Comments on: Japanese Asked to Apologize over WWII Sinking of Hospital Ship

By: K-gerage

K-gerage — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:28:06 +0000

So far I’ve never met a Japanese who was aware of their countries crimes. Most are more than willing to call America a monster for dropping the A-bomb but I haven’t met one that was aware of the Japanese killing 10-15 million Asian civilians during the course of the war, the biological experiments, 25% allied Pow death rate none of it. It’s like everyday Berliners have to walk by tons of memorials all a reminder of their crimes, whereas the Japanese just forget and assume they didn’t do anything wrong.

By: Espejo10

Espejo10 — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:41:19 +0000

I just picked up on this interesting discussion. Both Americans and Japanese fought an unbelievably ferocious and extremely brutal war in the Pacific. Both sides apparently routinely killed wounded rather than take prisoners and some barbaric mutilation of the dead was practiced by both sides. In the course of writing an historical fiction novel with characters on both sides, I have been wrestling with the paradox of Japanese brutality toward civilians and POWs. It doesn’t appear that Americans shared that sort of activity. Of course, not just Hiroshima & Nagasaki, but the extensive firebombing of civilians from March to August of 1945 may be one of the greatest atrocities that doesn’t seem to be in American consciousness today.

By: arai akemi

arai akemi — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 05:50:41 +0000

We were taught that we were wrong.
You were taught you fought for some cause worth fighting for.

By: guyjin

guyjin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:14:25 +0000

Yes. The point of my story was not to suggest that during WWII one side was perfect and the other made no mistakes. There are tragedies on both sides in war, and as I said in my article, I do not believe that asking for an apology from Japan serves any purpose now. Rather we should learn more about what happened, and why. There are some causes that I believe are worth fighting for, in spite of the consequences, but others that are not.

It should be noted too that in the majority of the examples you have cited here, these Japanese ships that were sunk with civilians on board were either not marked, or were moving in convoy with other war ships, or were believed to be carrying large amounts of treasures of war. This was not the case with the Centaur.

By: arai akemi

arai akemi — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:41:42 +0000

Have you heard of Amerika-maru, Awa-maru, Tsushima-maru, Akagi-maru, Konan-maru?

By: Japundit

Japundit — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:54:37 +0000

Story added…

Your story has been featured on Japundit!

Here is the link: http://www.japundit.com/WWII/Japanese_Asked_to_Apologize_over_WWII_Sinking_of_Hospital_Ship...