• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

WW2-Era Civilian Exterminations - Why?

Don't forget Joseph Stalin's Siberian work / death camps, where untold millions were worked / starved to death. The actual number of suffering people (of all faiths) will never be known, and in some ways Stalin was worse than Hitler.
I heard all the stories when young, saw men and women with numbers stamped on their arms, many women 'experimented' on and could never have children.
Those people kept their refrigerators stocked to the brim, remembering the days of having nothing to eat.
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
Don't forget Joseph Stalin's Siberian work / death camps, where untold millions were worked / starved to death. The actual number of suffering people (of all faiths) will never be known, and in some ways Stalin was worse than Hitler.
I heard all the stories when young, saw men and women with numbers stamped on their arms, many women 'experimented' on and could never have children.
Those people kept their refrigerators stocked to the brim, remembering the days of having nothing to eat.
Click to expand...

In terms of atrocities, the Imperial Japanese army was every bit as evil if not more so than the Nazis and how that bastard Hirohito escaped being hanged after the war is shameful. The Holocaust though will forever resonate as an uniquely evil attempt to eradicate the Jewish people, whereas the Japanese (and Soviets) committed their dreadful acts against anyone who dared oppose them.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
In terms of atrocities, the Imperial Japanese army was every bit as evil if not more so than the Nazis and how that bastard Hirohito escaped being hanged after the war is shameful. The Holocaust though will forever resonate as an uniquely evil attempt to eradicate the Jewish people, whereas the Japanese (and Soviets) committed their dreadful acts against anyone who dared oppose them.
Click to expand...

I must say I felt quite sick when I first read about the Nanjing massacre.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
In terms of atrocities, the Imperial Japanese army was every bit as evil if not more so than the Nazis and how that bastard Hirohito escaped being hanged after the war is shameful.
Click to expand...
Did he have any real power? Wasn't it the various PMs and cabinets who made the decisions which he rubber stamped?
 
ramonmercado said:
Did he have any real power? Wasn't it the various PMs and cabinets who made the decisions which he rubber stamped?
Click to expand...
I find it hard to believe Hirohito wasn't aware of Nanjing, the routine torture and murder of prisoners, human experimentation and countless other atrocities.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
I find it hard to believe Hirohito wasn't aware of Nanjing, the routine torture and murder of prisoners, human experimentation and countless other atrocities.
Click to expand...
He may have been but could he really overrule his cabinet any more than Queen Elizabeth could at present?
.
He was used as a front by politicians, generals and admirals.
 
As a quite different angle - in WW1 / WW2 mass death was possible because there was a much bigger population than say the medieval period in Europe. Back then you tried not to kill off too many peasants because there would then be no-one to work the land and people - including the lords and ladies - would starve the next winter. It's sort of why the Black Death brought the medieval period to an end (again talking Europe) - because it so reduced the number of food producers that those remaining could start to demand better conditions.

Industrialisation changed the balance again.
 
ramonmercado said:
He may have been but could he really overrule his cabinet any more than Queen Elizabeth could at present?
.
He was used as a front by politicians, generals and admirals.
Click to expand...
I sort of agree but there's little doubt in my mind that Japan got off relatively lightly after the war. I can imagine a number of reasons for that. Nuking them might have been part of it.
 
Cochise said:
I sort of agree but there's little doubt in my mind that Japan got off relatively lightly after the war. I can imagine a number of reasons for that. Nuking them might have been part of it.
Click to expand...

Spot-on observation.
What's worse is that, unlike the Germans, the Japanese utterly refuse to accept their culpability in acts of bestial inhumanity. A great many Japanese military leaders, implicated in appalling atrocities, escaped justice.
In Japanese schools, next to nothing is taught about the obscene brutality of the Japanese army in WW2.
For a people obsessed with honour, they should first acknowledge their national shame.

https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2020/10/how-do-the-japanese-teach-about-wwii/
 
The 1960s generation of Japanese kids did exactly that, hence an explosion of counterculture and pop culture criticism of the older generation. Same thing happened in Germany in the 60s and 70s. They're not as ignorant as you paint them.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
I find it hard to believe Hirohito wasn't aware of Nanjing, the routine torture and murder of prisoners, human experimentation and countless other atrocities.
Click to expand...
He was certainly aware of the formation of Unit 731 since he authorised by decree its expansion. Nowhere near as well known as the Nazi experiments, this establishment and other similar units carried out horrific experiments on anyone they could lay their hands on. The number murdered is still debated but it's certainly in the hundreds of thousands.

The leaders of the unit were offered immunity from prosecution in exchange for data from their experiments.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Spot-on observation.
What's worse is that, unlike the Germans, the Japanese utterly refuse to accept their culpability in acts of bestial inhumanity. A great many Japanese military leaders, implicated in appalling atrocities, escaped justice.
In Japanese schools, next to nothing is taught about the obscene brutality of the Japanese army in WW2.
For a people obsessed with honour, they should first acknowledge their national shame.

https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2020/10/how-do-the-japanese-teach-about-wwii/
Click to expand...
Correct, and neither have the Russians owned up to the horrors they are responsible for.
 
Cochise said:
As a quite different angle - in WW1 / WW2 mass death was possible because there was a much bigger population than say the medieval period in Europe. Back then you tried not to kill off too many peasants because there would then be no-one to work the land and people - including the lords and ladies - would starve the next winter. It's sort of why the Black Death brought the medieval period to an end (again talking Europe) - because it so reduced the number of food producers that those remaining could start to demand better conditions.

Industrialisation changed the balance again.
Click to expand...
How interesting, and true. Economy rules.
 
I think it's almost certain that Hirohito was aware of Japanese atrocities. They were celebrated in Japan as an example of Japanese superiority. In particular, two Japanese officers had a competition during the Rape of Nanjing over how many Chinese they had beheaded. The current scores were reported daily in Japanese newspapers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top