LL> We like to paint Nazis as being evil monsters, the same as
 LL> we like to paint Japanese of that time as being evil monsters.
 LL> However, American soldiers also did much the same thing, raping
 LL> women and killing prisoners, along with taking "souvenirs" of
 LL> gold teeth, etc., back home.

 LL> War is hell, and nothing to be proud of.  No people should be
 LL> ostracized because of past events, or because of a military gone
 LL> wild.

 Germany has worked very hard to make ammends for their conduct during WWII. 
Japan very little, if at all.  In fact they still make a big deal out of that
war shrine that has convicted war crime criminals on it. (One is the guy who
ran camp 731.)



 
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