Thursday, April 25, 2013
We all know that all of the axis powers were tried for war crimes at the end of WWII but none of the allies. The allies have also committed many war crimes. The US did some terrible things in Japan. This isn't including the nukes dropped on Nagasaki or Hiroshima. I am referring to all the instances of slaughter of Japanese people who surrendered. Usually US soldiers would kill them whether they surrendered or not which is a major war crime as well as the mutilation of corpses from the aftermath of the battles between the US and Japan(Battle of Guadalcanal). It was reported that 60% of the dead Japanese soldiers were missing skulls. This is a war crime as denoted in The 1907 Hague Convention and the Geneva Conventions. Do you think that the war crimes the allies committed were justifiable in any way? Also do you think that it is fair for war crime trials to be held under the London Charter(the thing that only persecuted axis powers)? Why do you think we tend to ignore these things?
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OH MY WALL OF TEXT
ReplyDeleteThe quote "History is written by the victors" definitely holds true in this situation. Everyone does horrible things, and humans try to keep themselves ignorant to the fact that what they believe in is committing these crimes as well. People have always looked for a clear black and white image, and ignoring the atrocities committed by one side clears away the grey area between good and evil.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fantastic question though. My grandfather was at the Battle of Guadalcanal so my basis is not entirely third hand sources. NO! I definitely think the Allies were let off the hook. The US soldiers played games with Japs that were stranded by shooting their appendages off slowly one by one. Soviets raped 1.5 million German women. The Allies went overboard in my opinion. We ignore them of course because we all the the general impression that the US is the greatest! It really frustrates me. However, let us not forget the rape of Nanking and the eradication of races by Nazis.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Derian. This is a perfect example of how history was written by the winners. We tend to ignore these things because we always hope the people who win the wars are the good and morally righteous side. It's overlooked as a cost of war or accepted because it's wartime, but that doesn't make it right. None of these war crimes were justifiable, but it would be considered the lesser of 2 evils, and since it's not as extreme as what the Japanese or the Germans did, it doesn't matter.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Derian, too. The crimes in the war can never be justified. When Japan invaded China, China was in civil war. Communism won the war after all. But every Chinese was told by teachers that Nationalists are bad, they tried to dominate China with absolute power, which was not true. In the war against Japan, Nationalists did more than Communists. Well, the winner wrote the history. In the same case, the victors tried to tell people how great they were. And people never knew what crimes they committed to others, or how cruel once they were.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone (Derian, Andrew & Lanlan)! WE have talked about this in WC2 and maybe in WC1 about how history is written by the winners. The winners are mostly perceived as right, courageous & (for the most part) morally correct. We (the winners ) also compare what we did to people/countries who did worse things. By justifying our actions towards Japan by saying that we are protecting the people and our nation, it seems like it might be the right thing to do to protect us, the people who are morally correct, and ultimately superior. We also compare ourselves to Hitler and saying what he did was much worse than what we did, making it seem not so bad.
ReplyDeleteHistory is definitely written by the winners,but I also believe that history is spun differently depending on where you live. I'm sure in Japan they ignore the Rape of Nanking and focus on the bad deeds of the allies, such as the nuclear bombs. I think it is nearly impossible to tell history in an unbiased way. Our national identity, as well as personal experiences, shape how we view history. I find this a very interesting discussion. When I think about American history, I look at almost every war and think to myself "Thank goodness the good guys won" (ie. the revolutionary war, the civil war, ww2). I realize now that it might be because of how history has been presented to us in the country. We focus on the wars that we won and events in which we were "morally justified." We focus less on events that make us look bad. I certainly believe the allies committed moral crimes in WWII; it is impossible to find anyone who was completely justified in their actions in such a horrible war like WWII.
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