Sorry about the downvotes. I’ve found Lemmy to be weirdly territorial like reddit, despite having only a few 10k users. There’s not enough content to push everything into hyper specific silos. I feel you. Also, thanks. I had some weird permissions issue on my Ubuntu gaming rig with Firefox snap and installing the .deb resolved my issue. Ignore the haters-- I found this post useful.
Yeah, the panel that stuck with me most was that the US had been escalating sanctions against Japan for their 3 decade long occupation of Manchuria and invasion of Indochina. Admittedly, there were certainly valid complaints against Western imperialism and racism, but the panel said
The United States with its biggest potential influence was hamstrung by isolationism. From 1935 to 1937, Congress passed three “Neutrality Acts”. President Roosevelt, deeply concerned with developments in Europe and Asia, gave the “quarantine speech” on October 5, 1937, in which he urged that it was necessary to deal with international “lawlessness,” implicitly criticizing Japan. The public opinion and Congress gradually supported strengthening sanctions against Japan, such as the abrogation of the U.S.-Japan Trade and Navigation Treaty and finally the oil-embargo, which triggered the war.
which is a bizarre way to justify Pearl Harbor.
That’s gross, and I didn’t know that. That’s certainly not something I saw at the Holocaust memorial or in Dachau. It’s widely reported, however, that German schooling teaches the Holocaust thouroughly while Japan ignores the Asian Holocaust entirely. I can’t speak for the German tank museum in particular, but every museum I’ve been to in Germany made it clear that the 1928-1945 period of German History was unequivocally evil.
The article I linked in the OP mentions how this has caused persistent political divisions between Japan and it’s formerly occupied neighbors.
I thought more about this and realized the Us presents the Enola Gay without context and that’s gross too.. Though the US does have museums on the genocide of Native Americans, Japanese internment camps during world war 2, a national slavery museum and memorial, and there’s been a lot of public controversy around racist statues, so that also feels categorically different than enshrining war criminals as saints in your imperial shrine.
read the other replies and maybe click the link
No, no. This museum failed to mention the millions of people killed by the Japanese Imperial army at all and blamed the war entirely on Western involvement in Japan. It even claims that Japanese troops were welcomed in Nanking. Famously, the rest of the world calls it something very different.
Seriously, just read the linked article. This isn’t a memorial to the victims of war. It glorifies atrocities and rewrites history.
Germany doesn’t have Panzers presented as a cool memorial. This image is taken at the shrine, which also has a museum. Half of the museum is a shrine to people who fought for Japan in World War 2 and many of those people are recognized war criminals.
To me, at least, starting off the museum with a refurbished plane that was used to commit war crimes was, in itself, shocking. Also the gift shop was, uhhhhh…
Like, can you imagine the same in Germany? Little Nazi flags for the kids?
I’d show you pictures of the sketchy exhibits but you’re not allowed to take photos in them.
Oh. My bad. Every post I have submitted here violates that then. I apologize.
This is a shrine to (among others) recognized war criminals