I have always wondered...

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

Lumping the whole of Asia in with Japan seems a bit much. Almost racist, one might say.

Wun might:

[Jimbuna]

I'm from neither country but my belief or understanding is that Germany doesn't go into a great deal of detail and Japan believes it was everyones duty to fight for and protect the Emperor.

I'd be really interested in a detailed response from said nationals myself.

[Dowly]

Looking at the movies Germany makes about WWII, they seem to be quite honest about it.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

I'm from neither country but my belief or understanding is that Germany doesn't go into a great deal of detail and Japan believes it was everyones duty to fight for and protect the Emperor.

I'd be really interested in a detailed response from said nationals myself.

That's the understanding I have as well. Germany is a lot more up front about it though than Japan which seems to periodically attempt a spot of historical revisionism, particularly in regards to its actions in China.

[Stealhead]

I know there are some Germans on here so they can answer it better.As I recall when I was stationed in Germany they did learn about the Holocaust in great detail in fact I am fairly sure that it in their laws that they must learn about it and the general effect of Hitler and all.

It is also illegal to display a swastika or anything specifically related to the Nazi party.You can get arrested for it.I never even saw neo Nazis display any but they would use emblems in the old style writing used during that time and hide SS in some other name so the shirt they wear has lots of letters on it but the important part says something like "Deutschland SS".

In Japan they don't really learn much factual I know this because a friends wife is Japanese she said that they basically have this stylized view of what Japan did during the war kind of middle groundish and idealized and pro Japanese.So it is up to the Japanese person themselves to learn the truth or follow a different line.There are a lot of Japanese that are very much aware of what happened including the atrocities at the same time there are many that have an idealized view.

The rest of Asia was either victims of Japan or a colony of Great Britain or the US or the Neatherlands in which case they generally have the Allied view of the war.China most certainly learns a lot they being most victimized by the Japanese.In Chinese schools all children learn about the American Volunteer Group better known as the Flying Tigers because their actions saved China from being cut off.If you ask an American kid what the AVG or the Flying Tigers where they will have no idea in most cases ask a Chinese kid and they will know what you are talking about.

Also a little known fact about China is that the Communists where much more determined to fight the Japanese than the Kuomintang where and they would go far out of their way to help American aircrews get back to their base even if it was 1,000 miles out of their way most American pilots felt that the general populace was better treated in Communist controlled areas of China.

[Sailor Steve]

Traditionally Japan's official policy has always been to deny wrongdoing of any kind, and to assert that Japan was the victim, being attacked for no apparent reason. Several historians and teachers have tried to change this over the years, with varying success, but sooner or later the government textbook policy seems to come back to that theme.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanes..._controversies
http://spice.stanford.edu/docs/134

An article from 1988:
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/27/wo...-attacked.html

The Wiki and Stanford articles indicate that things have gotten better since 1988, but that in the 21st century it's happening all over again.

[Red October1984]

Thank you for the interesting answers. I did not mean to be racist in any way. I do not wish to offend anybody.

But this is interesting.