What Japanese history lessons leave out
- Thread starter Locutus
- Start date
Yes, the Japanese military were quite brutal. China was also an aggressor at times, too, though. Kublai Khan, the Mongol who founded the Yuan Dynasty in China, invaded Japan in the late 13th century. So China has no more grounds for whining than the Japanese do. Like Cannuck said, they need to let the past stay in the past.
I thought the Mongols never made it to Japan. Didn't the "Divine Wind" (Kamikaze) sink and scatter the Mongol Fleet?
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Yep. Anyway, aggression is aggression and China has no room to squawk about being picked on by Japan.
In fact, German textbooks have discussed their Nazi past in great detail, since the late 1940's. This has been, and still is, a mandatory subject in all German schools.
The Japanese on the other hand have largely ignored this subject. Many young Japanese have no knowledge of World War II, or of what led up to it. Their "history" essentially begins with the US dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
We have had 37 Japanese exchange students stay with us over the past 35 years. Only one of them had any knowledge of what Japan had done to China, Korea, the Malay Peninsula, etc. etc. They knew that the US had largely destroyed the Japanese merchant fleet during the war, and had dropped the bombs. That was about it.
They were shocked when they learned that my wife's father had been a Dive Bomber Pilot during the Battle of the Coral Sea, and also at Midway. They had real trouble believing that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor, Hong Kong, etc. BUT, they were willing to learn, and most of them went home with a LOT more knowledge of what had happened than they had ever been taught in school.
The Japanese on the other hand have largely ignored this subject. Many young Japanese have no knowledge of World War II, or of what led up to it. Their "history" essentially begins with the US dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
We have had 37 Japanese exchange students stay with us over the past 35 years. Only one of them had any knowledge of what Japan had done to China, Korea, the Malay Peninsula, etc. etc. They knew that the US had largely destroyed the Japanese merchant fleet during the war, and had dropped the bombs. That was about it.
They were shocked when they learned that my wife's father had been a Dive Bomber Pilot during the Battle of the Coral Sea, and also at Midway. They had real trouble believing that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor, Hong Kong, etc. BUT, they were willing to learn, and most of them went home with a LOT more knowledge of what had happened than they had ever been taught in school.
You ain't seen nothing yet. Know why? Cuz our history books are filled with just the same kind of smoke and fog.