[Newsbot]

Title: Japanese emperor plans Ottawa visit
Category: World
Posted By: Hyack
Date: 2009-06-14 23:28:58
Canadian

[bootlegga]

I wonder if vets will show up to snub him like they have done to the Japanese ambassador in the past.

[ridenrain]

I'm not going to bitch at vets. I'd bitch at the young, rabid loonies who fought for nothing and believe nothing other than the ideas their controllers put in their heads.

[Gunnair]

Similar to the same young rabid loonies who had previously fought for nothing other than the ideas their controller put in their heads that flocked to the first and second world wars.

Man, you are really out of it sometimes...

Gotta suck to be that bitter and cynical.

[ridenrain]

Thta's not music.. that's noise.. and get the hell off my lanwn.

You got a problem with vets protesting the emperor or Japan or are you just trolling?

[ShepherdsDog]

bootlegga bootlegga:

I wonder if vets will show up to snub him like they have done to the Japanese ambassador in the past.

Why? He was 12 years old at the end of the war and never served in Japan's military. If anything, Japan was the lesser of two evils when compared with Germany's war crimes.

[ridenrain]

Should I just expect you to tag along and dog my heels from now on?

[ShepherdsDog]

maybe

[Arctic_Menace]

Warmth and importance of the relationship between our two countries? That's why it's been 56 years since the last visit.

[commanderkai]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

If anything, Japan was the lesser of two evils when compared with Germany's war crimes.

Eh...actually I'd consider the Japanese to be the greater of the two evils. The Nazis were bad, no doubt (especially against Soviets and Jews) but the Japanese, especially when you factor in the treatment of POWs and their actions in Korea and China, were just as evil.

[ShepherdsDog]

Slavs, Jews , Gypsies, anyone with a genetic defect, physically or mentally disabled, political dissidents, religious minorities, pacifists, socialists, democrats and liberals were all on their list for extermination.

The Japanese , other than creating an economic hegemony and ruling the the nations close to them, had no intention of exterminating groups based on ethnicity. In fact, the japanese sheltered Jews during WW II. As for the way they treated subjugated peoples and POWs, they were no less and no more cruel than other neighbouring east Asian cultures, including the Koreans and Chinese.

[commanderkai]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Slavs, Jews , Gypsies, anyone with a genetic defect, physically or mentally disabled, political dissidents, religious minorities, pacifists, socialists, democrats and liberals were all on their list for extermination.

Agreed. However...

$1:

The Japanese , other than creating an economic hegemony and ruling the the nations close to them, had no intention of exterminating groups based on ethnicity. In fact, the japanese sheltered Jews during WW II.

Yes I know they did, but that still doesn't change below...

$1:

As for the way they treated subjugated peoples and POWs, they were no less and no more cruel than other neighbouring east Asian cultures, including the Koreans and Chinese.

The thing is, any soldier knew it was better to be a prisoner to the Germans than to the Japanese. The way they treated their prisoners and subjugated peoples was extremely cruel, and even if the Koreans or the Chinese weren't any better (the Soviets weren't exactly kind to their dissidents or minorities either), from a purely Western military perspective, soldiers and POWs despised the Japanese for their treatment, and I don't blame them.

[ridenrain]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

maybe

.. actually that was aimed at Gunnair, who posted then removed a line that got between us. You can call off the pretty doggies.

[Gunnair]

ridenrain ridenrain:

Should I just expect you to tag along and dog my heels from now on?

Only when you're in the way...

[bootlegga]

ridenrain ridenrain:

I'm not going to bitch at vets. I'd bitch at the young, rabid loonies who fought for nothing and believe nothing other than the ideas their controllers put in their heads.

Neither would I. Given Japan's refusal to apologize for the atorcious treatment of POWs, I'd say they are justified in such a reaction.

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Why? He was 12 years old at the end of the war and never served in Japan's military. If anything, Japan was the lesser of two evils when compared with Germany's war crimes.

Japan may not have been as brutal and genocidal as the Nazis (although many Chinese would argue differently), that does not excuse the atrocities they did take part in, such as POW treatment, sex slavery, Unit 731, etc.

If former POWs wish to turn their back on the Japanese ambassador (as has happened in the past) or the Japanese emperor during his visit, as a way of expressing their views on POW treatment, that is their right.