...   
       
      
    LL> That is the Jewish version.  The Japanese version is much different.   
    LL> In short, Japan invaded China in order to free the Chinese from   
    LL> oppression.    
      
   Uhh, I think the Chinese have a little different take on that. :)   
      
    For the Japanese, freeing Asians from the yoke of white   
    LL> colonialism was their calling.  People in the West fail to understand   
    LL> the Japanese mind, as their culture is too different to comprehend.   
    LL> For example, the phrase "comfort girls" is not what you think ...   
      
   Well, unless you have a definition that means something beside prostitute,   
   often forced. Then you're right -it's different than what I think.    
   Korea us still trying to get Japan to pay for those women forced into comfort   
   girls for their troops.   
      
    BB>Well, now ya gotta conflict as the Japanese feel that's   
    BB>their role - the chosen ones. :)  So bottom line is no Jews   
    BB>were rounded up.   
      
    LL> Only because the Jews had no "comfort girls" to offer.   
      
   Point I'll have to ponder a bit.  It could be, but I'm not sure, that only   
   other Asians were forced into comfort girl status.  Never gave it thought   
   before, but my gut feeling is others were rounded up.   
      
    BB>End result is yes, Jewish lives were saved, but there was an   
    BB>underlying reason and it's not just humanitarian as much as a   
    BB>thumb in the Nazi eye. :)   
      
    LL> It is more than that.   
      
    LL> The Japanese consider themselves as being the "white race of   
    LL> the Orient."  Culturally, intellectually, and in every other way   
    LL> superior to all Asian peoples.  In the Japanese mind, there were   
    LL> three classes of people.  The highest class was Japanese.  Below   
    LL> the Japanese were all other Asian peoples.  The lowest class were   
    LL> whites.   
      
   Not sure they feel a lot different today.   
      
    LL> During WWII, the only people in Asia/Oceania who actively opposed   
    LL> the Japanese were Filipinos. And some of them were switch hitters,   
    LL> changing sides depending on the light of day (or night).  The only   
    LL> reason I can think of as to why many Filipinos chose to side with   
    LL> Americans was because FDR had promised independence for them once   
    LL> the war was over.  Harry Truman kept that promise (FDR had died   
    LL> in office prior to the end of the war) knowing what the alternative   
    LL> would have been, as Filipinos were prepared to take to the hills.   
      
    LL> There is more that can be said about the Japanese during that   
    LL> period.  But that was a different time, a different place.  It   
    LL> should also be remembered that not all Japanese soldiers were   
    LL> monsters, many of them finding such actions so atrocious to the   
    LL> point of going AWOL.   
      
   Yes, a few - but they were the exception and pretty rare.   
      
    LL> We like to paint Nazis as being evil monsters, the same as   
    LL> we like to paint Japanese of that time as being evil monsters.   
    LL> However, American soldiers also did much the same thing, raping   
    LL> women and killing prisoners, along with taking "souvenirs" of   
    LL> gold teeth, etc., back home.   
      
    LL> War is hell, and nothing to be proud of.  No people should be   
    LL> ostracized because of past events, or because of a military gone   
    LL> wild.   
      
    Germany has worked very hard to make ammends for their conduct during WWII.    
   Japan very little, if at all.  In fact they still make a big deal out of that   
   war shrine that has convicted war crime criminals on it. (One is the guy who   
   ran camp 731.)   
      
      
      
       
   --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49   
    * Origin: Fidonet Since 1991 Join Us: www.DocsPlace.org (1:123/140)