Author Topic: Japanese World War II museum (Read 999 times)

Krusher · « **on:** August 14, 2002, 02:31:20 PM »

TOKYO- The buzz of cicadas casts a soothing summer lull at Yasukuni Shrine. But next to its weathered worship hall lies a darker side - a sprawling war museum featuring rocket-propelled kamikaze planes, one-man "human torpedo" suicide subs and a history lesson on World War II from a distinctly Japanese perspective.

Every August, controversy swirls around the shrine, where nearly 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including executed war criminals, are worshipped as deities.

Thursday marks the 57th anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender during World War II, but Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi says he has no plans to pay respects at the shrine. His surprise visit last year sparked protests in China and South Korea, where Yasukuni is a painful symbol of Japan's militaristic past.

The shrine's Yushukan war museum opened its doors last month after a $33 million renovation that doubled its size and expanded its chronicle of Japan's military expansion.

Its lessons aren't those found in the typical American schoolbook.

It depicts 1930s China as overrun with anti-Japanese terrorists, portrays President Franklin Roosevelt as plotting to trick Tokyo into war and describes World War II as Japan's attempt to liberate Asia, rather than conquer it.

"This is where people can learn the real history of Japan," museum curator Yasuhira Noda said. "Today's generation doesn't understand the circumstances of the war. They only understand it in terms of Japan doing wrong."

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-asia/2002/aug/14/081400201.html

This is one museum I wont be vistiing.........

senna · « **Reply #1 on:** August 14, 2002, 02:35:53 PM »

Well I do remember a section from the book "Flying Tigers" where its mentioned that Roosevelt was talking with China about giving them 100 bombers if they use it to bomb Japan. The deal never went through of course. Politics, goto love it.

john9001 · « **Reply #2 on:** August 14, 2002, 02:41:40 PM »

japan calls WW2 a "trade dispute"

midnight Target · « **Reply #3 on:** August 14, 2002, 02:43:03 PM »

Why wouldn't you visit? Sounds like a very interesting place.

GRUNHERZ · « **Reply #4 on:** August 14, 2002, 02:47:29 PM »

Ok MT here is why somebody might not like to visit!

I love it! I have been heartened by Japan's increasing warmth towards its wonderful militaristic past. First making the flag official, then making Kimigayo the offical anthem, the government's move to loosen restrictions on use of military force abroad, the visits to Yasukune, this museum, the continual justifications of the war in Japanese school books, and so many other wonderful things. We just need China to start some toejam and then Japan will show them all over again! Certainly I feel Japan should have a free hand in Asia.

On to Nanking!

Can you see why this could be a troubling to place to some people?

Arfann · « **Reply #5 on:** August 14, 2002, 02:53:32 PM »

Hind sight ain't necessarily 20-20. Met some German tourists last week who insisted the holocaust never happened.

midnight Target · « **Reply #6 on:** August 14, 2002, 02:56:33 PM »

Know thine enemy and he is yours.

Doesn't ever pay to keep your head in the sand.

senna · « **Reply #7 on:** August 14, 2002, 02:58:47 PM »

Oh I should add, China was already at war with Japan at the time or is it Japan was at war with China. Anyways what China got instead was the now famous FTs and those Perked P-40s.

Animal · « **Reply #8 on:** August 14, 2002, 03:04:30 PM »

I would not miss the chance to see this museum if I were in the area.

What good is covering you eyes and yelling THIS IS NOT THE TRUTH THIS IS NOT THE TRUTH!

fdiron · « **Reply #9 on:** August 14, 2002, 03:20:33 PM »

Most people probably think about World War II less than once a month.

Ripsnort · « **Reply #10 on:** August 14, 2002, 03:24:56 PM »

Most Japanese never heard of the Rape of Nanking...this is just another chapter in "The war according to the Japanese".

Hangtime · « **Reply #11 on:** August 14, 2002, 05:08:02 PM »

as a kid i was regailed with far too many horror stories of what japan and the japanese were like.. three close friends of the family were japanese pow's.. and they did not mice words, even around us little kids on the subject of the japanese.

as an adult, i learned to take what those old guys said with a grain of salt.. and also learned to check for other sources on items of intrest... and the japanese nationalistic culture of then, and even now is something that ought to be of extreme intrest to anyone wondering whats in store for us tomorrow.

As far as i am aware there exists nowhere on this planet a more racist, intolerant and hateful towards outsiders society than japan's. A fair term to describe their attutude towards racial impurity is 'rabid'.

Stalin and his purges, hitler, and his final solution, horrifying and shocking as they were and still are, both become mere human condition arberations in comparision to japan's 1000 year tradtion of racial hedgemony.

They, as a nation; have yet to apologise for their hideous and unforgivable treatment of prisoners of war.. their abject and disgusting treatment of the koreans (still ongoing) chinese and other asian cultures. Their souls were laid bare for the world to see in nanking.. their crimes in the phillipines, hong kong, singapore, manchuria, mainland china, taiwan and every god-damned place these vermin occupied during the war is without doubt the most repugnant disgusting episode in modern history.

frankly, japan should have never been allowed to reconstitute it's soverginity. If you don't think those lil rat bastards don't still consider all other people on this planet inferior to them, i invite you to live there for a year or two.. or work for a japanese run company. Ask a Japanese government official to explain Nanking.. or Baatan.

An old guy I happen to respect, who saw first hand some of what they did.. said it like this.. "No nation in this world more deserved an atomic pasting.. and it's a gawd-damned shame they didn't keep right on pasting that stinking place with every freakin fissionable substance we could come up with till even the cockroaches cried 'uncle'."

I have yet to discover one freakin shred of evidence that his opinion; or mine, is unjustified.

midnight Target · « **Reply #12 on:** August 14, 2002, 05:16:27 PM »

Hang,

I once had a Japanese girlfriend. She was well worth not-nuking.

OTOH, I must say that I have experienced more condecension and bigotry from Japanese and Vietnamese people than from any others I have dealt with over the years. Not generalizing, just my experiences.

Curval · « **Reply #13 on:** August 14, 2002, 05:33:47 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by midnight Target
Hang,

I once had a Japanese girlfriend. She was well worth not-nuking.

OTOH, I must say that I have experienced more condecension and bigotry from Japanese and Vietnamese people than from any others I have dealt with over the years. Not generalizing, just my experiences.

lol on the "well worth not-nuking" thing...but I am curious about the comment regarding the Vietnamese. Where did you experience this? In Vietnam? Not judging you, or the comment...just curious. I haven't experienced this at all...and I'm married to one.

GRUNHERZ · « **Reply #14 on:** August 14, 2002, 06:35:11 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by midnight Target
OTOH, I must say that I have experienced more condecension and bigotry from Japanese and Vietnamese people than from any others I have dealt with over the years. Not generalizing, just my experiences.

Shocking! You sir are a racist and a biggot! No anecdotal evidence can bu used to support such evil thoughts. You are worse than Hitler!