# Why were the Japanese so cruel in World War II? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 22, 2010, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034 "2010-12-22T02:36:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/241 "2011-01-31T19:56:25Z")
> [@cckerberos](#): > > No, it doesn’t. Yes, [it does.](http://www.yasukuni.or.jp/english/) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/242 "2011-01-31T23:32:08Z")
Japan certainly committed war crimes and atrocities to foreigners during the war. But they were not the equivalent of Nazi Germany (or even Fascist Italy). Tojo was not a dictator in the same league as Hitler or Stalin. He was a Prime Minister who was elected into office (and peacefully removed from office in 1944). Japan held elections during the war. There was no domestic reign of terror in Japan - during the entire war only fifty-seven people were executed in Japan (far fewer than the United States during the same period). So the question is why a regime that was relatively sane at home turn so crazy when it crossed its borders? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/243 "2011-01-31T23:36:41Z")
> [@Dissonance](#): > > Yes, [it does.](http://www.yasukuni.or.jp/english/) The Yasukini Shrine was founded in 1869 and it dedicated to the memory of all Japanese soldiers who have died on duty since 1853. So calling it a place where war criminals are worshipped is a bit deceitful. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/244 "2011-02-01T02:56:24Z")
> [@DragonAsh](#): > > Twenty-odd notable foreign dignitaries have visited Yasukuni Shrine since WWII, including from China, Vietnam, the Dalai Lama, the UK, Italy, etc etc. > > Do you think these visitors were worshiping war criminals enshrined there during their visit? Nope but some of the Japanese that visit there are. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/245 "2011-02-01T03:04:51Z")
> [@Latro](#): > > And nobody outside the US doubts that Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were warcrimes… I know a few people outside the United States and a lot of them don’t consider these things war crimes (and a lot of people inside the US consider these things war crimes). So your point is that carpet bombing and nuking cities is a war crime. Sure, I understand the argument. I think that carpet bombing Dresden and the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki can be justified in a war. Its hard but I can present an argument. Please present an argument for the Rape of Nanking? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/246 "2011-02-01T03:06:38Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The Yasukini Shrine was founded in 1869 and it dedicated to the memory of all Japanese soldiers who have died on duty since 1853. So calling it a place where war criminals are worshipped is a bit deceitful. OK I hear you, its not the only thing that happening at the shrine but they do in fact worship war criminals, don’t they? They do it at a shrine right? If I deceived anyone who read my post into believing that that Japan created a shrine dedicated just to war criminals where people go to worship, then I apologize, that was not my intent. ---
**Author:** ![DragonAsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DragonAsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DragonAsh)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/247 "2011-02-01T06:35:43Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > OK I hear you, its not the only thing that happening at the shrine but they do in fact worship war criminals, don’t they? They do it at a shrine right? > > If I deceived anyone who read my post into believing that that Japan created a shrine dedicated just to war criminals where people go to worship, then I apologize, that was not my intent. No. Stop thinking about a Shinto shrine the same way you’d think about ‘heaven/hell’ Western or karma-based religions. Shinto itself doesn’t have a ‘worship’ concept as most Westerners would understand it. Quite frankly it’s almost a stretch to call religion (particularly Shinto-ism) in Japan as anything resembling ‘religion’. Shinto in particular is not a religion in the sense of ‘a faith-based set of beliefs’. Rather, it’s a set of traditions and customs, based primarily on respect for all living things, nature and family. There is no holy text, no holy objects, no set prayers. I’m not even sure there is the concept of ‘sin’. There are concepts about being impure - but as noted previously, souls enshrined at Yasukuni are believed to be absolved of all earthly deeds upon enshrinement. Japan’s lunatic right (the guys that drive around in the obnoxiously loud trucks with loudspeakers) has tried to hijack the Shrine for its own agenda, which greatly confuses the issue. But the Shrine itself is for respecting and remembering those that died in the service of the emperor: that’s why it was built, decades before WWII. Visiting is in part for paying respects to the dead and remembering the horrors of war - which is why so many foreign dignitaries visit. If you think foreign dignitaries are capable of visiting the shrine without ‘worshiping’ war criminals, why would you think Japanese aren’t? ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/248 "2011-02-01T07:01:06Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Japan certainly committed war crimes and atrocities to foreigners during the war. But they were not the equivalent of Nazi Germany (or even Fascist Italy). Tojo was not a dictator in the same league as Hitler or Stalin. He was a Prime Minister who was elected into office (and peacefully removed from office in 1944). Japan held elections during the war. There was no domestic reign of terror in Japan - during the entire war only fifty-seven people were executed in Japan (far fewer than the United States during the same period). Your overall point (that Japan was not a totalitarian state and Tojo was not a dictator) is correct, but I think you’re being a little too generous here. Tojo was appointed by the Emperor and the Peace Preservation Law and Kempeitai made things difficult for those who would oppose the government. A lot of the relative domestic peace was caused by people keeping their heads down and not rocking the boat, not because the government was particularly tolerant. ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/249 "2011-02-01T07:09:30Z")
> [@DragonAsh](#): > > Japan’s lunatic right (the guys that drive around in the obnoxiously loud trucks with loudspeakers) has tried to hijack the Shrine for its own agenda, which greatly confuses the issue. I would attribute the confusion to the fact that the shrine has a sort of hybrid semi-official existence. The private organization running it is pretty closely tied to the Japanese right and pushes a revisionist view of history. So I don’t think it’s really accurate to say that the right has “hijacked” the shrine. The shrine isn’t a neutral party here. But I also think that the Japanese public’s view of the shrine is shaped more by the historical, official role of the shrine than by any of the shrine’s current political activities. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/250 "2011-02-01T09:10:53Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The Yasukini Shrine was founded in 1869 and it dedicated to the memory of all Japanese soldiers who have died on duty since 1853. So calling it a place where war criminals are worshipped is a bit deceitful. It’s really not. The kami of the class-A war criminals wasn’t worshipped until 1969. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Jacquelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Le\_Jacquelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Jacquelope)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/251 "2011-02-01T09:30:26Z")
> [@cckerberos](#): > > Your overall point (that Japan was not a totalitarian state and Tojo was not a dictator) is correct, but I think you’re being a little too generous here. Tojo was appointed by the Emperor and the Peace Preservation Law and Kempeitai made things difficult for those who would oppose the government. A lot of the relative domestic peace was caused by people keeping their heads down and not rocking the boat, not because the government was particularly tolerant. Difficult? That’s understating things. The Kempeitai.. now there’s a word I’d forgotten for years. They loved to torture suspects. They also managed the forced conscription of citizens and the “discipline” of rebellious peasants. It has always appeared to me that Japan was not far off from a classic totalitarian state, at least the way my Japanese language instructor-slash-amateur Japanese historian loved to describe them. (No doubt why he said his grandfather immigrated here.) Offtopic: But I suppose the Japanese had it better than those in other countries where the Kempeitai set up shop. I remember my Japanese language instructor (who also apparently doubled as an amateur Japanese history instructor) telling me about how no one wanted to talk about the massacres of Chinese people by this group in places like Singapore. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Jacquelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Le\_Jacquelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Jacquelope)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/252 "2011-02-01T09:31:36Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Please present an argument for the Rape of Nanking? It wasn’t rape. They were comfort girls. [/facetious] ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/253 "2011-02-01T16:53:08Z")
Wars are horrible and nations resort to it too easily. We are a great example of that. The decisions of the politicians boil down to the battle field where the enemy actions are taken on a more personal basis. When you are terrified and your comrades are getting killed around you, you go a bit crazy. All wars are horrible on the battlefield. Young scared soldiers will do terrible things. It is not new. It is a small step from shooting a person to death on a battlefield and cruel treatment. The whole enterprise is cruel . Mai Lai was a horror. It was not unique. We are as capable as any other nation of atrocities. The torture of Iraqi prisoners (Abu Grebe) was another horror perpetrated by us. The military is a totalitarian state. They act beyond civilian restraints. ---
**Author:** ![AshenLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@AshenLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AshenLady)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/254 "2011-02-01T17:31:32Z")
**17. What did people in Germany know about the persecution of Jews and other enemies of Nazism?** **Answer:** Certain initial aspects of Nazi persecution of Jews and other opponents were common knowledge in Germany. Thus, for example, everyone knew about the Boycott of April 1, 1933, the Laws of April, and the Nuremberg Laws, because they were fully publicized. Moreover, offenders were often publicly punished and shamed. The same holds true for subsequent anti-Jewish measures. _Kristallnacht_ (The Night of the Broken Glass) was a public pogrom, carried out in full view of the entire population. While information on the concentration camps was not publicized, a great deal of information was available to the German public, and the treatment of the inmates was generally known, although exact details were not easily obtained. As for the implementation of the “Final Solution” and the murder of other undesirable elements, the situation was different. The Nazis attempted to keep the murders a secret and, therefore, took precautionary measures to ensure that they would not be publicized. Their efforts, however, were only partially successful. Thus, for example, public protests by various clergymen led to the halt of their euthanasia program in August of 1941. These protests were obviously the result of the fact that many persons were aware that the Nazis were killing the mentally ill in special institutions. As far as the Jews were concerned, it was common knowledge in Germany that they had disappeared after having been sent to the East. It was not exactly clear to large segments of the German population what had happened to them. On the other hand, there were thousands upon thousands of Germans who participated in and/or witnessed the implementation of the “Final Solution” either as members of the SS, the _Einsatzgruppen_, death camp or concentration camp guards, police in occupied Europe, or with the _Wehrmacht_. **18. Did all Germans support Hitler’s plan for the persecution of the Jews?** **Answer:** Although the entire German population was not in agreement with Hitler’s persecution of the Jews, there is no evidence of any large scale protest regarding their treatment. There were Germans who defied the April 1, 1933 boycott and purposely bought in Jewish stores, and there were those who aided Jews to escape and to hide, but their number was very small. Even some of those who opposed Hitler were in agreement with his anti-Jewish policies. Among the clergy,\* Dompropst\* Bernhard Lichtenberg of Berlin publicly prayed for the Jews daily and was, therefore, sent to a concentration camp by the Nazis. Other priests were deported for their failure to cooperate with Nazi antisemitic policies, but the majority of the clergy complied with the directives against German Jewry and did not openly protest. \*\*[[List of Questions](http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/36qs.html)] [1-18] [[19-29](http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/36quest2.html)] [[30-36](http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/36quest3.html)] \*\* Source: Copyright [The Simon Wiesenthal Center](http://www.wiesenthal.com/) 9760 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90035 [![](https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/images/transparent.gif) ](https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/images/transparent.gif) Plenty of Germans were aware of what the Nazi’s were doing to the Jews. Let’s not make things up, in order to change history regarding what the Japanese were capable of doing. Nazi’s and Japanese were equally evil. ---
**Author:** ![CapnPitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@CapnPitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CapnPitt)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/255 "2011-02-01T17:51:30Z")
I don’t know if it was posted earlier in the thread or not, but John Dower’s _War Without Mercy_ is a great book on this topic. It also examines at great length American cruelty in the Pacific theater. [link to Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/War-Without-Mercy-Power-Pacific/dp/0394751728/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296582656&sr=1-1) ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/256 "2011-02-01T18:03:50Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Wars are horrible and nations resort to it too easily. We are a great example of that. The decisions of the politicians boil down to the battle field where the enemy actions are taken on a more personal basis. When you are terrified and your comrades are getting killed around you, you go a bit crazy. All wars are horrible on the battlefield. Young scared soldiers will do terrible things. It is not new. > It is a small step from shooting a person to death on a battlefield and cruel treatment. The whole enterprise is cruel . > Mai Lai was a horror. It was not unique. We are as capable as any other nation of atrocities. The torture of Iraqi prisoners (Abu Grebe) was another horror perpetrated by us. > The military is a totalitarian state. They act beyond civilian restraints. Yes, atrocities happen in most any war and by all sides. There is a difference between isolated incidents and a policy of mistreatment. The Nanking Massacre, “Comfort Women” (basically institutionalized rape), general treatment of POWs (Bataan Death March being just one example) and Unit 731 in particular makes the Nazis seem like nice guys. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/257 "2011-02-01T18:54:15Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Japan certainly committed war crimes and atrocities to foreigners during the war. But they were not the equivalent of Nazi Germany (or even Fascist Italy). Tojo was not a dictator in the same league as Hitler or Stalin. He was a Prime Minister who was elected into office (and peacefully removed from office in 1944). Japan held elections during the war. Trying to dress up Tojo as part of a liberal democracy elected to office by the people and losing a re-election is beyond absurd. Tojo was a general in the IJA and the army minister prior to being _ **appointed** _ prime minister by Hirohito. He was forced to resign after the fall of Saipan on 18 July 1944. The was no election to replace him, his appointed successor was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuniaki\_Koiso](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuniaki_Koiso), also a general in the IJA. How was his term in office? > [@](#): > > In July 1944, Koiso was chosen to serve as Prime Minister of Japan after the downfall of the Tōjō cabinet. Koiso faced strong competition from more senior army officials for the post. The Army strongly favored General Terauchi Hisaichi; however, they could not afford to recall him to Japan from his role as commander-in-chief of all Japanese forces in Southeast Asia. The civilian government, especially Kōichi Kido and Konoe Fumimaro also did not favor Koiso, due to Koiso’s previous involvement with the ultranationalist Sakura Kai and its attempted coup d’état against the government in 1931 (The March Incident). These reservations were shared by the Emperor in his Privy Council meetings. Nevertheless, Koiso was selected, as no consensus could be reached on a more suitable alternative. > > Koiso was almost a token Prime Minister as he was not allowed to participate in any military decisions. He was not popular with government ministers who favored making peace, nor with those who wished to prosecute the war until the bitter end. ---
**Author:** ![DragonAsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DragonAsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DragonAsh)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/258 "2011-02-01T19:15:15Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Yes, atrocities happen in most any war and by all sides. > > There is a difference between isolated incidents and a policy of mistreatment. > > The Nanking Massacre, “Comfort Women” (basically institutionalized rape), general treatment of POWs (Bataan Death March being just one example) and Unit 731 in particular makes the Nazis seem like nice guys. Really? I wrote about this before, but…Not to downplay Nanking and the Bataan Death March…but you really think those events are _worse_ than the attempt at exterminating an entire ethnic group? Think about the infrastructure needed. Think about the scale. Nazi had Final Solution operations stretching from into Russia, all the way to the Atlantic Coast, from the Baltics to the Balkans. You needed bureaucrats and planners and administrators. You had to build and maintain transportation networks connecting the death factories. You had to build and maintain facilities for workers working at the death plants, plus holding areas for the victims before they were killed, you had to arrange for management and removal of human remains. There is a massive gulf of difference between the cruelty of Japan’s military during the war and Nazi genocide. One is crude brutality, born of a mix of superiority complex and racism, coupled with the horrors of war. One analogy: ‘gook’ is the well-known deragatory term used by US marines to refer to Asians enemy soldiers, particulary during the Korean and Vietnam Wars; the idea being that it’s easier to kill lots of the other side if you come to view the enemy as sub-human). Contrast that with the structural, mass killing with the aim of wiping out an entire group of people from the earth. As awful as Japan’s actions may have been, Japan did not have a continent-wide network of concentration camps. Nanking and the treatment of POWs was almost a primal brutality - contrast that with the cold, chilling efficiency of the Nazis: the construction of the death factors, the organizational and transportation structures put in place, and the entire administrative efficiency with which the whole thing was managed… there is no quantitative or qualitative equivalent in Japan or any other part of history. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/259 "2011-02-01T20:16:48Z")
> [@DragonAsh](#): > > No. Stop thinking about a Shinto shrine the same way you’d think about ‘heaven/hell’ Western or karma-based religions. Shinto itself doesn’t have a ‘worship’ concept as most Westerners would understand it. Quite frankly it’s almost a stretch to call religion (particularly Shinto-ism) in Japan as anything resembling ‘religion’. Shinto in particular is not a religion in the sense of ‘a faith-based set of beliefs’. Rather, it’s a set of traditions and customs, based primarily on respect for all living things, nature and family. There is no holy text, no holy objects, no set prayers. I’m not even sure there is the concept of ‘sin’. There are concepts about being impure - but as noted previously, souls enshrined at Yasukuni are believed to be absolved of all earthly deeds upon enshrinement. Fine then call it honor, venerate, whatever. > [@](#): > > Japan’s lunatic right (the guys that drive around in the obnoxiously loud trucks with loudspeakers) has tried to hijack the Shrine for its own agenda, which greatly confuses the issue. But the Shrine itself is for respecting and remembering those that died in the service of the emperor: that’s why it was built, decades before WWII. Visiting is in part for paying respects to the dead and remembering the horrors of war - which is why so many foreign dignitaries visit. If you think foreign dignitaries are capable of visiting the shrine without ‘worshiping’ war criminals, why would you think Japanese aren’t? Cuz the foreign dignitaries aren’t going there for the same reason that Japanese people go there. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034/260 "2011-02-01T20:34:10Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Yes, atrocities happen in most any war and by all sides. > > There is a difference between isolated incidents and a policy of mistreatment. > > The Nanking Massacre, “Comfort Women” (basically institutionalized rape), general treatment of POWs (Bataan Death March being just one example) and Unit 731 in particular makes the Nazis seem like nice guys. I don’t know about “nice guys” but its not a stretch to say that the Japanese don’t really get as much criticism as they deserve for what they did. Sure, the Rape of Nanking was worse than anything that anything the Germans did to any European city. Sure, the German’s didn’t conscript comfort women for their military brothels. Sure, the Germans didn’t treat their POWs as poorly as the Germans. Sure, Unit 731 was far more cold calculating and deliberate than Mengele ever was. BUT the holocaust is a pretty tough act to follow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-the-japanese-so-cruel-in-world-war-ii/565034.md?page=14)