What is Digg?441 Comments
- ScienceDoc, on 11/14/2007, -4/+137Just ask the Chinese about the Japanese during WWII.
- doctorfungi, on 11/05/2007, -10/+124I've said this before, and I'll say it again. You cannot counter the brutality of one even with the brutality of another. Listing things that happened that were more brutal than the event in question, does not somehow make the event in question suddenly not so brutal.
Sure, the United States dropped two Atomic Bombs on Japan, that was brutal. That doesn't mean, however, that the atrocities described in this article are not brutal. War sucks, atrocities are dealt by both sides. However, instead of saying "they did it first!" or "they did worse!", why not step back and stop trying to rationalize the brutality people give based on the brutality they take.
Pointing out the fact that the United States dealt out its own atrocities doesn't make these atrocities any better, and it doesn't make them okay. - inactive, on 11/14/2007, -5/+71The nazis actually formally protested the brutality of the Japanese. When you have nazis telling you you're too mean.....well that's saying something.
- j1337, on 11/05/2007, -44/+106That's some fine sensational journalism. I guess the author of that article forgot to mention both sides were brutal in the war, and that hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians were burned to death by the firebombings of Japanese cities, not to mention the horrible results of the atomic bombings. If one wanted to spend their time listing the acts of "brutality" and "butchery" that occurred over 60 years ago, one could go on forever.
An interesting historical side note about the authors mention of Japan being in "cold-blooded defiance of the Geneva Convention": Japan had never signed the Geneva Convention, but the creators of it had included a line that read, "In case, in time of war, one of the belligerents is not a party to the Convention, its provisions shall nevertheless remain in force as between the belligerents who are parties thereto." Hence nations that had never taken part in or signed the agreement could be held in "violation" of it. - jerryparid, on 11/14/2007, -9/+59http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes
Japanese war crimes during WWII killed brutally killed more people than the Holocaust. (3m to 10m) Yet, some Japanese today still view these war criminals as national imperialist heroes. Japanese history is disgusting. - inactive, on 11/05/2007, -9/+57MANY people did NOT die instantly. You show little knowledge on the subject.
- Nudar, on 11/05/2007, -1/+39My word you have to be kidding. The Japanese targeted the Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos killing untold millions upon millions of them. The Japanese felt they were a superior race and that their emperor was actually god himself.
- mookiemookie, on 11/05/2007, -1/+35Didn't target a racial group and exterminate them with industrial precision? Have you forgotten about Unit 731, the Rape of Nanjing, and the invasion of the Philippines? Or maybe you haven't read about them? Maybe you should check again.
- tdp301, on 11/05/2007, -4/+34We could argue this all day, but the Japanese killed millions upon millions of Chinese during the war, not to mention far more Japanese would have died if we would have had to invade Japan. (if atomic bombings hadn't ended war)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall - BassMastr, on 11/04/2007, -4/+31You can find tons of liturature on our bombing of Hiroshima in any library, school, internet, University etc. America has done NOTHING to hide our actions during WWII.
- inkswamp, on 11/05/2007, -4/+30This back-and-forth bickering about who committed the worst atrocities is pointless. It comes down to the question of who was the aggressor. Clearly, Japan, Italy and Germany were the aggressors. None of the "atrocities" committed by the Allied forces would have happened had they not been provoked by those three nations. The events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki are, as far as I'm concerned, more the fault of the Japanese than the U.S. My grandfather served in the Pacific in WWII so maybe I'm a little biased, but here's how I see it. If you punch me unprovoked and I kick your ass in response, you have no business blaming me for it.
- stinkythegrump, on 11/05/2007, -10/+34You can't compare these crimes with anything the US has done. Torture, rape, science experiments akin to torture, and massacres of prisoners of war was the standard operating procedure for the Japanese navy and army prior to and during WWII (occupation of Manchuria, anyone? Mass rapings during the occupation of Korea for what, 35 years? plus all the stuff in this article). Those of you even attempting comparison are missing the entire point - these atrocities went FAR beyond normal warfare. Firebombing cities, nuking civilian populations, etc. while horrible, were still within the excepted/expected methods of war and were done to end the war. The things the Japanese did to all these people for no reason other than the sick, sadistic pleasure derived from it is on an entirely different level.
- dgh1973, on 11/06/2007, -28/+52"Japanese history is disgusting."
American/English history is equally disgusting. We came into a country occupied by natives that we tortured, raped, and "gave help" to in the form of intentionally disease infected blankets and clothing. We loaded cannons with chains and broken glass to use as anti-personnel weapons against them and decided that they couldn't live among us, and so drove them off to lands that couldn't support their way of life. We kept slaves whom we also tortured, raped and brutalized.
People in glass houses should not throw stones - I assume you are American, which means you're living in a pretty large glass house. - thecatcantalk, on 11/05/2007, -3/+27Yep. And the Japanese vivisection/torture/human guinea pig nerve-gas experiments at "Unit 731" were waaaay worse, claimed far more victims than did the Nazi camps...but you'll never hear about that in history class, because the victims (13 million Chinese, all told, including unarmed women and children firebombed during the Rape of Nanking) weren't Jews. Go figure.
But yeah, that's why the Japanese are still hated, all over Asia. There's a good reason. Unlike the Germans, they were never ashamed of what they'd donew, and never apologized. - Acewrap, on 11/05/2007, -1/+23Idiot.
- schrutefan, on 11/05/2007, -4/+26Of the all the WWII atrocities commited by the Japanese, this is probably the least heinous. They raped and murdered thousands of civilians and tested biological and chemical weapons on general populations. They performed live vivasections and used prisoners for bayonet practice. They referred to their test subjects as 'logs' because they did not see them as human.
In Germany, every school child is taught what happened during the Holocaust, but in Japan, most of the younger generations no next to nothing about the atrocities commited by their country as it has been scrubbed from their text books.
Anything to raise awareness of this subject is worth digging. Never forget. - daizaru, on 11/05/2007, -4/+26Well said, although the last line will get you dugg down pretty well. It's not just Americans, but it is hard to criticize anyone. Pretty much every country has atrocities in it's history. Instead of pointing fingers and comparing who's worse... let's learn from it and try never to repeat it.
- Nudar, on 11/05/2007, -27/+47I'd rather die instantly in an atomic bomb then be tortured to death. Many of these Japanese war criminals are still alive and have never been prosecuted! Imagine if Himmler was living in a villa outside of Berlin today. The atrocities of the Japanese make the Germans look like pacifists.
- rockefella, on 11/05/2007, -4/+23The difference is, the US doesn't deny the atomic bombings happened. The Japanese deny everything - raping of Korean comfort women, vivisections of prisoners, sadistic systematic torture of civilians in the countries they occupied. They even re-write their history books to sanitize them of all these inconvenient historical facts. You don't see US history books denying that atomic bombs were ever dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki or that the bombings were and remain controversial.
- DiggsOnlyJew, on 11/05/2007, -26/+44Buried... welcome to Earth, where humans have been killing each other for centuries.
- Supernova36, on 11/05/2007, -5/+22Welcome to the world of the Daily Mail. Sensational journalism at its best.
- arjie, on 11/05/2007, -1/+18Yes, it is important to note that both sides did incredibly horrible things. Dresden is yet another example of Allied excesses. I mention this not because I wish to make the brutality of the other side seem less but because we must remember how horrible war is and that the World Wars were not a storybook tale between pure good and pure evil.
- BassMastr, on 11/05/2007, -9/+26It's war. Every side did things they shouldn't and probably aren't proud of. We can all point the finger at someone else for something horrible they did. We need to let these by gones be by gones. Otherwise you end up like the Middle East...
It was war! Get over it... - BassMastr, on 11/04/2007, -2/+18You hit the nail on the head when you picked your user name...you are definitely a dildo.
- BassMastr, on 11/05/2007, -36/+52War is a bitch!
- doubleo7, on 11/06/2007, -5/+21Which means of course that you feel that the U.S. is responsible for anybody that gets car-bombed, beheaded, IED'ed, or tortured in Iraq because we started the (unnecessary) war.
- vertinox, on 11/06/2007, -1/+17@"I guess the author of that article forgot to mention both sides were brutal in the war"
Admiral Nimitz admitted the same thing happened to Japanese vessels. Many American submarines machined gunned Japanese sailors in the water. In fact it was this that actually got German Admiral Doenizt off the hook at the Nuremberg war crimes when the American Navy testified the had unrestricted sub warfare against the Japanese just like the Germans had with the Brits and Americans.
Besides... Why is this news? War crimes were committed on all sides back then (some sides more than others) but hardly anyone that fought the war is still alive. Heck... The commander of the Enola Gay just died.
Are we going to finally decide in 20 years to dig him up and put him on trial for war crimes? Or maybe punish his grand kids? Seriously, the war has some pretty messed up ***** that went on but we can't sit around and chastise dead people or people who weren't even born then. - Pinkertinkle, on 11/05/2007, -11/+27But I thought the Japanese were a peaceful people. Oh wait, not for the last 1000 years.
- BassMastr, on 11/04/2007, -2/+17I can't really provide a link to show where I learned about WWII in school. (Which includes how we ended it.) You apparently haven't seen too many shows on history channel if you think the two bombings have never been discussed. Where did you go to school? (If you did at all.)
I love how you had to throw O Reilly in there... I think you should probably seek out some help. Your user name, the fact that you randomly throw his show time and name in a statement that has nothing to do with the topic, shows to me that you might have a couple of issues you need to discuss with someone who can probably prescribe something. It's not good to obsess about things... - inactive, on 11/06/2007, -11/+26So? I kill semen by the millions.
- Comatose51, on 11/05/2007, -2/+17Just ask any East Asian how they feel about the Japanese and you won't get a kind answer. However, I don't see the point of condemning today's Japan any more than holding the Germans responsible for the holocaust. That generation is old or dead. Let bygones be bygones. As someone of Chinese heritage, I can say that China wasn't so kind to its own people either. Japan today is a lot more civilized and peaceful than most other nations in the world. At the very least, they seen to have learned a lesson about their violent past.
- rlh1, on 11/05/2007, -2/+17You're right, those Commies were real inhuman bastards.
- billybob217, on 11/05/2007, -2/+17The US firebombing of Japan killed way more people than the atomic bombs did... It killed a good 500,000 people and made some 5 million people homeless...
All this was before the two atomic bombs were dropped... - MrARPA, on 11/05/2007, -6/+20So many people are making excuses for the Japanese. Japanese war crimes are legion and notorious, and not comparable to Allied actions by any sane measure. Significant parts of Asia still hate them for it. Paul Tibbets said he slept perfectly well after dropping the A-bomb, and so would I, and so would many hundreds of millions of Asians knowing that it was the very minimum they deserved.
- inactive, on 11/06/2007, -4/+17I am not one to defend the use of the Atomic Bomb....BUT ..... the reason it was finally dropped is because the US demanded "unconditional surrender" because there was the very real fear that the Japanese would only rebuild their military. The fact theat Japan DID give in to unconditional surrender - and subsequent disarmament - is the reason that you and I and are children have not had to fight ANOTHER war in the Pacific.
- ZenMojo, on 11/05/2007, -3/+16Half of the people hit by the atomic bombs died of radiation poisoning and burns.
- Dundasbro, on 11/05/2007, -2/+15War is a terrible place - George Bush
- inkswamp, on 11/04/2007, -0/+12So rare that I would digg up an insult, but honestly, what else can you say to something that ignorant?
- vault, on 11/04/2007, -4/+16AFAIK, that is covered in every public school in the country. You can't really 'cover up' the fact you drop two atomic bombs.
- sfpfc, on 11/05/2007, -4/+15I think the problem is people think it is a contest, they see 20,000 die then point to the bombs in japan, then we have to hear which is worse. Then we have to hear which is worse Jews in the holocaust and the suffering in slavery. It is not a contest people. We should say it is a bad event and then focus on the other bad event. That is why nothing is ever solved, because we suddenly have to find which is worse? Don't like bringing campaigns into this but I see the same thing there too, a lot of the times the reply to something they did wrong (or unpopular) is to counter by complaining what the opponent did
- legendxx, on 11/06/2007, -5/+16Afterwards they became America's bitch and started producing superior-quality electronics.
- proliance, on 11/05/2007, -3/+14This is just a small part of the Japanese govt. sanctioned attrocities. Research the Rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March, chemical and biological weapon use against Chinese civilians, or the use of captured Korean women as sex slaves.
The Japanese were much more vicious than the Nazis. And most of the above comments are just sad. - ZenMojo, on 11/06/2007, -12/+22Before I write anything else, I leave you some educated opinions on the subject:
""In 1945 Secretary of War Stimson, visiting my headquarters in Germany, informed me that our government was preparing to drop an atomic bomb on Japan. I was one of those who felt that there were a number of cogent reasons to question the wisdom of such an act. During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives." -- General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace. The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military point of view, in the defeat of Japan." -- Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
"The use of [the atomic bombs] at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender." Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to President Truman.
That should pretty much nullify arguments that this was "better than invasion" or "better than the alternative" or that it "ended the war." I think the heart of these debates goes to the core of the World War II discussion...namely, where does that put modern Imperialist powers in the landscape of common opinion. We use the brutality of the Japanese and Germans to excuse our own brutality, to mitigate it. The United States is guilty of grievous examples of savagery, domination, and invasion, so we use the only other "Great Evil" in recent history that we know of as a quick reference. It is an overexaggeration to say that the United States is the same, but it is ignorance to say we do not share many of the same attributes. This is why we keep going back to the bomb. - inactive, on 11/05/2007, -0/+10Well put and I love the analogy. This is is actually true in basis of international law. If you are civilian working in a bomb factory you are fare game and by extension if you are the victim of a firebombing in your country after your soldiers have dropped bombs on innocent civilians in another country as Germany did to London in WW2 than you are also fair game. You don't deserve it but blame your own belligerent government - not the enemy. Contrast that to the attack on the US where 3000 innocent civilians where slaughtered by religious zealots over their dislike for American Foreign policy. And the the Americans go to EXTRAORDINARY risk to their own soldiers, including not firing until fired upon, to protect innocent civilian lives. In addition - Al Qaeda and the Taliban activley TARGET civilians because they cannot win a fair fight in a military manner.
- stubear, on 11/05/2007, -2/+12Americans didn't do this, Europeans did. Much of the expansion of American was at the hands of European settlers. This wasn't the first attempt by European settlers to colonize natives in their own homelands either. Spaniards nearly wiped out the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas with their endless assaults on Central and South American in search of gold which would in turn fuel their thirst for war and domination of the European continent and all trade with colonies throughout the world. Oh, I'm sorry, Europeans good....Americans bad...back to my UN approved concentration camp for re-education.
- Jimbob200, on 11/05/2007, -4/+14I agree with you quaxon. People trying to hide behind orders, and I don't care which army you belong to, are cowards.
- spect3r, on 11/05/2007, -3/+13We can't forget about these things. If you do, these things tend to repeat themselves.
- vertinox, on 11/05/2007, -1/+11What about the Germans who didn't vote for Hitler?
- briansearles, on 11/05/2007, -2/+11Everyone loves to leave the inevitable invasion out of the Atomic bomb discussions. Dugg for knowing your history.
- jimmiss, on 11/05/2007, -7/+16And we still didn't torture them.
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