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How Japan and the U.S. Remember World War II

posted by cmn32480 on Thursday May 12 2016, @03:37AM   
from the history-is-in-the-culture-of-the-teller dept.

AnonTechie writes:

An interesting phone interview with Carol Gluck, a professor of Japanese history at Columbia University.

"The Japanese ignore everything before Hiroshima and the Americans ignore everything after Nagasaki."

On Tuesday, President Obama announced his decision to visit Hiroshima, Japan, the site where the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb in August 1945. Obama will specifically visit Memorial Park, which commemorates the event; he will be the first sitting American president to do so, although he does not plan to offer any sort of apology. The bombing of Hiroshima killed around 100,000 people; three days later, tens of thousands more were killed after the United States bombed Nagasaki.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2016/05/the_u_s_and_japan_have_very_different_memories_of_world_war_ii.html

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Original Submission

• Re:This is because of the GHQ War Guilt PropagandaRe:This is because of the GHQ War Guilt Propaganda (Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Thursday May 12 2016, @04:43PM

  by Thexalon (636) on Thursday May 12 2016, @04:43PM (#345310)

  Nothing structural remains between the everyday of American society now, and the pathological path that was Nazi Germany then.

  Not entirely true. There are two differences that matter quite a bit:
  1. Americans for the most part have enough to eat. The Germans during the rise of the Nazis didn't. That made the Germans more susceptible to the more despicable aspects of Hitler's rhetoric, because hungry people can't think straight (I know, I've gone hungry for financial reasons before).

  2. The opposition is much more organized and unified. Hitler only got about 35% of the vote when elected into power, and only ended up in charge because the remaining 65% was fractured among 5 other parties. By contrast, there's typically only 1 opposition party in the US government, so they're much more able to act as a unified force to stop someone with that much of a fringe idea.

  --
  "Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin

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• [Germans in 1932] fractured among 5 other parties(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @11:40PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @11:40PM (#345428)

  Hitler only got about 35% of the vote

  Yup. 37.27 percent.
  Note also that over a quarter million voted None Of The Above or had their ballots rejected.

  Hitler [...] ended up in charge because the remaining 65% was fractured among 5 other parties

  Actually, the number of parties in the German election in July 1932 was **61**. [wikipedia.org]

  -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  Parent