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 arm 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 Hiro Hito? he went on a vicotrious word tour. A populer 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?

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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?

Good question. They dont even teach the holocaust correctly. 20 years from now, people will think only Jews suffered during the holocaust. They teach hitler as the worst man in history who was responsible for killing 12 million in the camps. They seem to ignore Stalin who killed more than 20 million throughout his reign of terror.

History should be studied so that the people of the world know never to let it happen again in the future, especially something as awful as the Holocaust or WWII in general

I'm not sure why I said intelligence instead of history.

The quote should have been, "Why? Because if you're somehow doomed to repeat history because you don't study it, you'll just repeat the part of the guy who did study it instead." My mistake.

Those who fail to remember their past, may repeat their precendents past. With that said, they may not. How so? Pure, random, out-of-the-blue, dumb luck.

What is this, you might ask? Well, it's basically when events that seem random, occur.

Oh snap! That can't happen!
I mean, events we can hardly predict never occur.

Oh, and not to mention, people might not even study the past. They might just see something as pure bullshit, and just avoid it all together.

As for your questions Riskbreaker, what was the purpose of asking those questions? Why did you ask them? What is the purpose of having the average citizen knowing this information? What would be the purpose of going over every gorey detail?

Perhaps this is true. But then, do the finer points of history matter? Or just the lessons, as I said earlier?

history is vital to understanding where we are from so we know where we are going, to look at a map and see the middleast laid out is one thing, but to truly understand it, and its problems is to look to history. It is the same all over the world. History must be taught, understood and comprehended for many many reasons. Studying why certain people act as they do, howtheir cultures affected their modern society, why did germany end up as a fascist state? why is iraq in the sectarian problems it is? how did the roman empire produce a system of law which is prevelent in all modern law systems today? the questions could go on.

Indeed, why study history at all? I mean, it's great to know the facts, but it has little bearing on life today. History is not important. The lessons it taught us are. For instance, what does it matter when Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany or when he died or how? It matters that he took complete control of his country and used that power to conquer most of Europe and destroy millions of "undesirables," including Jews.

The lesson to be learned from that is to keep governmental power to a minimum, so leaders can't get complete control and do what they wish. Other than that, the facts don't much matter. It doesn't matter who took control of what country and killed what group of people. It just matters that such things should never be allowed to happen again.

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What would be the point in remembering it?

If that's your stance what's the point of studying history at all? why do we need to know how our nation was founded and all the wars we've gone through to get to where we are today? why should we remember the heros and all the sacrifices they have made? and the holocaust? it's so depressing why should we remember that? all of that I just listed is over and done with to and yet we still remember and study it (and with some historians argue about it's validty) to this very day

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Why? Because if you're somehow doomed to repeat intelligence because you don't study it, you'll just repeat the part of the guy who did study it instead.

Reading comprehension is not your strong suit is it? the quote says "Those who fail to remember their past are doomed to repeat their precedents mistakes" Studying intelligence carefully is not a mistake, misinterpreting that intell however...

Yeah, that whole, "Fail to study the past thing".
Yeah. It's not really the best arguement.
Why? Because if you're somehow doomed to repeat intelligence because you don't study it, you'll just repeat the part of the guy who did study it instead.

I'm not saying it should be thrown in the Rubbish Bin of history, it's just that it's over now.
It's done.
What would be the point in remembering it?

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There aren't a ton of holocaust survivors around either and yet I hear about it all the time

true...

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But the fact is, they are done. They are over. It's finished.

What would be the point of remembering it in such gruesome detail?

Those who fail to remember their past are doomed to repeat their precedents mistakes.

And we remember the holocaust of europe in a level of detail that makes my little report seem like a paragraph prequil, why then sould a tragedy of similer scope and magnitude be relegated to the rubbish bin of history?

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I assume that you know a family member who was caught up in this tragedy

My grandfather was a Marine in the pacific he was never a POW though, I am simply a historian who doesn't want the sacrifices of brave me to be covered up or forgotten (think there isn't a cover up? read up on "the bridge on the river kwai"

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There are not as many WWII vets around today as there were in 1950, that's why...

There aren't a ton of holocaust survivors around either and yet I hear about it all the time

There are not as many WWII vets around today as there were in 1950, that's why...

Because it's all done and over.
They don't see the horrors of what the Roman legions were forced to endure, nor do they see the pathetic lives of those who served on the ships of the Athenians. Where are the tears of the bloodshed over the Civil War, or the American Revolution? Where are the monuments to the 100 years war? Where is the crying for Stalin's reign?

It's over, and it's done. The US and Western powers have learned from these mistakes, and they are slowly awakening. They have simply become apathetic to the cause. Why should we be forced to remember all of these atrocities of war? How would it be in any way beneficial to educate the common man of these so-called atrocities? To simply terrify them of what has happened, in the hope they'll figure out not to do it again?

What would be preferable? Us to forget about it, or rabble in harmonious glory, about what such a great conflict was? The fact is, it's fading from the minds of children, as it should be. They'll have more stuff to deal with later. World War II may not be the last war, nor may it be the bloodiest. Humanity is slowly learning, but we're on the verge of tipping ourselves over to the edge of a complete massacre. We've got nukes now, and if someone uses them, World War II will become a distant memory.

I am not saying that these feats should be played down. No. They were horrible constructs of what man could make, and those who survived should be honored. But the fact is, they are done. They are over. It's finished.

What would be the point of remembering it in such gruesome detail?

You express in poignant detail the horrors that occurred in Asia and the far east. I assume that you know a family member who was caught up in this tragedy? My father fought in 3 theatres of war in that dreadful conflict, in North Africa against the Afrika Korps, in Burma against the Japanese and lastly took part in the Normandy invasion, storming ashore on Gold Beach back in 1944. Yes I agree with you the world has largely forgotten the horrors of the past but I think it is hard to remember those when faced with the new horrors of today such as the intent of the Islamic terrorists to bend the world to their faith, by force if necesary and by whatever means available to them. It's still a scary time to be alive.

truth risk, video games are becoming more and more realistic and as the graphics improve the stories do as well and many of the current generation of WW2 games have stories that are at the very least rooted in historical fact if not entirely history. Personally I love the idea of teaching people with out them knowing about it through video games and the like, it's a good thing.

Its teaching is almost minimal here in a formal sense, we spend much more time learning about the romans and the industrial revolution. However through popular interest people know most of the issues, tv documentaries, stories and books on ww2 are very popular, i also think computer games are teaching the newsest generation most on the topic!

I envy your world history education then breaker it's almost never mentioned in class and isn't really in the books as I said

In britain non of this is forgotten, but perhaps that is because the war impacted us much more than the US.

I agree amp. But this world has no justice. It simply doesnt care. =/