Yes, Japan refusing to acknowledge what it's done--boy. The textbook issue seems to come up on an annual basis. Although teachers will often just 'skip' from about 1905-1947, going from when they were strong in the Meiji era and then suddenly landing in post-war "the Americans pounded us into dust" era, the books themselves are (I'm told) quite elliptical. "There were issues in Nanjing." Yeah, I'd call 300,000 people--men, women, children, elderly--murdered in the space of six weeks an issue, too.
The whole "you forfeit your honor" is well-known in terms of the absolute ultranationalist arrogance of that time. It lingers, still, and probably in great part due to the fact that Japan appears to be trying its damnedest to raise its new generations with no clear comprehension of the excess of its hubris--or that the retaliation was considered justified by the rest of the world. Japan was not a victim, not by any stretch.
I read up some on the Kokoda Track, and the Australian soldiers who were there. Seeing what Japan did in China, I guess I find it most surprising that American schools focus on the European Theater (well, Hitler & the Jews does kinda snag the stage, I suppose, in terms of woah-factor, as well as being kept strongly in our national conscious by those who survived and fled to the US). I had no idea the Japanese were in striking distance of Australian shores, but after reading what they did elsewhere, it makes sense now that Australia was the last stand against their domination. I'm told if Australia had fallen, it would've been cascade failure down the line.
All that aside, please, get into the layers! You have a perspective I lack, since much of the Pan-Pacific Theater is somewhat new to me. I wish it weren't; my grandfather was Army Air Force (before it broke off into Air Force in '47), in the Pacific Theater. Stationed mostly in the Philipinnes, if I recall correctly. Someday I'll pry his WWII history out of my mom...
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Date: 23 Apr 2005 03:19 pm (UTC)Yes, Japan refusing to acknowledge what it's done--boy. The textbook issue seems to come up on an annual basis. Although teachers will often just 'skip' from about 1905-1947, going from when they were strong in the Meiji era and then suddenly landing in post-war "the Americans pounded us into dust" era, the books themselves are (I'm told) quite elliptical. "There were issues in Nanjing." Yeah, I'd call 300,000 people--men, women, children, elderly--murdered in the space of six weeks an issue, too.
The whole "you forfeit your honor" is well-known in terms of the absolute ultranationalist arrogance of that time. It lingers, still, and probably in great part due to the fact that Japan appears to be trying its damnedest to raise its new generations with no clear comprehension of the excess of its hubris--or that the retaliation was considered justified by the rest of the world. Japan was not a victim, not by any stretch.
I read up some on the Kokoda Track, and the Australian soldiers who were there. Seeing what Japan did in China, I guess I find it most surprising that American schools focus on the European Theater (well, Hitler & the Jews does kinda snag the stage, I suppose, in terms of woah-factor, as well as being kept strongly in our national conscious by those who survived and fled to the US). I had no idea the Japanese were in striking distance of Australian shores, but after reading what they did elsewhere, it makes sense now that Australia was the last stand against their domination. I'm told if Australia had fallen, it would've been cascade failure down the line.
All that aside, please, get into the layers! You have a perspective I lack, since much of the Pan-Pacific Theater is somewhat new to me. I wish it weren't; my grandfather was Army Air Force (before it broke off into Air Force in '47), in the Pacific Theater. Stationed mostly in the Philipinnes, if I recall correctly. Someday I'll pry his WWII history out of my mom...