Sacked Japan air force head defends WWII actions

Think this wally should keep his gob shut, all he does is wind people up. Ig Japan was so rightous and "gentler" than other colonial powers, why is there not a commenwealth of ex colonial nations, because nobody would bleeding join that's why.

he even says the "correct" version of the war is his.

Does Japan deserve credit for nanking massacre, chemical weaopns , human experiments, torture, sex slavery? Stewth, i don't think so mate. He should be locked up for inciting racial hatred the evil swine.

What a loon...

“I have to say that Japan was not alone in being an aggressor,” he told a news conference.

Was he addressing a foreign press club? if yes, what kind of questions were asked?

He is not completely wrong. The West was busy carving up Asia for themselves - Japan could not just sit back and wait to be the last thing on the dinner table.

I have to say that Japan was not alone in being an aggressor,

Yes, Germany being the other main aggressor, and look how its neighbors now feel about Germany (now, a respected nation which teaches its children the truth).

The West was busy carving up Asia for themselves

Yes, but I don't recall any of the Allies going on the rampage, raping women, bayonetting babies, performing experiments on people without anaesthetic, starving POW's, using slave labor, etc.

Wonder if he, as a military veteran, would undertand and agree with the atomic bombs being dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki in 1945.

"Yes, but I don't recall any of the Allies going on the rampage, raping women, bayonetting babies, performing experiments on people without anaesthetic, starving POW's, using slave labor, etc."

... I think you need to check up on all the mass rapes by allies that were hushed up and senior commanders and politicians turned a blind eye to.

This happened in declared peace time immediately after Japans surrender. In some ways the allies crimes were worse and more cowardly crimes than the war time crimes that happened to the other east Asian countries. Do some research and you will find this. It is said that many of the elder generation on Okinawa know someone raped by an American. But also look at main land Japan and related hushed up crimes by American and Australians. I guess this story is a case in point that not all history that everyone is taught is the same or covers everything. Just look at world tv news coverage of say something like a g8 meeting…this will give you a clue. But anyway move on, no one is taught perfect history. I think the reason Japan/usa relations are better than say Japan china or Japan Korea is not down to just interpretation of history.

Also pow treatment by the "allies"... another area I forget to say that could be double checked to level your knowledge gained from national tv or school history lessons. Google is a simple start, but maybe reading this book might be also be.. but probably too slanted.

888naff - Reading what book? Sources would be nice.

Now he is free to drive around in his big black bus shouting Japan is great slogans from a loud speaker. It's sad there are still people thinking like this.

Well if this was on Japanese media, look out... Hopefully his comments didn`t charge up all the "foreign people haters" in the country. Nationalism on the rise?

I wud like tamogami to explain to 20-30million generally belived killed by Jpn during the 1930s-45, even the lower number amounts to a lot of dead & of course there is the rape & pillage etc, pls tamogami explain to us why this was good.

And yes its common bloody knowledge the French & English etc did their things, as I said its KNOWN. Why in Jpn after 60+yrs doesnt yr average Tanaka KNOW & ADMIT what Jpn did, that is what all the bad blood is about.

Jpn was a real killing machine, can anyone think of another country or group of allies who killed so many in such a short time?

The losers don`t write history so I can also see his point or frustration...

Japan had the opportunity to lead and liberate Asia had it choosen to do so. As a military power and as an Asian power it could have become a champion of indepence minded Asian nations. It could have chased out imperialists and helped launch local domestic governments that would hvae been allied with Japan.

Instead Japan treated the rest of Asia with contempt, violence and raw exploitation. It imposed Japanese rule and ideas, carried out attrocities and waged a war it could neither win nor benefit from.

In the end Japan's war history is black and Japan needs to come to terms with that very real reality. The fact that there were some notable benefits from Japan's presence in the region, do not offset the vast number of horrors Japan's presence in brought to the people of Asia.

This guy is just another natsukashi nationalist who is too blinded by visions of Japanese war movies to see the reality of the time. These guys want to play Samurai and hero, when the facts are they are capable of neither.

Other than possibly Germany and its treatment of Jews, in what possible context/comparison can Japan be classified as "gentler"? My god.

But Tamogami said Japan must stand up to such criticism and should be proud of its history.

Very true, Japan should be proud of its history and should stand up to those criticisms that are based on lies.

Now he is free to drive around in his big black bus shouting Japan is great slogans from a loud speaker. It's sad there are still people thinking like this.

It is sad but what`s more sad is that the police, government, public etc. do nothing to stop it or discipline these people. I wonder what other national leaders would think if they heard these guys going off while visiting the kind and friendly Japan they hear it to be.

888naff

This happened in declared peace time immediately after Japans surrender. In some ways the allies crimes were worse and more cowardly crimes than the war time crimes

Please let me know what you are smoking, I didn't think you could get crack in Japan...?

You need to read some material that was printed anywhere else in the world, except Japan... Which by they way, most school children, if you ask them on the street today, what happened first, Pearl Harbor or Hiroshima probably wouldn't know....

Japan indeed has much to be thankful for, what the Allies did, but more importantly what they didn't do...

For all their years of aggression, war, pillage and rape, Japan should have expected nothing less than 50 years of brutal slavery and punishment, instead they were given democracy, women's rights, free speech and the beginnings of a thriving economy....

Yes, indeed Japan has much to be thankful for...

Strange he says Japan was gentler than other aggressors, but I don't recall seeing pictures of other aggressors ripping hearts out of victims while they were still alive; raping and sodomizing Chinese and Korean women, in-turn, one after another; killing babies in what can only be attributed to ethnic cleansing; killing women and children for pleasure (just watched an NHK documentary recently where one old boy said he regrets throwing a woman and her child down a well and then throwing in a hand-grenade to 'silence their screams'). Ummm..nope, can't think of any other aggressor who can top that lot.

Not to get all technical, but they did consciously change the name of the country at this time to Dai-Nihon TEIKOKU, the Great Japanese Empire. There is a reason why the Japanese insisted the King of Japan be called an Emperor. As Tamogami freely admits, Japan engaged in imperialism to keep up with the West. I don't care how good your intentions are, how do you build an empire in the span of a generation without any military aggression, through coincidence and luck?

People like Tamogami don't seem to understand, even if it is possible to ponder the question of "ultimately did Japan do more harm than good?" that is not really something for Japanese conservatives to take aggressively assert and take credit for. It's like the son of a slaveholder saying "hey, Blacks in America are better off on the average than Blacks in Africa, so they should be THANKING us for slavery. We can't have good race relations until blacks show the proper gratitude toward people like me." You can't take "credit" for something you never intended to happen just because things turned out a certain way.

One could also argue that Africa "benefited" from European colonization, e.g., they built railways and roads, but that would ignore the fact that most of the "benefits" were for the colonists, not the native inhabitants.

Besides, it's not for the colonizers to extol the benefits they bestowed, but rather for the colonized to decide whether the "benefits" were worth the cost. I don't know of any nation today who's asking to be colonized by anyone.

Japan is so lucky that China transported all Japanese soldiers back very quick after he surrendered and MacArthur take control the whole JP and help JP develop peacefully. Suppose it's Russia control Japan... O...O then this Mr.Tamogami might be not so free... On the other hand, the foundation of peace after WWII based on JP surrender document therefore if JP never surrendered and still survive today then I agree that Mr.Tamogami can say anything he wanted. But he just can't get the peace after killing others and surrendered and still said he was hero!

All that allows evil like this to exist is that good people do nothing. This man needs an example of what hate brought to this earth. Send him to Poland now, and take the tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau. There is a price to the world of forever being viligant against the likes of Gen Tamogami. This is a world lesson not just German. Nor is Japan ever absolved by ignorance. Nor is anyone.

Sadly no one can question him because they don't teach history in Japan as far as I can tell. Ignore it, it will just go away is not how evil is beaten. It's through example, through dialog, and through real remorse. Germany has worked tirelessly on remorse. You can't get rid of idiots, we all have them, but at least they have a hate law, that it is a crime to deny the Holocaust or promote hate. Japan should pass a similar law and make this tool do community service. Arbeit macht frei

This guy obviously has a selective memory.

Tamogami if japanese actions were not so despicable during WW2. Why is it that the Asian countries do not lament the Japanese loss in '45?

But Tamogami said Japan must stand up to such criticism and should be proud of its history.

Very true, Japan should be proud of its history and should stand up to those criticisms that are based on lies.

Care to elaborate on which criticisms you think they are?

This guy now can even say that after WW2 Japan has been skillfully employing American soldiers to protect its territory without America even realising it! He is out of the job now ,it doesn't matter really. He should know the fact no Asian country thinks that Japan was "gentler " than France or Britain...more brutal for sure.

As for Gen. Tamogami, perhaps he can serve as a sort of one-man good will ambassador; send him abroad by himself and let re-educate Japan's neighbors as to the true nature of WWII. He can start in Harbin.

“I have to say that Japan was not alone in being an aggressor,” he told a news conference.

I fully agree with Mr. Tamogami in this regard.

“I have to say that Japan was not alone in being an aggressor,” he told a news conference.

I fully agree with Mr. Tamogami in this regard.

Right, there was Nazi Germany and fascist Italy as well. Real quality allies to have in a war, don't you think?

I don't feel anything what Western says about it. Most of RICH countries now won WWII. Also, most of RICH countries is founded economics based on WWII favor or colonization before. However, they says war is bad. Yes, of course they learn from the past. But, I don't see any countries paid money a lot and help to give technology to countries(which Japan did bad) to help them grow again. Yes, RICH countries gives ODA to those countries though, but it is not for they feel bad. I think because of market. They seems to think and act like yeah war was happened and what we did was politics. There is no point to give back money...sure you guys won WWII. Thank you for AMERICA gives Japan atomic bombs to stop Russian. Is there a hate low? or apologize? No. Sure, if you win the war, there is nothing to be blame about it. They take ground benefit of WWII anyways. Also, German passing the laws to regret what they do and they apologize about Holocaust, but they didn't apologize about WAR, even they started. Political history was abused and used anyway. One more things, in Japanese education, we taught how Japanese is bad bad bad bad bad doing bad bad bad bad to other country during war. What is true history then? The problem here is the History was sometimes politically abused. They mention what other country did bad and do such and such and they don't mention what your country also did bad and such and such. and what people thinks are they compare to other country and think we are better proud country now. However, you guys also an aggressor. Japan...in case, we found information about rape and other side, S.Korea send women for business　to have money. About Massacre of Nankin, I think Japan killed many people, but number wise it is unclear. Maybe in total,winner countries of WWII killed more? So, think about WWII, if Japan is blamed so much then there are many countries should be blamed like Japan.

To Simon_Foston

Right, there was Nazi Germany and fascist Italy as well. Real quality allies to have in a war, don't you think?

And all the others once had COLONIES. Some of them even had slaves, eh? Does aggression suddenly signify different meaning when it relate to wartime worldpowers other than Japan? Nonsense. That's what we say double standard.

namuro

Great post.

Sorry for typo.

I mean 'namuo'.