Was Japan in WW2 bad or good guys?
people told me this "Hollywood always makes war movies about Japan in World war 2 to make give message USA was good guys, and Japan was bad guys. They always give message that Japan did terrible things by movies,how about USA? they did so many bad things too,Japan and Germany lost, that is why,people look at them they are bad." Well I learned Japan and Germany were bad in WW2, but is it because I was learned to know Japan were bad because I am American and school is USA? on the other hand, school in Japan is opposite? students learned Japan was not bad,? because school is Japan, teachers are Japanese?I believe Japan was bad in WW2, but now I am confuse. USA was not bad, and Japan was bad? and hollywood movies make image of Japan(WW2) too much of evil?
History - 16 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
The Japanese were horribly brutal during WW2 especially to CHINA
2 :
bad guys They were killing off people in china. America then made trade embargos to limit what was going in (cutting off the oils supply), they snuck into Pearl Harbor and bombed it. There dictator months later said "I fear we have awoken a sleeping giant". And that is why the USA plays the role of world police now.
3 :
Japan fought against America in World War II and even dropped bombs on Pearl Harbor. However, this does not mean all Japanese were bad.
4 :
Japan was bad in WW2 the USA was only in WW2 because Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The US only attacked Japan for that reason otherwise the US would not of been in the war.
5 :
If you read Philippine History during WW2, there's no doubt they are the bad guys. My grandfathers are war veterans and they always told me how they suffered from the "Death March". Japanese soldiers are like barbarians during those days. Male, female, old or young, can't escape their brutality. They even throw babies in the air and let them fall and get impaled in their samurai.
6 :
all war politics aside, Japan was signing peace treaties with us at the same time they bombed Pearl Harbor. Which was a key movement to bringing the US into the war in the first place. I'd say that wasn't all that good of them. History lessons taught in school aren't all propaganda, I'd say most of what they teach you is true (of course, there are always a few exceptions).
7 :
They started the war with America in a cowardly way. They struck with out warning at Pearl Harbour. That fact alone has always made me veiw their role in WW2 as antagonistic and I guess, put simply as the bad guys. I'm not sure about the way things are taught in Japan though. I will say though that while I think of Japan as being the bad guys, I don't think that all the soliders were bad. Some of them would have been normal guys who didn't want to die for a crazy emporer but they had no choice. War is made by men in power who never have to go to the front lines, they pull the strings from their big offices and places of power and the ones who suffer are the ordinary civilians caught up in things the hand no hand in starting.
8 :
I think both sides were bad. Japan was very destructive to China. However, as far as the nuclear bombs go, that was unnecessary. Japan was preparing to surrender anyway. I live in Japan, and Japan's behaviour during WW2 is taught as being aggressive, expansionist, imperialistic and quite bad. However, as the war was long before most people in Japan were born, many Japanese are very tired of being told by China to keep apologizing about the war. It was a long time ago, time to move on. That is the general feeling. Japan has apologized officially many times. I can understand that. Today's Japan regrets the actions of the government at the time of WW2, but they aren't responsible for it. But the losers of a war are often considered to be the bad guys. Hollywood doesn't show both sides of the story, usually. The people of Japan were good during WW2. If anyone is to blame, it's the government and military.
9 :
how about two drunken bad guys fighting ? but jap might have taken much.
10 :
Bad.
11 :
depends if you support the natzi cause or not
12 :
Japan was member of the Axis Powers which included Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Defiantly one of the bad guys. Japan's behavior in China and Indochina makes the Nazis look a bunch of harmless monks. Read about the Bataan Death Match. Also read about "The Bridge over the River Kwai" although a novel it is based on real events and is very accurate in the Japanese treatment of Allied prisoners.
13 :
The Japanese repudiated* all war after their defeat, and to this day will tell you that their wartime governement was corrupt. So they acknowledge that they were the bad guys of WW II. Of course, they were occupied by the US Army, and General Douglas MacArthur was their Governor of Occupation, so they had to say and do whatever he said.
14 :
The Germans and the Japanese both committed acts of great cruelty during the war. The chinese still feel very strongly about the Rape of Nanking for example, where I believe something like 200,000 chinese were slaughtered, and there mass rapes and torture and all sorts of unpleasantness. And prisoners of the Japanese during WW2 (which included far more British, Australians, Dutch, and Indians than Americans) were treated with extreme cruelty, and thousands died. The Germans slaughtered millions, by torturing, starving, beating, gassing, shooting etc. If you have ever seen pictures of concentration camps you will realize how truly horrible the Nazi regime was. There were probably plenty of ordinary Japanese people during WW2 who did nothing bad. But the Japanese army was extremely cruel in its treatment of its prisoners. And certainly in Germany, there were plenty of civilians who joined in the persecution of the Jews and other victims of the Nazis with great enthusiasm. I realize you are an American, but try to take in the fact that a great many more countries were involved in WW2 than just American, Japan and Germany.
15 :
First off; Hollywood, with both movies and TV, has entertained us for decades but also has done a great disservice by the way they portray most things untruthfully. They are not in the truth business and if some movie or show happens to entertain and tell the truth once in awhile then all the better. But that doesn't happen that often. Most movies and TV shows are not the way reality is. As far as Japan and WWII; yes they were the bad guys and we were the good guys. Japan attacked China and committed atrocities. Then they attacked the US at Pearl Harbor. Germany attacked nations in Europe and committed unimaginable atrocities. WWII was about as close to a black and white situation as you can get.
16 :
I am yet to see a Hollywood film that truly portrays how bad the Japanese army were. Thats probably because if such a film was made, it would be too sick to get certification. http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-12-2005-67025.asp Its not even as if the crimes against humanity were commited by a hard core of the Japanese Army, they were commited by regulars. I'm not exactly sure of the reasons Japan went to war. Maybe they were justifiable from their viewpoint, but it was the conduct of the war, and the barbarous treatment of civilians and POW's that many still struggle to forgive. http://www.users.bigpond.com/battleforAustralia/JapWarCrimes/OverviewJapWarCrimes.html
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