Correction: It is safe to say that at least one Japanese person has not learned the lessons of WWII. So Japan has some nutjobs. I could probably find many American webpages expressing views even crazier than the ones quoted there, but that does not necessarily mean that Americans have a tendancy to warmongering fascism.
Where do you get this information? Most Japanese I know are very strongly anti-war.
What exactly do you mean by “ignorant?” The textbooks do contain vague wording about Japan’s aggressive role and atrocities committed, but most people are aware that Japan got into a war, that the war was devastating, without profit and with much suffering. There might not be a strong enough acknowledgement that Japan was the aggressor, but the idea of “WAR IS BAD” gets hammered into them here.
“Easily manipulated by their government?” Do you mean they have a blind trust in their government? That they believe the things politicians and bureaucrats tell them? You’ve got to be kidding…they are just as cynical about their government as any American. And the current pension scandals only make the distrust that much deeper.
These are pretty cliched descriptions of Japanese people, but even if they are true, there is a huge difference between a tendency toward conformity and parochial attitudes, and a tendency to set up a facist government and go to war.
I agree that prejudice toward other Asians lingers, but this negative feeling is aimed toward those immigrating to Japan. The prejudice is more of a “stay out of our country” rather than “let’s go over there and take their land.”
You really need to go back and study the historical events that led to Japan’s role in WWII. It seems your argument boils down to this: it’s in their nature to go to war, so they will. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Not since 9/11, though.
How did they learn their lessons about WWII? As RindaRinda admitted, their history books are very vague on why WWII was bad, and that history is actively undermined by the fascists. By default, the average Japanese is anti-war (or rather, anti getting mixed up elsewhere), but should they have to defend their position… they just can’t. And that is when a minority takes control - especially in a culture where people individualism is seen in a very bad light.
It doesn’t take a majority to get an empire going. My point is that contrarily to Germans who came to terms with the fact that WWII was an unjust and terrible war and would fight a repeat tooth and nails, Japaneses did not learn this and few will be able to stand up (ultimately unsuccesfully) to the “nutjobs”, who have a much clearer objective of what they want to achieve.
And they aren’t such a small minority… Maybe they are not very vocal (that would be impolite), but they still elected Shintaro Ishihara as governor of Tokyo - a world class metropolis that could be a country in itself!
They are very cynical - privately. But my experience is that even if they critize their bosses (the Authority) over a beer, they still do as told.
Isn’t there a graveyard that serves as a memorial for the fallen somewhere in Darmstat? I think the remains of Manfred Von Richtoven were supposed to be laid to rest there but I’m not sure
When there was a sufficient number of soldier burials these often were grouped together on the local cemetary, with a common memorial. For a lot of smaller towns/villages this was not the case as soldiers who died outside Germany usually were not repatriated but buried locally, and inscribed on the family gravestone if any without being buried there. So these dedicated cemetary areas tend to exist only in larger cities and in towns with a hospital. Cities hit with significant air raids have similar dedicated cemetary areas.
The typical war memorial in a German village/town tends to be a tablet at an outdoors location or sometimes in a church, with the names of the WW I fallen and later expanded to take the WW II dead. Sometimes there is an extra tablet for the missing.
Memorials for Nazi victims usually are at the actual locations of concentration camps, prisons used by the Gestapo, etc. - during the last two decades there have been a number of projects to complement these memorials with memorials in the national capital, in state capitals etc. at locations that are not in themselves significant in the history of persecution but have the advantage of a central location. As everything concerned with Third Reich remembrance (the ‘third rail’ of German public discourse) this has been a subject of much public controversy.
The main remembrance day is on the second Sunday before 1st Advent sunday (i.e. a Sunday in the first half of November) but it’s not specifically for soldiers but ‘for all victims of war and dictatorship’. There is usually a small ceremony in a funereal atmosphere with the mayor laying a wreath and holding a short speech on the evils of war. There are also specific remembrance days e.g. for the Holocaust (January 27) or for the beginning of WW II (September 1).
A few months ago, my family hosted a 14-year-old exchange student from Germany. As a gift for her host family, she brought a book published by her town’s historical society. It was written in German, so I couldn’t make out most of what it said. It seemed similar to books printed by small town historical societies everywhere. It had pictures of local prominent buildings and locations. There appeared to be pages about the history of the place and various events. This book is about Olfen, by the way.
What struck me was the section about Hitler. Apparently, Hitler visited the town during the 1930’s. The section had pictures of Hitler visiting with Olfen’s mayor and other town dignitaries, including local National Socialist Party officials. Since I don’t read (or speak) German, I couldn’t make out what the point of it all was. I asked our exchange student and she sort of rolled her eyes and laughed. Her English was a bit weak and I don’t think she knew the words for much of what was in the book. Besides, I also got the impression that she’s about as interested in history and sociology as my own fourteen-year-old daughter.
The general impression that I got is that nationalism is severely frowned upon in Germany. You don’t see a lot of patriotic flag-waving in Germany. I would imagine that this would also limit any grand memorials such as the one recently unveiled in Washington, DC.
How Germany and Japan teach the history of this time is fascinating to me. I think is especially important now as those who experienced these times are dying off. When those old enough to remember Germany’s nationalism run amok have passed on, will Germans begin to assert their nationalsim again? Is this something to worry about??
Japan I think is less of a concern because of it’s extreme wealth. Why change anything when you’re already doing so well? Wouldn’t Japanese expansionism only limit their trade opportunities? Besides, Japan lacks the physical resources to feed its people. How hard would it be to simply starve them? (not that I recommend this)
This kind of thing is rare in Japan as well. There is a great deal of pride in the length of their history and culture, but there really isn’t much patriotism (aikokushin) per se. Aside from the small number of ultra-right wing nutjobs.
I have read articles (and heard anecdotes) about how the younger generation of Germans are getting sick and tired of hearing about how awful they were and the horrible things they’ve done. Further, from what I understand, it was those living in the former West Germany who received the education about the horrors of war, not those living the former East Germany. But, I might not be remembering that correctly.
The possibility of a resurgence of nationalism might occur, but I think that the probability of a rise in the kind of expansionism we saw prior to WWII is highly unlikely. Both Germany and Japan seized control of other lands in a time period in which colonialism was accepted. If either country were to attempt to invade another country today, they would meet with great international resistance. To keep things short and simple, there were unique historical conditions that fostered the formation of the totalitarian governments and their respective policies. It must be remembered that Japan tried to cooperate with the Western powers in Asia before it realized it would not be treated as an equal (disclaimer: I am not claiming Japan was justified in taking any of the actions it did).
Which brings me to Ishihara Shintaro, brought up by rngadam. That man is a rightist, but he’s not advocating the reformation of the Japanese Empire. He would rather Japan become a fully independent country, rather than stay in the shadow of the U.S. Further, there is a difference between opposing immigration into your country, and advocating the invasion of the immigrants’ home countries.
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That is certainly false… If you think about it, they were under communists control and if there was one group that hated nazis it was the communists - for obvious reasons! I have personnaly met a German woman (incidentally in Japan) that was born and raised in East Germany and she confirmed that their education had a big serving of self-blame for what happened during WWII.
(hopefully logic and an anecdote doesn’t fall outside the parameters of this forum?)
Hmm, maybe I should have kept the pissy comment to myself hmmm. Sorry about that.
Yeah, like we all remember the American Philipino War.