09-13-2008, 07:28 PM
I have two questions that I would like some opinions on.
1. Who had a greater involvement in atrocities in WW2? Yes we all know that the Germans killed more people. Millions of Jews, Eastern Europeans, and anyone else who the Nazis did not like were rounded up and exterminated. This was done though in a efficient system where a vast majority of the murders were done in the Death Camps. On the other hand the atrocities of the Japanese in WW2 were done by and large by the common soldier. With this in mind while the Germans killed more people I would be willing to surmise that the average Japanese person is much more likely to personally know or be related closely to a member of the Japanese military who in WW2 butchered people than the average German citizen.
Do you think this is a fair assessment? It is important to me because to throw out random numbers lets say that 2% of all Germans can point to someone in their family tree who was working at a Death Camp while 20% of all Japanese can point to someone in their family tree who raped, murdered at Nanking or someone else this would result in the Japanese as a whole being much more afraid of accepting what happened.
2. How does anyone here think the Romans who were not above exterminating every living soul in a city that resisted them would feel if they were there to witness Nanking? Would it be something that they accepted as a practice of war? Or would the event even turn the stomach of Romans who saw the actions of the Japanese as going too far even by Roman standards? My personal take is that even hardened Roman legionaries would be repelled by the brutal rape/torture/mutilation that happened in Nanking.
Opinions?
1. Who had a greater involvement in atrocities in WW2? Yes we all know that the Germans killed more people. Millions of Jews, Eastern Europeans, and anyone else who the Nazis did not like were rounded up and exterminated. This was done though in a efficient system where a vast majority of the murders were done in the Death Camps. On the other hand the atrocities of the Japanese in WW2 were done by and large by the common soldier. With this in mind while the Germans killed more people I would be willing to surmise that the average Japanese person is much more likely to personally know or be related closely to a member of the Japanese military who in WW2 butchered people than the average German citizen.
Do you think this is a fair assessment? It is important to me because to throw out random numbers lets say that 2% of all Germans can point to someone in their family tree who was working at a Death Camp while 20% of all Japanese can point to someone in their family tree who raped, murdered at Nanking or someone else this would result in the Japanese as a whole being much more afraid of accepting what happened.
2. How does anyone here think the Romans who were not above exterminating every living soul in a city that resisted them would feel if they were there to witness Nanking? Would it be something that they accepted as a practice of war? Or would the event even turn the stomach of Romans who saw the actions of the Japanese as going too far even by Roman standards? My personal take is that even hardened Roman legionaries would be repelled by the brutal rape/torture/mutilation that happened in Nanking.
Opinions?
Timothy Hanna
