World War two Japanese Propaganda Question

[mai]

I never believed for a moment that americans eat people ^-^ I'm not that dumb. However I wanted to find official documented evidence that Japanese people committed suicide in response to what the government told them. So thank you for your help.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Also if you have been following some of the events in Japan in the news some elements in the Japanese government still refuse to recognize or
apologize to the Korean and other Asian women they held as 'Comfort
Women' during WWII.

Pretty much one of the most (I personally think) inhumane acts that humans have ever done on this earth. I don't mean to sound Anti-Japan or anything, but the stuff they did back then makes The Holocaust look like a UN Peace Rally.

It's a shame you don't learn a lot about this in schools.

[Debitt]

I've read about war atrocities committed by Japan. I've written papers on them, in fact. I'm aware of the comfort women, of the atrocities committed towards Chinese and Koreans, and of Unit 731. But WWII was a horrible time in the world in general, and I think to downplay one atrocity because of any bias whatsoever is just plain insensitive.

May I point out that not even the US came out of WWII clean - how often do you see the camps in which Japanese Americans were interned in brought up in history books?

[Mr. SmartyPants]

May I point out that not even the US came out of WWII clean - how often do you see the camps in which Japanese Americans were interned in brought up in history books?

What you say is very true. Those weren't exactly clean times for them either.

I will always remember an except of a book I read on that. I don't remember the name or author. But a girl was in one of those camps. I remember that the girl was in line to get some food, and the food-service people poured some apricot jam/sauce over her rice. She then said how Sweet stuff isn't supposed to go with Rice, rather salty foods are supposed to.

I don't know why I remember this. Maybe it struck me funny, or maybe it means to me. Who knows?

[Puguni]

Seriously though,if you saw the National Geographic Channel special on North Korea they had this one scene that a Dutch film company had shot for an earlier documentary that showed a Korean woman and her son walking to kindegarten together and they were singing this song about the 'poor Americans' and how they wished they could be like 'us' the happy North Koreans,etc.etc.and then another scene from the Dutch film showed thefactory where the mom worked and every morning they had a song to'The Glorious Leader' aka Kim.

They think the whole world is impoverished compared to them because that's what their leader has been telling them. They aren't allowed to leave their country and the few that attempt are caught and imprisoned. There's going to be a nasty backlash if and when North Korea sees how South Korea has truly been living. At least you can bring a camera into the Middle East with relative ease compared to North Korea, whose people aren't allowed to have a religion.

May I point out that not even the US came out of WWII clean - how often do you see the camps in which Japanese Americans were interned in brought up in history books?

In every U.S. history textbook I've studied they've at least devoted a blurb on the Japanese American internment so at least I know about it. Granted, it's not a whole lot, but I've never read anything mentioned about what the Japanese did to their neighbors. However, they are U.S. history books, so...XD

Once I saw a picture of a Japanese American who was going off to fight the war for the U.S. and his dad was standing next to him, looking so proud. That was really impressive to me.

What the U.S. does need to come clean about is what happened to the Native Americans. Now there's a tragedy, but I digress.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

They think the whole world is impoverished compared to them because that's what their leader has been telling them. They aren't allowed to leave their country and the few that attempt are caught and imprisoned. There's going to be a nasty backlash if and when North Korea sees how South Korea has truly been living. At least you can bring a camera into the Middle East with relative ease compared to North Korea, whose people aren't allowed to have a religion.

In Joint Security Area (The movie, not the place), the South Korean ROK soldier shows a North Korean a Zippo Lighter.

I was amazed as to how responsive they were a simple lighter. One NK Soldier asked the other "Why are you using that capitalist crap?". The other responds "You kidding? They got crazy-good stuff there! Stuff we've never seen before!". He was amazed that he could even pick his teeth with this device. I don't many North Koreans even have access to any sort of lighter, rather they can only use matchbooks.

It's thought-provoking, if you ask me.

[Debitt]

In every U.S. history textbook I've studied they've at least devoted a blurb on the Japanese American internment so at least I know about it. Granted, it's not a whole lot, but I've never read anything mentioned about what the Japanese did to their neighbors. However, they are U.S. history books, so...XD

Really? I've never seen anything like that in my textbooks before, though I do admit that: 1) In high school our coverage of WWII was brief at best, and mainly focused on the European front, rather than the Pacific theater or the war culture here in the US. 2) I'm a prospective East Asian Studies major, so not only do I have more exposure to the subject of war in East Asia than is normal, somehow I figure some of the things I've discussed in class are general knowledge. XD]What the U.S. does need to come clean about is what happened to the Native Americans. Now there's a tragedy, but I digress.[/QUOTE]
Agreeing with this entirely, though it's probably off-topic. ^^;

[termyt]

The great focus of WWII was Europe, even at the time. Japan attacked the US, but it was Germany we really wanted to fight, so even at the time, not as much was said about the Pacific theater. That said, I don't think anything is being hidden. The events of the war are well documented and available if you look for them. No high school history class is going to be detailed enough on history. Even if you studied only history in school, you still would not be able to study everything. So absence of events in history books should not be automatically construed, in my opinion, as a government hiding something.

When folks talk about a government “coming cleanâ€

[mitsuki lover]

[quote="termyt"]The great focus of WWII was Europe, even at the time. Japan attacked the US, but it was Germany we really wanted to fight, so even at the time, not as much was said about the Pacific theater. That said, I don't think anything is being hidden. The events of the war are well documented and available if you look for them. No high school history class is going to be detailed enough on history. Even if you studied only history in school, you still would not be able to study everything. So absence of events in history books should not be automatically construed, in my opinion, as a government hiding something.

When folks talk about a government “coming cleanâ€

[Aileen Kailum]

I will always remember an except of a book I read on that. I don't remember the name or author. But a girl was in one of those camps. I remember that the girl was in line to get some food, and the food-service people poured some apricot jam/sauce over her rice. She then said how Sweet stuff isn't supposed to go with Rice, rather salty foods are supposed to.

I read that book in my history class awhile back. It was called "Farewell to Manzanar," I believe.

[Puguni]

[quote="termyt"]
When folks talk about a government “coming cleanâ€

[Cognitive Gear]

I think the main reason we always tend to focus more on the European Theatre of the War as opposed to the Asian one is that most of us in America and Canada are of European descent so naturally we want to know what was going on over there more than what was going on in Asia.

And let's also not forget that many of us had ancestors that came from Germany,so fighting the Germans was a lot more personal than fighting the
Japanese. I mean when an American from Pennsylvania looked into the face of his German enemy from Bavaria he might just as well be looking at a long lost cousin.

I would like to add to this line of thought. One of the reasons that Americans in general focus on the European front is not only because of family ties, but also because of it's inherent shock value.

That is to say, it is much more shocking to view tragic violence coming from a culture you thought you understood than it is to see coming from a culture that you knew next to nothing about. It has the potential to turn your world upside-down. I'm sure that there are exceptions, but in this case I think it applies.

[Debitt]

There are too many descendants and comfort women involved for Japan to do anything effectively about, I believe. There were articles a while back about how Japan's government seriously thought about white washing the whole thing in textbooks. I don't know how it ended, but the subsequent uproar from Asia was huge.

I don't think any of the countries expect any retribution, maybe a dishonoring of the military leaders who supported the violence. I would think they just wouldn't want Japan to forget what they did or brush it aside.

I believe the whitewashing of textbooks continues to be an issue in Japan to this day, especially considering that textbooks have to be approved by the Japanese government before they're allowed to be sold to schools.

The problem of WWII war criminals also persists to this day, as many of them are honored among the soldiers who fell in duty at the Yasukuni Shrine. Actually, Yasukuni is a hotbed for a multitude of enduring WWII related issues. >>;

[termyt]

[quote="Kokoro Daisuke"]The problem of WWII war criminals also persists to this day, as many of them are honored among the soldiers who fell in duty at the Yasukuni Shrine. Actually, Yasukuni is a hotbed for a multitude of enduring WWII related issues. >>]
That is definitely a problem. We (the US) made this a problem by refusing to prosecute Japanese war criminals with the same fervor the world prosecuted Nazis in Europe. It really is true that a lot more focus was on Germany. Japan was left mostly to the US to administer after the war. The other side is that Japan, by its Constitution, is forbidden from having an army. So Japan is frankly stuck between a rock and a hard place. They continue to be punished for their aggression on one side and yet they are being told they are getting away with murder on the other. I can see why this remains a hot issue in the region.

To me, the best way forward would be to bury the hatchet on WWII. Japan should first acknowledge its government sponsored wrong doing in the war and vow to fight for liberty and equality going forward and then, on the grounds that Japan has a responsibility to the world to defend and share the burden of defending these ideals, reinstate its military.

Then the healing could begin.

[Jingo Jaden]

As far as I know, the Japanese wanted death before surrender which they counted as the strongest disgrace a person could commit. I am not sure how the propaganda they spread was organised, but the media was strongly controled by the Japanese leaders. However they where said to spread word about the americans as a race that was extremely brutal and wanted to kill them. *perhaps they told them that they would even eat them?* Still, they where pretty much left with two options due to their propaganda. Either to fight to death or take their own life. The nuclear bombs where what made the Japanese to accept unconditional surrender. *If I got my history right that is*

[mitsuki lover]

If you read The People's History Of The United States you will see that there are parts of American history that have been white washed over as well.So the fact that the Japanese may have white washed certain aspects of their own past in their history books isn't something that we Americans can condemn them for,as our own history books do the same things.
The fact is every country white washes parts of it's past that it may not be proud of.

[RedMage]

I like A History of the American People by Paul Johnson myself, I've heard bad things about The People's History.

[termyt]

If nothing else, please take from this thread that your textbooks will not even try to cover all of the angles of any historical event. Also, know that text books are written by people using the facts available at the time. No matter how well intentioned the textbook writers are, there will be mistakes made. Finally, it is an unfortunate truth that textbooks are often written from a certain point of view that is not at all neutral.

The posts in this thread, for the most part, are also colored by the opinions of the one making the post, so no one post is likely to accurately tell the whole story.

If something interests you, please research it. Do not depend on any one source for your information and don’t expect any one source to give you a non-biased view. This is how mental zombies who blindly follow what extremist tell them are formed. Instead, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to get a lot of different opinions on the subject and formulate your own opinion.

[Debitt]

Instead, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to get a lot of different opinions on the subject and formulate your own opinion.

And herein lies the complexity and the beauty of history.