>>> Continued from previous message   
      
   >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.   
      
   >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   
   >LL>other way superior to all Asian peoples.  In the Japanese   
   >LL>mind, there were three classes of people.  The highest   
   >LL>class was Japanese.  Below the Japanese were all other   
   >LL>Asian peoples.  The lowest class were whites.   
      
   BK>Which takes us back to what I said in the previous msg.   
      
   To the Japanese it was a race war.  To us it was about freedom   
   rather than race.  The Japanese were governed by a military   
   dictatorship, but it was their Emperor who they listened to,   
   and adored.   
      
   Had the Emperor chosen not to cry uncle to the Americans, the Japanese   
   people would have gone to their deaths rather than capitulate to their   
   conquerors.  Suicide was an honorable way to die, and the preferred   
   manner of death, for Japanese of that time.  As such, what would we have   
   won? Certainly not the hearts and minds of the Japanese, for there would   
   have been none to win the hearts and minds of.   
      
   >LL>During WWII, the only people in Asia/Oceania who actively   
   >LL>opposed the Japanese were Filipinos. And some of them were   
      
   BK>The Chinese fought all through the war.   
      
   The Chinese fought, but not very well.  The Chinese military preferred   
   to allow the people of China to starve rather than fight a real fight   
   against the advancing Japanese army.  The Allies, including the USA,   
   preferred to do nothing, as it was China's war, not ours, to fight.   
   So ask yourself how many Chinese died of starvation and malnutrition   
   before how brave and mighty the Chinese military was against the   
   Japanese.   
      
   >LL>place.  It should also be remembered that not all Japanese   
   >LL>soldiers were monsters, many of them finding such actions   
   >LL>so atrocious to the point of going AWOL.   
      
   BK>But a whole lotta them were.   
      
   I met an elderly Japanese man who had served in WWII.  While   
   in the Philippines, he and his unit participated in action against   
   American and Filipino soldiers.  Many civilians were victims during   
   the war, and some of the Japanese soldiers in his unit raped women   
   and children.  He was so sickened by what happened that he left   
   his unit, hiding in the hills for the duration of the war.  Rather   
   than return to Japan, he remained in the Philippines, married a   
   Philippine woman, and had children.  He named his daughter after   
   the child who was raped to the point of dying by his unit.   
      
   As a soldier, he did what he was told.  Following orders is   
   what soldiers do.  However, there are some things a soldier will   
   not do.  Regardless of what country that soldier is fighting for.   
   That Japanese soldier had a conscience.   
      
   Not all soldiers do bad things.  Only a handful.  But no soldier   
   from any country is exempt.  We like to think of American soldiers   
   as being good, and always good.  And yet American soldiers have   
   done some bad things, even terrible things, in the course of   
   their duties.  We look at Abu Ghraib and ask ourselves, who was   
   responsible?  Who will be held accountable?  We read about an   
   American soldier going nuts and murdering a dozen innocent people   
   in Afghanistan, asking ourselves those same questions.   
      
   To use such a broad brush in describing Japanese soldiers is   
   conceited and just plain wrong.  While it is true there are no   
   innocents in war, it is a complete falsehood that all soldiers   
   are good/evil.   
      
   The late Anthony Burgess probably said it best, defining a   
   clockwork orange as being someone who is totally evil or totally   
   good.  Except for Alex, there is no such thing.   
      
   >>> Continued to next message   
      
    * SLMR 2.1a * All hail the Higher Order!   
      
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    * Origin: Xaragmata / Adelaide SA telnet://xaragmata.mooo.com (3:800/432)