35% of the Japanese public consider World War II to be a “Japanese war of aggression,” while 48% answered “I don’t know.”
https://shueisha.online/articles/-/258654?page=1
35% of the Japanese public consider World War II to be a “Japanese war of aggression,” while 48% answered “I don’t know.”
https://shueisha.online/articles/-/258654?page=1
10 Comments
Willful ignorance
Give them an award for whitewashing history
35%? Honestly kinda surprising. Thats like 30% higher than I would have expected…
I remember hearing on Twitter that the percentage of people who thought Japan was the aggressor in WWII went down. Failure of education
I wouldn’t say that WW2 was a war of Japanese aggression either. I think most would say Germany started it. Feels like the survey was designed to get the response they wanted.
This is just my supposition, but I imagine that for at least some of the respondents, they may not believe it is fair to label Japan as the aggressor because of the severe economic sanctions the US placed on Japan in the lead-up to the war. I’m not saying that is a reasonable position (after all, what was Japan doing in Korea and Manchuria for decades prior to Pearl Harbor?), but I have heard that argument. Essentially, there is a school of thought that says that the US forced Japan into the war.
Well WW2 was not a war of Japanese aggression. They just joined in as an add-on to the existing Sino-Japanese war. Shit had been going on since, what, 1930ish?
Oversimplification does no-one any favours.
Edit:「先の戦争を「日本の侵略戦争」と考えるか」is a poorly framed question IMO.
And *yes* I understand nuance and how the framing of historical events differs according “winners” and “losers” and countries involved.
Around when my gf and I first started dating, somehow the topic of Japan and Korea came up. I can’t recall the exact discussion point, but it was about Japanese aggression and how they brutalized Korea.
She flipped the fuck out and accused me of not understanding Japan and always being on Korea’s side. I was in complete shock that she didn’t know any of this stuff.
Few weeks later she came back and apologized after she had done her own research. Same thing happened when I discussed Japanese racism to her…she literally believed Japan didn’t have any racism because everyone is Japanese!
In her defense, she does a lot of her own research now and has learned a lot.
FYI in Japan, when we say idk it is a way to avoid difficult questions.
48% know it’s a war of aggression but are too scared to badmouth Japan
Seems like a buzz term, almost every US war in the past 75 years could be described as a war of aggression.