Comments on: Taro Aso’s warning about Nazis

By: Mary Witzl

Mary Witzl — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:44:30 +0000

In answer to your question, ponta — yes.

By: edwardhasnewgoggles

edwardhasnewgoggles — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:11:38 +0000

ha, tell anyone in SE asia that. You’re just looking at stats…they’re both terrible crimes regardless of the numbers. Trust me, you’ll get a nice piece of mind.

By: ダビ

ダビ — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:18:47 +0000

The holocaust refers to the industrial extermination of Jews and other “undesirables” in the gas chambers – Japan didn’t do anything like that.

By: edwardhasnewgoggles

edwardhasnewgoggles — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:38:09 +0000

I don’t really think it’s a matter of “equivalence” at all. If western people talk about WWII, it’s most likely going to be Germany and the holocaust, whereas if you talk to an Asian person you’d probably get more about Japan.

I think that regardless of the crime, the holocaust and what Japan did in Asia are on the same levels (in terms of aggression/violence/etc). Sure, Germany killed a lot more people, but really…numbers shouldn’t matter that much when you’re dealing with innocent life.

On a semi-related topic, you could go with the endless debate about the atomic bomb. Who was more important, American lives or Japanese lives?

No matter how you look at it, an innocent life is an innocent life no matter what country that person is from.

By: ponta

ponta — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:39:31 +0000

I agree with Dabi. He is not denying nor justifying Japan’s history of aggression. Few Japanese historians justify it.

Does the tendency to deny the accusation of genocide by the western Allies
harmful for the U.S?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bacque

By: Mary Witzl

Mary Witzl — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:02:54 +0000

Dabi, I think you will find that there are parallels between Japanese and German war crimes even if there is not an exact ‘equivalence.’ I agree with sireB; this tendency to deny or justify Japan’s history of aggression is more harmful for Japan than for the rest of Asia.

Thank God there are still people like Saburo Ienaga in Japan. I applaud Fukuda’s decision not to visit Yasukuni Jinja.

By: ダビ

ダビ — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:23:56 +0000

The “equivalence” is only there in that both Germany and Japan fought aggressive wars of expansion – usually when people speak about the atrocities of WWII in Europe they mean the holocaust and clearly there is no equivalence there.

By: sireB

sireB — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 05:39:31 +0000

the nazis will forever be the pin-cushion of this era. (sucks for the german psyche, but oh well)

and japan will forever deny its WWII equivalence. (this will actually be more detrimental for japan than it will be for the rest of asia)