Jay, it's now half a century since Germany went on the rampage, so they are overdue for another one. My grandmother [father's side] ran for it as a young child in 1872 with sisters and mother to NZ. My grandfather [on mother's side] spent time in France at war with Germany, as did father's cousin [awarded honours but gaoled in WWII for speaking against war - so much for freedom]. My father spent 4 years defeating Adolf and co. 18 years ago during a visit to Germany I watched a bunch of young guys and thought it wouldn't take much to get them back into uniform, goose-stepping along and getting all dictatorial.
Whether they try to pretend that extermination programmes weren't developed is a hypothetical question. They might also adopt voluntary cannibalism [one German has already had dinner]. They might also get all militaristic again. In those cases one would look askance at them being in the Good Guys club [GG].
But hypothetical analogous questions are unending and not very productive. Let's stick with what is actually happening and forget conjecture.
Japan, Germany and India should be part of a reconstituted UN.
In regard to some history text book, which is used by some tiny proportion of Japanese, which is alleged to gloss over Japanese cruelties and horrors perpetrated in WWII and for 20 years beforehand during their military expansion, I don't have much in the way of facts.
Have you read it? Do you know anyone who has? What does it say that's wrong? Of course history books are incomplete and I dare say American history books aren't strong on civilian casualties in the massive bombing of North Vietnam and don't report much on My Lai and the other instances which are sure to have happened which were hushed up. Maoris don't go on about their cannibalism and general murderousness, preferring to discuss aroha and good stuff. China perhaps doesn't mention the meaty processes involved in subduing the Tibetans. It's embarrassing to have the usual horrors publicized and people prefer to raise their young thinking that they are pretty good if not saints. Even the wonderful, pure and John Stuart Mill "On Liberty" British Empire had some dastardly characters whose victims would call them war criminals or just normal criminals.
Somebody wrote a text book and some government officials accepted it in some schools. Some Chinese take offence [without knowing the details] and decide that a good idea is to attack any Japanese or Japanese property they come across; a pogrom against Japan and things Japanese. Aki-san had nothing to do with what happened in 1933. He wasn't even born until the mid 1970s. What has it got to do with him? Shall we go back 10,000 years and find who was responsible for what? Our genes will have to be unspliced.
Government officials are always visiting military shrines, so I'm not surprised Japanese do the same. I'm not too excited about "war criminals" unless I know the specifics. War criminals are invariably the losers. Lt William Calley for example seemed to get off pretty lightly yet his crimes were comparable with Japanese murders of civilians. The weapons of mass destruction attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have warranted war crimes trials if Japan had won and the perpetrators "brought to justice".
To me, the current Chinese anti-Japanese jingoism looks like Yiwu the Mad's [ab]normal ideas. I've no doubt it will transmogrify on command to anti-American and anti-Taiwanese jingoism too when it's time for the Feather Duster manoeuvres.
< For myself, choosing against my brothers' people would be impossible> That's what the Nazis depended on too; unethical racist tribalistic people going with the flow of their criminal cuzzy-bros. John Tamihere's brother murdered a young Swedish couple. I guess some people go with their brother no matter what the merits of their brother's actions.
People go on about the Nazis and the evil Japanese invaders, then promptly forget what underpinned the actions, thereby being doomed to repeat history and the cliche about repeating history, as they hark back to the past while perversely enacting the same ideas in the present.
Mqurice
PS: I'm not being shy on the NUN or on the Arab/Iranian/Islamic Jihad/Israeli religious conflict. It's just too much just now. It has been hashed around plenty. |
