Oppenheimer has been released in Japan, eight months after its global release. We spoke to historian Naoko Wake to learn why the U.S. refuses to take accountability for the war crimes it committed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and why all of this is relevant to us today.
Here's a list of some of the most significant Japanese war crimes during this period: 1. **Rape of Nanking (Nanjing Massacre)**: In December 1937, the Japanese army captured the then-capital of China, Nanking. Over the course of six weeks, Japanese troops murdered an estimated 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers, with some estimates suggesting the number could be even higher. This event is considered one of the worst atrocities of the war. 2. **Unit 731**: A covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army, which conducted lethal human experimentation, including vivisection without anesthesia, on an estimated 3,000 men, women, and children. 3. **Comfort Women**: The Imperial Japanese Army was involved in the forced prostitution of an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 women from occupied territories, primarily Korea, China, and the Philippines. These women were forced to serve as "comfort women" in military brothels. 4. **The Bataan Death March**: Following the surrender of US and Filipino forces in the Philippines in April 1942, approximately 75,000 prisoners of war were forced to march over 60 miles to a prison camp. Thousands died from starvation, dehydration, and physical abuse during the march. 5. **Sook Ching Massacre**: In February 1942, the Japanese military conducted a systematic purge of perceived anti-Japanese elements in Singapore, killing between 25,000 to 50,000 ethnic Chinese residents. 6. **Operation Sankō**: Also known as the "Three Alls Policy" (Kill All, Burn All, Loot All), this was a scorched earth strategy implemented in China, leading to the deaths of an estimated 2.7 million Chinese civilians. 7. **Chemical and Biological Warfare**: The Japanese military used chemical and biological weapons against both military and civilian targets in China, causing widespread suffering and death. 8. **Forced Labor and Slavery**: Millions of people from occupied territories, including China, Korea, and Southeast Asia, were forced into labor, often in brutal conditions. Many of these laborers died due to the harsh conditions and treatment. 9. **Beheading Competitions**: Japanese soldiers were reported to have engaged in competitions to see who could behead the most Chinese civilians in the shortest amount of time. 10. **Medical Experiments on Prisoners**: Besides Unit 731, other Japanese military units conducted horrific medical experiments on prisoners, including infecting them with diseases and testing the effects of various chemicals and drugs. These war crimes have left a dark stain on Japan's history, and many of them were prosecuted in the Tokyo War Crimes Trial after the war. However, some argue that the trials did not fully address the extent of the atrocities committed, and debates continue about the appropriate ways to address and remember these events.
@ajplus The decision to drop the bombs was the single most humanitarian act of the last 125 years and Truman should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for making it.
@ajplus It’s a bit rich for the Japanese to accuse the US of a war crime. Japanese barbarism during the war, particularly in China but across SE Asia, is well documented. And if Hiroshima and Nagasaki were war crimes, what was Pearl Harbor? Don’t tell me just deserts.
@ajplus Why would you speak to a "historian of gender, sexuality, and illness in the Pacific region" about a very well-ploughed historical controversy quite outside her field of specialty? Sounds like you just wanted someone with superficial credentials to confirm your anti-Americanism.
@ajplus 😆 🤣 😂 Japan wants to talk about accountability for war crimes?!? Really? Really!? *Stares in Unit 731, R#pe of Naking, treatment of Pows...*
The Japanese Imperial Army committed War crimes in Nan Jing. They tortured, raped and murdered their way thru China, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea and all. They used sex trafficking of Asian women as 'comfort' girls. My grand- ma told me stories of how these despicable soldiers of Japan would gather men, women and children in their, and surrounding villages and fill these Villagers with so much water and then stomp on their stomachs for fun. Japan and its civlians were complicit in all of these crimes, and they have erased all of these war crimes in their own history books to 'protect' future generations. Who has apologized to my grandmother? Not one Jap. You should be ashamed of yourself and your Japanese ancestry.
@ajplus No hate. I like Japanese people, but Japan allied with the Nazis & raped, tortured & murdered their way across Asia in WW2. They also chose to launch an attack on American soil. I don't care how many Japanese civilians died as a result. I care how many American soldiers didn't.
The Japanese love to pretend that they were just sitting around on the beach braiding flowers into each other's hair when the evil round-eyed devils suddenly targeted them for a weapons test. Let's see what the Japanese did: 1. Literally allied themselves with the literal nazis. 2. Launched military attacks on neutral powers without a declaration of war. 3. Committed their own separate Holocaust in Asia with a far greater body count: approximately 30 million. 4. Conducted medical experiments on prisoners of war including vivisection, amputations without anesthesia, and testing of biological weapons. 5. Used chemical weapons on over 2000 occasions, including on civilian targets and prisoners of war. 6. Tortured prisoners of war. 7. Executed prisoners of war. 8. Used Filipino civilians as human shields. 9. Ate prisoners of war. Yes, you read that correctly. 10. Committed mass rape of civilian women in conquered territories. 11. Feigned surrender to draw Allied forces into ambush. 12. Attacked hospital ships at sea. In short, during WW2, the entire nation of Japan descended to a level of savagery that made the nazis and even the communists look like amateurs. By contrast, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were selected as military targets, and were struck three days apart, giving the Japanese a chance to surrender after the first attack, which they did not do. Casualties inflicted by both attacks equaled 0.76% of the victims of Japanese war crimes. Not only were the twin nuclear strikes entirely justified, they were a measured, controlled, and understated response. It would have made complete sense for the United States to use one or both weapons to level Tokyo instead. The imperial Japanese were worse than the nazis. Their body count was worse, their atrocities were worse, their evil was worse. And the moral of this story is "don't be a fucking fascist, don't do fascist shit, and then decent people won't have to kill you in order to save innocent lives".
@ajplus Let's ask the Chinese, Koreans, Taiwanese, Filipinos, and Vietnamese what they think on this topic.