World War 2 was one of the bloodiest, violent and gruesome conflicts in world history, the memory of the holocaust to this very day is taught around the world as something that should never happen again and the nazis are shown as the scum that their command ranks and fanatical SS largely were. But if there is all this guilt and memory of the war crimes in europe why does the world not remember the atrocitys commited by Imperial Japan in the pacific theater? Almost from the start of the war civilians were slaughtered relentless totaling over 10 million slaughtered in China alone. The Fire Bombing of Nanking still lives as one of the largest strikes on a civilian target in history. Survivors were used as slave labor in camps with conditions that can only be described as hell on earth. Others were sent for use in medical experiements in manchuria, experiments for which saidistic is the mildest of descriptions. Live men and women were tied up on firing ranges and then shot at or had artillery shells fired upon them so army doctors could practice treating wounds and ammuntiion could be evalutated. Live disections were performed so that doctors could see the function of beating organs, Men were frozen to death so that cures for frostbite could be tested. Then came the POWs, US and Australian POWs were added in to the slave labor camps and completed tasks on time scales that were next to impossible. For example the famous train bridge on the river kwai was part of a US slave labor project in which they pushed a rail line through mountains and some of the roughest terrain in the world in 18 months on low food, the project should have taken 5 years.
On other islands the japanese didn't have work for the prisoners to do so torture and killing of POWs common in the slave labor camps was stepped up and then a idea was had and the Batan death march was started. The Batan death march went on for miles, if you couldn't walk any more you were shot, if you looked to strong and healthy someone would be along to beat you. and then the invasions came. When the US invaded the islands and killed the defending japanese they hurried to the POW camps hoping to free their brothers in arms, but instead they found only bodys mercilessly and methodically slaughtered by the japanese when the invasion of the island began.

Why does the world ignore this tragedy? why doesn't any one remember? why are the brave men who bled and died in japanese prisoner camps forgotten? and where the hell is their justice while I'm asking questions. All POWs in Europe recieved 20000 US dollers from the German goverment for their time in camps, in the pacific where treatment was worse? not even a penny. of the guilty war criminals only 3000 were convicted and only 900 of those were hung. an untried A class war criminal later became Prime Minister of japan, and a man who ate the liver of a downed air man was elected to parlament. And Emporer HiroHito? he went on a vicotrious word tour. A popular movie has relegated the bridge on the river kwai to a tourist spot.

so I ask you where the hell is the justice? and why does the world forget? why aren't these atrocites covered in schools as much as the holocaust is?

Dude...what the fuck are you even trying to say?

Um, were the Japs westerners?
There's your answer, DUH

Wow. That's some fucked up shit.

I've never heard about this before, but I've never taken a history class in my life so I don't know if that could be considered reflective of the country's educational system. My school sucks though, that's for sure.

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In Britain it is a topic widely known

that stuffs it, I'm moving to the UK

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As for Hirohito...the US left him in his position so as not to create a civilian backlash, he was revered as a god and to dipose of him would have undermined the US' ambitions.

and true enough but all the class A war criminals that not only got away but went in to public service? We lynched every SS who worked the camps we could get our hands on. These scumbags would have been considered inhumane by Himmler himself and yet they end up in parliment?

In Britain it is a topic widely known (although i can't speak for the current batch of high-schoolers). Especially in regards to the PoW camps occupied by British and American soldiers. The atrocities committed against China however are widely unknown about.

As for Hirohito...the US left him in his position so as not to create a civilian backlash, he was revered as a god and to dipose of him would have undermined the US' ambitions.

There's a museum I've been to in Fredricksburg, Texas that covers a lot of what went on in the Pacific Theater. I think it's a museum mainly in honor of Admiral Nimitz (it's his hometown), but I specifically remember sections regarding the torture of POWs.

So, it's not completely forgotten. It's just too horrific to talk about in our sanitary history classes. My history classes didn't even really go over the Holocaust that much, but then, we never spent that much time on WWII in general...

Your history teacher is lame.

Mine likes to go into the things that are more often over looked. Which makes it all more interesting

I pointed it out to my history teacher and she pretty much scoffed at me

This year in my US history class we actually covered this more than we did the holocaust.