Japanese attitudes towards war after WWII

Japan and it’s imperial past comes up in conversations in conversations with friends from time to time but I can never bring up the topic to the few Japanese people I know and get a good understanding of how Japanese people feel about world war II and everything that caused the war and happened before during and right after the war. From my reading and watching documentaries I must say that my view on the war is westernized and I know very little facts so when I saw a story today on BBC.com that talks about Japanese views on war I jumped at the chance to read and found it so interesting I thought I’d share.

The new Prime Minister, Taro Aso, is himself a conservative nationalist.

Article excerpts

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Formally a pacifist nation under its American-written constitution, Japan is also at heart a passionately pacifist society – sometimes startlingly so. People here can be heard wishing for world peace in a tone that to Western ears might carry a touch of naivety, like a leaf torn from the book of beauty pageant contestants.

Black vans known as gaisensha are a familiar, if fairly infrequent, presence on the streets of Japanese cities. Operated by far-right groups and bedecked with imperial flags, they broadcast military songs and nationalist slogans as they crawl through traffic. The gaisensha remain a fringe phenomenon, at the crossroads of extreme nationalism and organised crime.

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read moreJapan struggles with WWII legacy

3 thoughts on “Japanese attitudes towards war after WWII

  1. One more group of people should be added to the list of victims of the Japanese government’s actions during WWII: Everyday Japanese citizens whose lives were brought to ruin by the actions of a group of leaders who cared nothing for the lives of the common man or woman or child.

  2. My grandpa was in a Japanese POW camp in Myanmar, it changed his life forever as you would expect.
    I moved to Japan when I was 21 and was able to see people different to those he had meet. I married a Japanese girl and introduced her to my grandma before she passed away, I think she saw the kindness that is in Japan.

    I always found it difficult to look at some older Japanese men, I could sense there opinion on the war. The society in Japan puts them above any kind of reproach.

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