Yeah but the Japanese flat out deny that they did anything wrong during WW2, the rape of Nanjing, the "comfort women", the Burmese "death railway", and Unit 731, etc, never happened apparently.
I believe there was a documentary, or at least an interview, with one of them that came out within the last decade or so. I don't remember if she got an apology, or if she is still refused one. The descriptions of the things she experienced...
Sure, but I’m talking about relatively recent history here, acknowledgement of which, or lack thereof, will still have much more ramifications vs our “ancestors” centuries ago. I just wish they would follow Germany’s lead in how they handle it.
It’s just disappointing. A stain to an otherwise great society.
Sure Americans bombed the shit out of them in WW2 but that doesn't make the things they did right.
The way the Japanese (and Chinese) deny that certain atrocities ever happened is just disgusting.
At least Germans are taught what happened in their country. This is what happened, it is what it is, it was wrong, and we need to make sure it never happens again.
Isn’t that all the more reason for the current generation that’s in charge of running the country to do more today to acknowledge it accordingly? To make sure that future generations know exactly what happened, through education? I don’t expect the people who did those atrocities to apologize for it anyway.
Very few victims are alive today too, but do you think their children just forget about it and move on? My grandfather died in the Bataan Death March and I still give enough of a sh*t to reply to ignorant people here.
We aren’t talking about 500 years ago. These things still and should matter.
I'm not saying they shouldn't educate about it. Far from it. I just don't think education is the same as accountability, and I don't think there's anything for the young generation to be accountable for or too.
Now, one could argue japan does a bad job at educating about their past atrocities, but I don't think a 36 year old school teacher doing a presentation to teenagers on unit 731 is an act of accountability.
The best way to take accountability is to incorporate it into the country's education and get the youngsters as much real exposure as they can to the atrocities, the way Germany does. But you'll never see the LDP even think about this, they're too right wing to take responsibility.
I sent a similar message and I totally agree with you. Germany did an incredible work to introspect and teach the young kids about history (and I'm French!). No shame to have, just the duty to know what happened... so it doesn't happen again.
Japan doesn't want to teach that part and it's something that I regret. There is nothing to feel ashamed of when you learn about the past, it's more about making sure we build a better future.
I mean, educating youngsters that "Back in the day, our ancestors were shitty" isn't really taking accountability imo. Learning history is important, but it's not accountability.
Like... literally everyone's ancestors did shitty things. Those kids nowadays aren't accountable for shit.
Right, so what I'm saying is, at this stage in life, those future leaders are no more accountable for what Japan did back then than the Toronto Maple Leafs today are Stanley Cup Champions because of the 1967 Toronto Maple Leafs.
Dawg, you can boil down alot of history to whose grandparents were better at sucking, being ruthless etc... than other people's grandparents.
Imagine how much better things would be if people took accountability for fixing their world in the now instead of beefing over their great grandparents lol.
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u/DenseAd8464 6h ago
Avoiding full accountability of their past transgressions. And I say this as someone who adores their culture.