Germans: How many of you are still being punished for WWII (second Great War)?
I know there were plenty of atrocities committed by the Nazi's during the war, but the Nazis were a group, not Germans. I saw a few Nazis were Danish as well. Movies like Schinder's List, Saving Private Ryan, and so forth are important, but being that films about other war crimes through history are few and far between in comparison, I feel Germans in general are harassed from this. I have some German in me, and as such the connotation of Nazi, and German is the same as (n-word) and black, or poor white and trailer trash. Any others with German ancestry, or sympathetic to us feel this way
Why do many English people hate Germany?
It sounds like you’ve had an awful experience there.What is common in England is people making jokes in and around the topic of World War 2.You’ll also never find yourself more than a few minutes from a “2 World Wars and 1 World Cup” joke if you’re talking about football or something competitive.A lot of the time that is in jest (be that right or wrong) in that same way that many English people are somewhat cutthroat about other English people. Like the bitter rivalries between Football teams and so on.But I can honestly say that I’ve never felt any hate towards Germans. I even live in Germany with my German girlfriend.In many ways I’m jealous of Germany: you have better transport, football, cost of living, beer, IKEA prices. Your language is even more beautiful in many ways.What I feel you may have come across is some angry far right-wing people who, at time of writing, are incredibly empowered by what’s happening regarding Europe.But, a lot of people are often brought up with the association that Germany was bad. After you’re 14 most history taught is about WW1 and WW2. Films and Televison often depict what happened from the side of the English or Americans.That creates quite a negative association with the country itself.I remember being in school and a girl moved to Germany for a few months. When she came back she was slated for living there based off what people had learnt, and what their parents/grandparents had told them.I’d say that, on the whole, people don’t have a problem with Germans. I’ve never met any resistance to my girlfriend, or me moving out here.
How are WWI and WWII taught in Japan?
The governments of Japan feel that it is not good to teach the new generations of the guilt of their forefathers. They don`t want their kids to feel sorry for the past. WWII, or as it is commonly called in Japan, "The Pacific War", is glossed over. The Rape of Nanking(1937) is still disputed by "historical" experts(read:propaganda). 200,000, possibly 300,000 people, mostly old men, women and children were murdered, face-to-face (how strong must racism be, to do that? Even Dresden was done at the push of buttons, on faceless victims) in a period of 3 weeks, some days worse than others. Japanese government officials like to say they only attacked Chinese army irregulars, and only killed maybe 30,000. The "Exploits" of their armies throughout Asia during the war, is described as a great unifying project, building roads, schools, hospitals (for the Japanese army and settlers) throughout Asia, under a great, kind. Asian Co-prosperity Sphere. In reality, this was the euphemism for murder and enslavement of the various peoples of captured lands, while their secret police went about murdering all local opposition and forcing people to study Japanese, in order to make better slaves. The Japanese know nothing of the concentration camps in Singapore, the Phillipines or China. WWII to most Japanese appears to be: "We were spreading our good fortunes and kindness to the rest of Asia, liberating them from the bad old Europeans, when the US came along and dropped Atomic bombs on us, making Japan the only victims of the "Pacific War". What Japanese history lessons leave out - BBC News