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Was just reading up on the Rape of Nanking

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SecretShadow

Member
Jul 18, 2006
101
0
0
Hitler, Hirohito, Hussein, Stalin, and many others.....all nutjobs who mastered manipulation of their culture and nationalism to justify these atrocities. It IS quite sad....and even scary that we humans can gobble that hatred up so quickly that we are capable of doing that.
 

FallenHero

Diamond Member
Jan 2, 2006
5,659
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0
Want another good one about Prison Camps? Read the book Ghost Soldiers...horrific the way the Japanese treated the POWs.
 

montanafan

Diamond Member
Nov 7, 1999
3,551
2
71
The thing I always wonder is how do the individuals justify their behavior when they're doing these things? Do they tell themselves they're just following orders? Is it the mob mentality, the cause, the anonymity, what? How can a person who would be repulsed by these sorts of actions before they were sent off to fight in a war take part in this sort of thing or rationalize it at the time?
 

bennylong

Platinum Member
Apr 20, 2006
2,493
0
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Originally posted by: montanafan
The thing I always wonder is how do the individuals justify their behavior when they're doing these things? Do they tell themselves they're just following orders? Is it the mob mentality, the cause, the anonymity, what? How can a person who would be repulsed by these sorts of actions before they were sent off to fight in a war take part in this sort of thing or rationalize it at the time?

That's what I wonder, how do you go about gasing children and conducting experiment on young children and still be able to sleep at night? And they call themself Doctors.
 

andylawcc

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
18,183
3
81
Originally posted by: kami333
Originally posted by: bennylong
The japanese people look at chinese people like they are dogs. Even to this date, the PM goes to worship the WW2 soldiers like they were heroes.

Yasukuni Shrine is a shrine dedicated to the war dead of Japan and was around long before WWII.

frankly, as a Chinese, I have no problem him visiting the war shrine, it just shows respect for the dead.

I do, have a problem though, with nationalist fanatic who believes blindly that their country did nothing wrong.

I have this friend of mine (true story, he is really my friend) and he told me he read this book about the BENEFITS of the Japanese Army did to Nanking. He said the massacre never occured and it was merely a coverup and a lie (since Japan lost the war, and history is written by the victor). Since he was an old high school friend of mine, I didn't bother to argue; I mean, it's a lose-lose situation, either way, he won't be convinced.
 

TomKazansky

Golden Member
Sep 18, 2004
1,401
0
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Originally posted by: andylawcc
Originally posted by: kami333
Originally posted by: bennylong
The japanese people look at chinese people like they are dogs. Even to this date, the PM goes to worship the WW2 soldiers like they were heroes.

Yasukuni Shrine is a shrine dedicated to the war dead of Japan and was around long before WWII.

frankly, as a Chinese, I have no problem him visiting the war shrine, it just shows respect for the dead.

I do, have a problem though, with nationalist fanatic who believes blindly that their country did nothing wrong.

I have this friend of mine (true story, he is really my friend) and he told me he read this book about the BENEFITS of the Japanese Army did to Nanking. He said the massacre never occured and it was merely a coverup and a lie (since Japan lost the war, and history is written by the victor). Since he was an old high school friend of mine, I didn't bother to argue; I mean, it's a lose-lose situation, either way, he won't be convinced.

The war shrine is to honor those dead japs who have commited war crimes that has never really been punished severely enough. Get your freaken facts straight about the war shrine.

SS and mass killings of gypsies, jews, and the polish got the most attention. Then there's Stalin and his killings of people who cheered the Germans as they invaded Russia, and the rape of Berlin. In the US, there was the relocation camp of the Japanese. In China there was the rape of Nanjin. During emperial japan, the use of comfort women was established in Korea and Taiwan. Now tell me, who is the SOB?

It is pure racism that drived imperialism, and all these behaviors that we have just talked about. IMHO I believe that the Japanese had not been punished enough (even by the 2 atomic bombs).

This should be moved to the political forum. There are quite a lot of Chinese on this forum that will be even more reactive.
 

Eeezee

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2005
9,922
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76
And that's why Japan is no longer allowed to have a military. We came in and wrote their constitution for them as such.
 

kami333

Diamond Member
Dec 12, 2001
5,110
2
76
Originally posted by: Eeezee
And that's why Japan is no longer allowed to have a military. We came in and wrote their constitution for them as such.

And yet the US is pretty positive about the SDF deployment to Iraq:confused:
 

chcarnage

Golden Member
May 11, 2005
1,751
0
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There is a list of the souls that are revered in the Yasakuni Shrine and among many others, the names of 34 WWII criminals are there.

It is possible that Koizumi's successor won't countinue the visits. A significant part of Japan's politicians begins to comprehend that the visits are an occasion for China to point at Japan's war atrocities and to distract from its own problems.

Six decades after WWII Japan still has no friends in its neighborhood...
 

alkemyst

No Lifer
Feb 13, 2001
83,769
19
81
Originally posted by: jagec
Originally posted by: E equals MC2
I used to blame the Japanese for such atrocities, but now I realize it's just human nature.

It's a darker part of our selves, but it CAN be kept at bay unless a particularly vile set of circumstances comes into play.

I don't think we should just accept it as human nature. That's a cop-out.

still human nature then, if it's in everyone yet lies dormant.

Also war is a pretty good candidate for vile circumstances.

Raping and pillaging have gone on since the beginning of time. We try to apply our political correctiveness to wars thinking, it's more like "tag" I got you, now go sit out the rest of the game.
 

Philippine Mango

Diamond Member
Oct 29, 2004
5,594
0
0
How old are you? Please tell me you're not an adult, I just can't believe that an adult would not know anything about this despite it being taught in schools..
 

LordMorpheus

Diamond Member
Aug 14, 2002
6,871
1
0
Originally posted by: Kenazo
Originally posted by: JS80
I dunno what's worse, Nanking or Holocaust.

It's like asking what's worse, being blind or deaf. (for lack of better analogy)

I'd say the holocaust was worse than what happened at Nanjing, but overall the Japanese were worse than the germans - everywhere they went sh!t like this happened, they just let themselves become rabid animals. I guess it is just the dark side of human nature, but it still scares me.
 

GasX

Lifer
Feb 8, 2001
29,033
6
81
Originally posted by: HamSupLo
Originally posted by: jadinolf
Look what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Beheadings? Killing innocent people?

Terrible.

what makes the nanking massacre unique is that you'd never imagine that coming from a japnese culture that is highly evolved in terms of philosophy, society, values, customs etc. It's hard to comprehend that such depravity existed in such a people.

by highly evolved, do you mean a culture of sexually repressed mysoginistic followers prone to pedophilia?

See how unsubstantiated blather can support any arguement? cool, huh?
 

imported_Pablo

Diamond Member
Jan 20, 2002
3,714
1
0
I know its kinda bad... but I almost think that the nukes dropped on Japan were a good thing... otherwise this kind of thing could have continued much longer. I hate the loss of civilian lives, but the nanking type of brutality has no place on this earth and deserves to be judged harshly.
 

phantom309

Platinum Member
Jan 30, 2002
2,065
1
0
Originally posted by: Citrix
Originally posted by: dighn
Originally posted by: HamSupLo
Originally posted by: jadinolf
Look what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Beheadings? Killing innocent people?

Terrible.

what makes the nanking massacre unique is that you'd never imagine that coming from a japnese culture that is highly evolved in terms of philosophy, society, values, customs etc. It's hard to comprehend that such depravity existed in such a people.

and the sheer scale of it. these atrocities were done by an actual army, not just some random religious lunatics with a political agenda. they had no real reason to do it, just driven by animalistic savagery.

When the Germans were rampaging across Western Russia they were just as bad. Mostly the SS, THey were cruel but comparing the Jap army with the SS i would say the japs were just blood thirsty animals. Oh and my dad fought in the south pacific in WWII so i do have some stories from him, somebody who was there.
Ironically, when the Germans first invaded Russia they were greeted in many places as liberators - but the atrocties they comitted galvanized Russia against them. They could easily have won if they had simply treated the general population with respect.
 

Kenazo

Lifer
Sep 15, 2000
10,429
1
81
Originally posted by: Philippine Mango
How old are you? Please tell me you're not an adult, I just can't believe that an adult would not know anything about this despite it being taught in schools..

Was this directed at me? (The OP?)

I have definately heard and read about this before. It's not taught in our schools (Canada), but I felt it necessary to read up on it again.

I'm 26 by the way.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
52,745
46,517
136
The Rape of Nanking barely scratches the surface of Imperial Japan's brutality.

The Burma-Thiland Railroad, Battan Death March, Unit 731, Famine, comfort women, murder and torture of millions of under their occupation, pow treatment, war conduct, etc...

It is likely they were responsible fror more deaths than the Nazis, they just wern't into documnetation like the Germans were.
 

Tom

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
13,293
1
76
Attributing this to human nature is meaningless.

Japan as a society and culture is responsible for this, it was a deliberate and calculated act, not some kind of instinctive behavior. It's true that other cultures have commited atrocities, but that's because there have been other cultures based on similar diabolical ideas.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
100,352
17,919
126
Originally posted by: kami333
Originally posted by: bennylong
The japanese people look at chinese people like they are dogs. Even to this date, the PM goes to worship the WW2 soldiers like they were heroes.

Yasukuni Shrine is a shrine dedicated to the war dead of Japan and was around long before WWII.


Except they should have removed the convicted war criminals that are also "housed" there. That is the real controversy.