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Polish Japanese relations (history and present time) [90]
So you feel sorry for the SS war dead do you,you have lots of respect for them do you? How about the NKVD soldiers who died,going to defend their honour are you? Im afraid your argument is morraly bankrupt.
I'm not sure if "feel sorry" is the correct terminology. I don't feel sorry for any who died during the war - People die in wars, from World War II to the Hundred Years War; that's just how it is. However, if you're asking whether they have my respect and admiration, yes, any fighting man (or woman) does, regardless of whether or not I agree with their political ideology or the ideology of the head of state they are serving. In the example you provide, my strong disagreements with certain parts of the philosophies of Hitler and Joseph Stalin do not minimize my respect for their combat forces, regular army or otherwise.
Would you say the same if Japan would have been Polands neighbour instead of Germany or Russia?
Yes, I would, because Japanese actions in World War II were not motivated out of the desire to eliminate any specific group, but out of a nation's natural and healthy drive for expansion. Japan was only playing the game that England, France, and Spain had been playing for centuries. After all, the first nation to use concentration camps was the United Kingdom - on Boer men, women, and children in South Africa.
Would you say the same of Germany? *waits expectantly*
Yes, I would. I respect the combat forces which fought for Germany in World War II, regardless of their aggression on Polish soil. I have no respect for some of Germany's political leaders at the time, but soldiers are men who follow orders out of love for and devotion to their country: That is true whether the blood which flows through one's veins is Polish, German, or Japanese.
It should also be noted now that I do not dislike Germans; I admire many aspects of German culture. However, I do tend to get fed up at times with the immature state of relations between Germany and Poland.
Heres the thing JP, The british soldiers who fought against the germans dont tend to hold grudges,in fact,just last week there was a reunion of British bomber crews with a group of german night fighter pilots. To this day,any British former soldier who saw what the Japanese issen goren did in the far east will have absolutly nothing to do with Japan or the japanese people.
I
do have ancestors who served in the Polish armed forces during the war, and know many who lost family during the German occupation, so if you're going to attempt to make the "Japanese atrocities made the Germans look like innocent schoolboys!" argument, you're not going to get very far. ALL sides in the war committed atrocities, Axis and Allies.
