Reminder that the Japanese Imperialists killed millions of people
Reminder that the Japanese Imperialists killed millions of people
Briefly quoting Yuki Tanaka’s Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II, pages 8–9:
The estimated death toll of each nation in the Asia‐Pacific War is based on official statements by those countries and other available data: 200,000 Koreans, 30,000 Taiwanese, more than 10 million Chinese, 2 million Vietnamese (mainly due to famine), 1.1 million Filipinos, 4 million Indonesians; 100,000 Malays and Singaporeans, 150,000 Burmese, and 1.5 million Indians (due to the Bengal famine of 1943). In addition, apart from soldiers who were killed in action, more than 60,000 Allied POWs and civilian detainees died.23
At the risk of stating the obvious, I would like to confirm that I have no interest in inciting hatred against ordinary Japanese—some of whom rightfully despise Japanese Imperialism!—nor do I want them to feel guilty by association. Most people within the Axis empires couldn’t help living under their bourgeois governments, which have values and interests that transcend national boundaries. As a matter of fact, there were significant numbers of non‐Japanese Asians who intentionally served Japanese Imperialism. For example, quoting Peter J. Seybolt in Chinese Collaboration with Japan, 1932–1945, pages 221–2:
Support for the argument that there was an internal struggle among Chinese concurrent with an external war against [the Empire of] Japan is found also in the statistics compiled by the Communists during the war. […] It would be tedious to recount these battles in detail, though sufficient information exists to do so.
Probably in none of them did [Imperial] troops constitute a majority of those confronting the Communists and their allies, and in only two—a “mop‐up” in June 1940, and the devastating mop‐up in April 1941 in which 4,000 villagers were slaughtered—did the number of [Imperial] troops come even close to the number of Chinese collaborators.
(Emphasis added.)
To paraphrase something that I wrote earlier, I realize that some of this history may seem elementary, but I never see anticommunists even mention it, and I am willing to bet that you don’t either. I have little else to add.