Quote:
Originally Posted by kyp275
WW2 wasn't THAT long ago, and the devastation the Japanese brought to the rest of east asia, especially China and S.Korea, has not been forgotten by many, especially when you consider the Japanese govt's attitude towards their war crimes usually boils down to "lalalala I can't hear you" or "we're sorry... kinda, but not really", or "what war crimes?"
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What? Lots of Japanese people know about war crimes. They're just not as obsessed with grovelling about them at other peoples' feet about them the way the Germans do. The few rightist politicians who do harp about how Nanjing never happened or w/e are a fringe minority. On the other hand the Chinese are given the impression by their media that most Japanese think that way.
Also, how many people did the Japanese even kill? I'd bet that only a few, maybe ten millions were directly slaughtered by the Japanese soldiers, and the rest died or famine, disease, or other causes like warlords or that Yellow River flood caused by the retreated ROC troops. By contrast, between 1949 and 1959 at least a few millions were executed for being intellectuals, landlords, and members of various religious sects. Between 1958 and 1962, 30-40 millions were killed due to severe crop mismanagement. Between 1966-1976 at least a another few millions were killed by Red Guards and more countless millions were driven to commit suicide. When some Japanese politician or another goes to visit that shrine and honor the dead soldiers, Chinese people get really pumped out about how they are also respecting the war criminals, but every day in China the same party that killed many times the number slaughtered by the Japanese still rules, and Mao Zedong is still revered as a great leader who made "mistakes."
The Chinese ought to face their own gov's massive historical responsibility rather than complain about a few imperfections in the Japanese system. After all, it was Mao Zedong who, when the Japanese offered reparations, said "you helped us defeat the Nationalists, thanks but we don't need reparations."