The Japanese rightist

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Whitewashing history ? ---- truth of alleged Nanjing massacre

Let's see how Japanese get rightish.
It is known that Nanjing (Nanking) massacre was caused in 1937 with 200,000-300,000 victims in Nanjing by Japanese imperial military. But do you know that it has still been seriously discussed in Japan? These days, there published increasing number of books claiming that Chinese communism party made up most of the pics to make the incident to look brutal.

Those books seem to come up recently. Up until ten years ago, rarely did I see those books. Only did I see some books, which are written in Japanese, describing just how tragic Nanjing massacre was. Most of the books simply investigated brutality of the Japanese crime.

I ran a search in amazon.co.jp for the books published about Nanjing massacre, finding 176 kinds of copies obtainable online. It's an enormous number.






Surprisingly, only one book out of best sold 10 books considers it positive about the existence, while the rest of 9 are likely to be negative or trivializing it. One of the nine is even titled , "We investigated Iris Chang's book and found the manipulation of information by Chinese communism." (More search on 30 copies revealed that: 5 copies favor the claim by Chinese communists and the other 25 copies cast doubt about it.)

*Don't judge me. Don't judge people. Don't prohibit discussion.*
May be Chinese communism made up pics. May be not. I don't know. But we'll keep an eye on whether Japanese people just want to whitewash the history. Anyway, what I can say about it is that Japan is a democratic country. Let them publish whatever they want, and they'll know what should be believed. Whichever the Japanese conclusion is going to be, I'll respect the general opinions after open discussions rather than the conclusion by a dictated country. There's a scholar who strongly protests Chinese claims and you'll see his book later on in this article. I searched web pages with his name, and what I found at the top in google was a critic site, written in Japanese, about his methodology. Criticism exist everywhere even against revisionists. Japanese ultra-rightwingers are of course subject to being under inspection.

Just as Japan, China must give citizens the right of speech and make them dispute. Otherwise, people lose chance to correct their wrong idea. They were taught that Chinese communism made Japan surrender. Huh? Not China. America did! And the people still believe that. (Recently I got news about CCP admit to accepting the fact, though.) How can they know if they can't access some webpages because of strict censorship.

The big difference is the freedom of speech. Notice that those rightists in Japan finally emerged after 50-year open discussion!





I've got the controversial book!


Look what I got! This is the best seller in Japan on the Nanjing's investigation. Since I'm living far from Japan, I ordered one copy from amazon. The book examines 143 pictures that are supposed to be the evidence of Nanjing Massacre, and explains how those pics are made up by Chinese Communists. The title says "Analyzing the photographic evidence of Nanking massacre."

I'll spend several weeks to read and introduce some of them to you.
I already read some of this, and found it interesting, although I don't think all of his claims are acceptable.

The main point I want to emphasize in this section is the gap of emotions between American and Japanese. Look at the picture below.

This pic was taken just after Nanjing was captured by Japan in Dec. 24th 1937. Tokyo Asahi Newspaper highly publicized the victory of Japan with this pic in which kids are flocking to pick up sweets from Japanese military. The author sets out his investigation of pics with this "TRUE" pic, saying "why would they come out and pick up? Weren't they too intimidated to do it by brutal Japanese military?"


Another pic above is from Dec.17th, so several days after fall of Nanjing. The civilains look very happy together with Japanese soldiers. How can it be possible? I thought that this is totally propaganda from Japanese side. They may have hided dark side of Nanjing and propagated exclusively those superfacial joyous scenes. However, I came to another fact after investigation that Japanese troops were well acquainted with how Kuomintang (Chinese) had been snooping aroud to propagate Japan's brutality. The picture was taken to let the world acknowledge that Japan behaved well. Believe it or not, it was information war taken place already 70 years ago!


I refrain from stating what Japan really did in Nanjing in 1937, but let me tell you something. These are the pics Japanese people saw in 1937, believing that Japanese troops behaved well. On the other hand, Americans saw whole other pics from LIFE with brutal scenes possibly caused by Japan. I think this is what we have to regret very much: looking at history in such different ways. Wars are created that way.

Here's a link to my second article on Nanjing: (2)


Monday, January 23, 2006

Livedoor, Yakuza, and politicians

Actually I didn't want to hit this news because I am not bright in this Mafia stuff. Many of you, if you are a Japanese watcher, may have seen an internet portal, Livedoor, got raid lastweek, and the president was under arrest yesterday.

The opinions inside Japan have two main streams. As far as I know, it's just a battle between existing power (but corrupted) and the new power (but dirty about money). Since there's no pure justice, it's not so easy to stand for either one.

Although the arrest of Horie, CEO of Livedoor, is nothing but a welcome news, I don't think it will lead to a full settlement; a number two of Livedoor was killed in Okinawa. The mass media look it as a "suicide", but he killed himself by cutting his both rists, abdomen, and neck. How can you think of it as a suicide? Many bloggers including me have been discussing his enigmatic death, and got information from someone that the company has close relation with Yakuza. Kikko's blog, which has a million readers since it has nicked a number of those mysteries so far, points out the close relation of Yakuza and Abe, the promising next prime minister, in this Livedoor incident, and the blog asserts that the truth is never going to emerge.
I' m not sure about the relation with the next prime minister, but I agree with the blog about Yakuza. Since the number two was brutally killed, what kind of CEO would be willing to make a confesssion about illegal connection with Yakuza ?


The stocks has been falling down to 176 yen as of today, and heavy sellings are still awaiting. The stupid thing is that a stock from Livedoor is like fifty bucks, so naive housewives or even students can afford to some. The shock of the drastic drop hit those bigginers. BTW I was safe, holding 6 other brands.

What I don't like about him is that he is too leftish. The other day he mentioned that he didn't want to keep emperor system. The news section of Livedoor homepage is full of news provided by Japanese communism.



I'll add some more comments about his arrest.


Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Yasukuni shrine and Princess Mononoke


It is still controversial that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi keeps visiting Yasukuni Shrine. It's obvious that it draws protests from China and South Korea, but the purpose of his stubbornness is not understandable. You may wonder there's something more, so let me discuss two points from now.

1. What makes people support him? newspapers or TV? Neither do they!
Knowing his visit in Oct. 2005, Japanese mass media took it up as a big headline, broadcasted it as a live news, interrupting normal TV programs. On the contrary to your guess, Japan's mass media are VERY concerned that Koizumi visited the shrine.

Looks like almost all of the TVs and newspapers are the one who attempt to undermine Koizumi, except Sankei group. Most of the mass media are supported by companies venturing into China, and we have too many pacifists and Marxists in mass media. Obviously they don't like having a conflict with China.

It's a typical tug-of-war between Japanese press and silent majority.


2. The historical positioning of shrines
A friend of mine at work told me that major Chinese newspapers write the shrine as a war shrine and it worships the war criminals. I wasn't surprised that Chinese media is not mature as well as Japan's, being one-sided tone. I want to trace the historical positioning of shrines and try to explain why they honor the war criminals.


Did you ever watch "Princess Mononoke"? It is one of famous Japanese animes, and you can rent it every video rental shops. The reason I bring it up is you can see the mentality of Japanese people in that movie and it can be strongly related to the Yasukuni Shrine. For those who don't know the gist, I'll briefly follow it here. It's from a very old time when people lived along the nature, Princess Mononoke vowed revenge against human being for the destruction of the nature. At the beginning, a big boar became demoniac and assaulted a village for his injury by guns. The village people killed the boar, and one suggested that they commemorate the boar.

This is what I want to focus on; the way of the typical Japanese is that they can't help commemorate someone who died with anger or sorrow. This is simply because they fear the curse from the dead spirit on the live people. Dazaifu Tenmangu in Fukuoka is one of the typical shrines that were build for such a reason. So was Goryo Shrine near my hometown in Kyoto. I've heard a prince was killed for a power game in ~10th century. Not that he was a great person because he was dead in his youth. It's just because he must be resentful at this world and died. They are so many shrines in Japan, but the more the resentful the honored person is, the longer the shrine tend to survive. People say that they possess more magic power so they need longer time to be calm down in the shrine. I think it's just people believe so.

Let's get back to Yasukuni Shrine. The logic of what people thought was the same. Not only the war criminals, but many dead soldiers are commemorated in Yasukuni because as you know by now, people fear the revival of the dead as a demon. So we can now easily guess what the mundane people think. They vow revenge against China? NO!



I attached simple F.A.Q. in the following.


Q. Why can no one stop him going there ?

A. It's his belief, and his freedom of religeon must be guaranteed.

Q. Why does the shrine commemorate war guilts ? They must attempt to whitewash their crime.

A. Look at the Japanese culture of building shrines. Many shrines commemorate those who died in a poor way. People believe from very old time that death souls in anguish turn to daemon to curse people and the world. Yasukuni shrine commemorates "war guilts" not to turn them to daemons.


Q. Why does Koizumi go to the shrine ? He pledges to avenge a defeat.
A. Yasukuni shrine commemorates many deaths. For instance, a deplomat killed in Iraq is in Yasukuni. His body should be visited by Koizumi because he died while Koizumi was the Prime Minister.

Q. Then why doesn't Yasukuni separate the "war crime" from normal deaths ?
A. It's what Yasukuni shrine can decide, not citizens or Koizumi can do.

Q. Does yellowpeep support his visit ?
A. If I was a Chinese, I don't support it. That way, I can sneak into East China Sea and suck the gas up while grabbing other countries attention. Plus at least Korean remains a loyal. If I was a Japanese PM, I can maintain a high approval rate by just going to Yasukuni, and able to do a drastic reformation as Koizumi did. So I support his visit. If I was from some place else, really don't care.


Saturday, January 14, 2006

Quagmire of imperial family

I'm going to spend a couple of weeks and write a crisis of Japanese imperial family. As seen from the world, the most closed family behind chrysanthemum curtain - called so after the symbol of the family - seems to have fun on their own. But the things can't be worse ever from my point of view.

The suspition arouse in my mind way too ago, but this made me more confident to know the fact that the princess canceled her birthday party among the Emperor's family just before it started. Her parents in law, the Emperor and Empress, are invited, but they ended up with being turned down by the princess. Apparently, we can see the situation that the wife is not getting along with her parents just as normal people.

For those who don't know much about Japanese royal family, let's get it straight with pictures.


The Emperor is already 70 with his beloved Empress, Michiko, who is the same age as the Emperor. It's a bit unrespectful but it's time to think about their progeny.


The prince is therefore not young, 45 years old, and he is obviously supposed to inherite the family. The problem is the next generation, his children. Actually he has only one daughter, Aiko, who is supposed to be out of their direct descendant in the event of her marriage. Plus many suspect Aiko suffers from autism since no one has ever witnessed Aiko's innocent smile although it's high time as she is 4 years old. Furthermore, no one has heard her speak something. (After writing this, I found a video taking Aiko enjoying potato digging December 2005, talking and smiling with her parents.) I'm not fond of occult and very careful about rumors, but I'm not the only one who is concerned about something wrong is happening to her physcological development.


Let us get back to my point. The real problem lies behind Aiko, the relation between the prince and the princess, or among the princess and the Emperor's couple. The princess made the Emperor and Empress stood up December 9th, 2005 due to the cancel of the princess's birthday party. Although the princess showed her cheerful face in the morning, she canceled it because she caught a cold according to Imperial Household Agent.
The princess canceled many appointments for events so far, resulting in increasing burdens to her brother-in-law because his family is subject to filling in for her family.
Tabloid papers didn't overlook this chance, and picked it up with big headlines.
In democratic societies, open discussion with open information must be guaranteed, but what family wants to speak up their own trouble?


I couldn't find the family tree in English, so I translated it into English. Man! it took me a long time. BTW, the current Emperor is 125th. And look at the bottom of the figure. Look how unlucky they are. They have nothing but girls.


Appendix: Okinawa Times, a major newspaper in Okinawa did a survey April 2004 about the Emperor system, and obtained 80% for pro-Emperor, and 13% for anti-Emperor. I am surprised to know that even Okinawa stands for Emperor system. (Okinawa is known to be one of the major places where anti-Japanese movement is actively taking place.)

You want to know more about their scandal?
http://yellowpeep.blogspot.com/2006/06/we-all-are-pissed-off-with-princess.html


Wednesday, January 11, 2006

What Japan did in WWII - (epilogue)

So what did Japan do to its colonies until the end of WWII?

Indonesia:
I've heard one story from an old Japanese man from Indonesia. He is not Japanese any more, and decided to live until his futhre death in Indonesia since his marriage to an Indonesian woman. He remembers the time when it was under Japanese rule.
According to his story, some of Japanese soldiers or cops (Kenpei) were disliked by Indonesian due to arrogant attitude; at that time, soldiers were highly ranked and it was common to salute soldiers when even passing by. On the other hand, he did a love marriage to the Indonesian woman, that shows there were some other cases where they got along together. More or less, Japanese looked Indonesian as human being, and that is why conflicts possibly happend.
When ruled by Holland until 1941, Indonesian life was rather separated from that of Dutch settlers. It's up to you whether you think of it as discrimination or the way of coexistence. The rule of Holland over Indonesia is complicated, too. I thought the time was like a hell and the people must had been heavily exploited. But it turns out the population of the Indonesia under Holland increased with the policy of VOC(Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) and it's not simple either.
We also have to think about East Timor. From their perspective, Indonesia was the one that oppressed the movement of East Timor for their independence.

Korea:
You know that there was a killingfield in Chejudo from 1948 to 1949 by Korean government to suppress their independence movement? The victim was several tens of thousands. If Chejudo were to succeeded in independence, they would have been pursuing Seoul's criminal responsibility. What would Korean say to them then? "We modernized them and made them peaceful now." And Korean would suddenly notice the excuse they used was exactly same as Japanese when they justify themselves. Japan abolished harsh discrimination rampanting in Kin's dynasty, enhanced average lifetime from 24 in 1910 to 45 in 1942. Korean chose to lose their independence for their secured life. Think about executing independence war aginast Japan while being threaten by Russia at the beggining of 20c. I think Korean at that time was realistic.
I also know a lot of Japanese dark side in Korean peninsula, but I found it questionable that no one points out the facts stated above and everyone tends to accuse Japan with only one-sided history. Let's think both and make a moderate decision.

Palau:
I know that Palau supported Japan in WWII. The flag of Palau was originated from Japan's flag. I'm not bragging, but it's sad that a wrong propaganda that Imperial Japan did a huge atrocities in all Asia. At least Palau's people didn't think so.


China:
The TV coverage crew flew to China to report the same way, but the Department of public safety of China told them that it was subject to a censorship no matter what they film. This is why this TV program doesn't cover the series of China.




Links to the whole contents of "What Japan did in WWII":
What Japan did in WWII - Malaysia (prologue)
What Japan did in WWII - UK
What Japan did in WWII - Myanmar
What Japan did in WWII - Indonesia
What Japan did in WWII - Taiwan
What Japan did in WWII - Palau
What Japan did in WWII - Korea
What Japan did in WWII - Thailand
What Japan did in WWII - (epilogue)


Friday, January 06, 2006

What Japan did in WWII - Korea

This series is from a local TV program in Japan to get closer to the real facts of WWII. For more detail, go to the prologue.
http://yellowpeep.blogspot.com/2005/12/what-japan-did-in-wwii-malaysia.html
You may think that it is one-sided history from Japanese perspective. So did I. But actually I've never been taught in school about the fact the TV says. And suddenly I realized that I am the one who only knew the other one-sided history. Let me know how you felt.

The staff flew to Korea.


Narator: This year (2005) was a friendship year of Japan and Korea. But the relation got less and less passionate ever.



Narator: The first place we visited is the war museum in Seoul. It mainly exhibits Korean war occured in 1950. It also has a section of Japanese rule in WWII.
Narator: We asked children at the exit what is their impression on Japan.

Girl A : Japan is a bad country that deprived us of Korea.

Boy : They invaded us twice. The first one is Hideyoshi, and the second was in the 20th century. ( Hideyoshi Toyotomi was a Japanese general who unified Japan in 16c.)
Girl B : I think Japan is a bad country since Hideyoshi invaded Korea and killed people.
Narator: We visited an office in Yeouido, Seoul. There is a grop consisting of 2000 members of history teachers. The cover mainly studying and writing of history textbooks. We talked to the president of the group, Kim.
Teacher Kim : The entire Korea has been discussing how we should face the colonial rule. Some claim that the colonial rule allowed Korea to develop because many novel things were introduced. However, this perspective brings a dispute because the fact was not for Korea but Japan, in other words, they did it for easier rule for Japan, not allowing the nation "Korea" to develop.
Narator : We opened the only Korean history textbook published by Korean government. It writes in page 163 that the most shameful deed Japan did in its colonial time was using women for their war. It also writes some of the women were even used as comfort women for Japanese soldiers.
Narator: We came to Central High School in Seoul. It's a boy's school.
Narator : We got a permission to the TV coverage in teacher Choi's classroom.
Teacher Choi : The most interesting movie I watched about Japan was "Hotaru no Haka (grave of the fireflies)." Does anybody know about it? (A brother and sister die of hunger in WWII in this movie.)

Narator : A few raised their hands.

Teacher Choi : What did you think after watching it? What I noticed was that the Japanese people were also victims of WWII. Before this movie, I never thought that Japanese was also the victim of imperialism. Now I reached my conclusion. We have to separate Japan into two: to be blamed are the military, government, and companies. And Japanese people are on our side, victims. It's jumping conclusion to say that the entire Japan functioned as a whole to make a profit.


Teacher Choi: (After class he's talking to interviewer.) What I talked about is not described in our history textbook. Especially It completely omits descriptions about the circumstances around Japanese people, what kind of life they were leading inside Japan. Although it's of importance to stick to history textbook, I think it's more important for each teacher to construct a firm way of thinking.

Narator : Speaking of history textbook, China and Korea strongly have been protesting against the use of a textbook, Fusosha's textbook. We gathered information at an organization, "Fair collection of Japanese history textbook" in Seoul. Researchers from high schools and universities comprise this organization, studying the controversial textbook.

Narator : We asked the teachers sitting at the desk what's wrong with the textbook.
Doctor of history, Shin: In order to justify Japanese invasion into Korea, it uses the phrase that says Japan modernized Korea.

Narator : Researcher Choi picked up a discription on Rosso-Japanese war. It uses the statement from Sun Wen (Chinese leader) said, "As a result of Japanese win over Russia, the whole races in Asia came to bear a hope for independence."

History teacher Choi : The expression "Great East Asian war"and the part with the necessity of WWII to give independences to Asian countries are what I doubht the most.

Doctor of History, Shin: The problem is that it emphasizes the damage of Japan suffered from WWII. It plots the Japan as a sufferer rather than a perpetrator. It also looks Korean or Taiwanese who fought together with Japan in the same way it looks Japanese people.

Narator : We managed to meet elder people who remember the colonial period in Korean peninsula. Here we are in a meeting place for elderly people. Jo Imho(87) was married to a peasant.

Jo : As a farm family and a daughter of a senior official, I didn't work and all the things were taken care of by my housekeeper.

Staff : Any problem or inconvinience because of living in colony?

Jo : Not at all.

Narator : Moon Jong (79) was a student in a domitory next to school.

Moon: At that time Japanese neglected Korean. I was so frustrated with the lack of Korea.

Narator : Li Sang Man (90) was a firefighter. He didn't want to get drafted and passed an exam to be firefighter.

Li : I never imagined that Japan would be defeated. I was so staggered that I couldn't think of what would happen next. Never did I think that Japan would lose. (He is speaking Japanese.)

Narator : A book written by a Korean became a best seller in Japan, selling 300,000 copies since 2002. The auther Kim Wan Sop completely changed his way of thinking about Japan in favor of Japan as he spent years overseas. (The camera focuses on his messageboard online, full of Korean comments, "Kill you" or "We should kill Chinilpa" (chinilpa is a derogatory term standing for those who likes Japan.) ) He claims that Korean should be blamed for every issue such as history, Yasukuni, or Takeshima. The book he wrote was pointed as a harmful book by Seoul and banned. His concept is "the one who twists the interpretation of the history is Korea, not Japan. And this is the standard observation from the world."
Kim : The education in Korea is completely wrong. On the other hand, Japanese history textbooks write few about Korean developments or modernization even though Korean peninsula used to be a part of Japan.
Narator : Kim also says that many things appearing "History newspaper" used as a sidereader in Korea contains a lot of mistakes. He points out the population of Korea in 1910 didn't reach 10 milions while the side reader uses the headline with "20 millions".

Kim : Japanese lost a lot of lifes in WWII and fed up with wars. The policies of GHQ by America made the Japanese pacifist. Japan used to have many good things in its old time, but they regret all their history as if they brought about a huge invasion into the world. I think it's too much, and the tendency should be relaxed.

Narator : Jo Giyon (78) was a student when the war ended.

Jo : I couldn't receive Korean education, all I got was a Japanese education. I respected teachers. And the society was making an effort to achieve the equality between Korean and Japanese. (My comment: From 1942, Japanese government became less enthusiastic to teach Korean as before. Tokyo thought that adaptation to Japan is the closest way to decrease discrimination. The more Korean learn Japanese, the more they can get easily used to the society of Japan mainland. However, this policy is now a target of dispute by some people as a policy erasing Korean culture.)

Narator : Jun Tae Hi is a Korean born in Dalian (North china). She moved to Beijing for her job. She was teaching excersize to Japanese men.

Jun : The people in China were generally living as they were without much discrimination. In fact, I meet with respectable teachers as well, so I didn't suffer from a discrimination in my school, either.

Jun : When I heard the radio announce the surrender of Japan Aug. 15, I couldn't hear much. But the girls around me began to sob. Everyone. I felt an awkward feeling. We must have a feeling of liberation, but I was young, didn't understand what it was. So awkward that I didn't know if I should cry or not. (speaking in Japanese.)


Jun : We lost to Japan and it's a shame. However, we must teach the history as it is to children. (speaking in Japanese)
Announcers: We've got lots of comments in our website during the series of this program. Let me introduce some them here today.

Comment 1 : I think we ought to teach the significance Japan had, the war to protect our country. Don't be deluded by China or Korea into the masochistic perspective.

Comment 2: We can't help equalize the feeling of the one who stepped someone's toe and the one who was stepped. We may as well think of those who were stepped. History is important, but the heart to think about someone else is more important.

Comment 3 : I'd like to ask a portion of people in east Asia. What do you think we can do to forgive Japan? Japan has been searching for the way for 60 years and entered into 21st century without knowing it. I think it's time to tell me how.

Comment 4 : I don't know what is the truth, but the education to let people hate other people is absolutely wrong. What's the most important is to educate friendly emotion in children's heart.

Comment 5 : Don't glorify the crime Japan did. Regard the mistake as it is, and apologize to Asian countries. Let people remember wars, and we can do it by teaching the fact that killing each other creates nothing, leaving only grief or resentment. I think the start point is to think about people nearest to you.





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You may want to know about Japanese military in other countries:
What Japan did in WWII - Malaysia (prologue)
What Japan did in WWII - UK
What Japan did in WWII - Myanmar
What Japan did in WWII - Indonesia
What Japan did in WWII - Taiwan
What Japan did in WWII - Palau
What Japan did in WWII - Korea
What Japan did in WWII - (epilogue)


Monday, January 02, 2006

What Japan did in WWII - UK

This series is from a local TV program in Japan to get closer to the real facts of WWII. For more detail, go to the prologue.
http://yellowpeep.blogspot.com/2005/12/what-japan-did-in-wwii-malaysia.html
You may think that it is one-sided history from Japanese perspective. So did I. But actually I've never been taught in school about the fact the TV says. And suddenly I realized that I am the one who only knew the other one-sided history. Let me know how you felt.

The staff flew to United Kingdom.


Narator : Having achieved industry revolution earlier than any other countries, Britain got deeply involved in the world history including asia with its superpower. We've come here London to see how they teach students their complicated history of WWII.




Narator : We met an elder citizen who remembers WWII.

Old man A: The government made us believe the propaganda that looked German and Japanese were all evil. I learned it's not after then.

Old Lady A : I remember Churchill appeared on a radio to boost the morale of ours. Everyone heard him speech. "Since we have all the colonies all over the world, we can collect army from there. So we never surrender," he said.
Narator : The history textbook used in UK gives few descriptions on the war agiasnt Japan. Moreover, we couldn't even find the words "imperialism" or "colonies". Why don't they teach those important words to students ? Mr. Will, who teaches its history in a junior high school, explains that the opinions about the imperialism are not unified even inside UK.

Teacher Will : In our textbook, the incidents that would be shameful to us are deliberately ommitted. For instance, Suez crisis in 1956 is not described, and neither is Amritsar massacre in 1919.


Narator: Not many students learn the war between Britain and Japan. We visited London University and asked students who study Japanese what led both the countries to WWII.

Student A : Actually we were not taught about that. I think Japan felt a lot of pressure from the Western and America. That cornered Japan and made it expand for its interest.

Studnet B : United nations advanced to overseas for their prosperity. Japan did it for its economic profit and raw materials.

Narator : Here we arrived at National Military Museum in London. It exhibits many historical heritages from mediaval to modern age. This museum provides various seminars about the wars according to generations from kindergarteners to university students.



Narator : We ran into a seminar for students from a junior high school.
Narator: Julian is a popular lecturer with his lilting talk. He is giving a talk about WWI (Not WWII !) spending 70 minutes.
Julian : Military service used to be voluntary until January 1916.
Julian : Since then, mens over 18 got inducted into army. Among volunteers, Indian occupied a great percentage; For an example, Indians were the majority in the army in Western French in 1915.
Julian : The picture you are looking at is Caribbean army. At that time, Great Britain posessed a vast territory from which armies were sent to France. Carib, Africa, India, Canada, SriLanka, etc.

Narator : He came to explain what a soldier is about. He has students hold up granades and teaches how long it takes to explode.

Julian : OK. Your name is Sam from now on. Consider everyone else around you is enemy. What equipment do you think is necessary to fight?
Some student: Rifle !

Julian : You can't go on a war naked. Haven't you seen a war movie?

Other student : Pants !

Julian : Pants! (LOL in the class)

Narator: And he went on the ourfits of a typical soldier in WWI. Every thing about underwears, shirts, socks, or even the number of those supplyments is introduced.
Julian : You're going to put everything you need in battlefields. Knife, fork, spoon, razor....

Julian : You need to shot 15 shots a minute to be eligible for a full sallery.

Narator : Now the student is full equipped. He left a comment that everyone should pay a respect to soldiers who went to battlefields.


Stuent A : It was a very intesting seminar. Unlike our daily classes, I virtually experienced what a war is all about.

Narator: After the seminar, students are allowed to touch the equipment from WWI. Next seminar is about WWII. Mainly he is going to talk about the war in Europe.

Narator: We asked Will the key point to teach history.


Will : I want them to understand the history we are learning is a provisional one. History is a subject changing as time goes by because we ourselves are changing. Therefore, it is necessary to look back and assess the history again and again.



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Links to the whole contents of "What Japan did in WWII":
What Japan did in WWII - Malaysia (prologue)
What Japan did in WWII - UK
What Japan did in WWII - Myanmar
What Japan did in WWII - Indonesia
What Japan did in WWII - Taiwan
What Japan did in WWII - Palau
What Japan did in WWII - Korea
What Japan did in WWII - Thailand
What Japan did in WWII - (epilogue)