[Tintin Storm]

War crimes of Japan early in XXth century
Japanese officials colour the aggression of the Japanese Army during World War II. Asian countries which were victims of Japanese invaders, try to spread the truth about the violent past of Japan.
South Korea and China has repeatedly accused Japan that it doesn’t admit and hides the crimes of the Japanese militarists against Asian countries during World War II.
In 2015 officials of Asian countries have expressed dissatisfaction with the speech of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Abe doubted the need to apologize for the actions of the Japanese Army during the war.
It should be noted that in contrast to the situation in Germany, Japan’s right-wing forces openly regret the defeat in the war and proud militaristic past. They oppose the "historical self-deprecation" and "the revival of the Japanese spirit".
The Japanese imperialists occupied the Asian countries early in XXth century, made memorable anti-human crimes against the Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos and other peoples of Asia.
The Japanese long perceived they as a special nation in Asia, and in the end of XIX - beginning of XX century this "awareness" has increased through the efforts of the ideologists of militarism. Therefore, the Japanese has decided to teach the Asian peoples how to live properly. It's right by Japanese. So chaos in the Eastern and partly South-East Asia of the first half of the XXth century is a kind of act of education. It is possible to tell long what monstrous methods of education the Japanese used in the struggle for the cultivation of Asia.
At the beginning of the last century Japan made an aggressive War in the Pacific, in particular, on the Korean Peninsula and in China. However, in Japan prefer to talk about how much sorrow Japan went through during the war, about the troubles that Japanese experienced. And almost nothing they do not talk about the atrocities that the soldiers and officers of the Imperial army made in the occupied territory.
So, during the occupation of Korea the Japanese kidnapped over 8 million 400 thousand Koreans. More than 417 thousand people were taken away on the field of war as cheap cannon fodder, and 7 million 784 thousand 800 people for hard work. And more than 200 thousand Korean women were killed in the brothels of the Japanese army. The compulsion of Korean women into sexual slavery was part of the strategy of the Japanese military leadership.
The unprecedented mass killings of Koreans by Japanese imperialists are, in fact, a deliberate attempt to exterminate the Korean nation. It is the most barbaric and heinous inhuman crime on the scale of cruelty. However, today Japan tries to avoid the responsibility what causes the anger and the outrage of the world community.
The aggressors in the war against the Chinese have carried out a brutal policy — "burn to the ground", "kill all", "clean out". The atrocities of the Japanese are simply impossible to list. The punitive expeditions, the destruction of thousands of Chinese were common practice occupiers.
Only in Nanjing in December of 1937 for 6 weeks the Japanese invaders killed more than 300 thousand civilians and prisoners.
Today many Japanese leaders deny the fact that the Nanjing massacre took place. So, ex-governor of Tokyo Shintaro Ishihara said: "It is said that the Japanese made a Holocaust but that is not true. This story was made up by the Chinese". In the popular Japanese history textbook "Nanjing incident" was described in short: "In December of 1937, Japanese soldiers occupied Nanjing. During the occupation many Chinese were killed, among them were women and children".
In General the Japanese suppress the past "feats", and honor the war criminals as the guardians of the peace of Japan at the Yasukuni Shrine ("Temple of peace in the country").
There are the commemorative plaques with the names of 2.5 million soldiers and officers who died for Japan in various wars, among them the names of the war criminals of World War II in the Yasukuni Shrine. Beijing and Seoul consider the temple as a symbol of Japanese militarism. It should be noted that Japan avoided the responsibility for crimes. Officially the reason was the desire to spare the feelings of the relatives of the victims. But, apparently, we can talk about a secret agreement with the Japanese. Because almost immediately USA began to view Japan as its outpost against the Soviet Union, China and countries in the zone of Soviet influence. There is another moment. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan immediately transformed from a monstrous executioner into "victim of war". Neither China nor Korea had any relevant information resources or international influence. As a result, Tokyo avoided the responsibility.
But it is need to tell about the crimes of 70 years ago. Today Japan honours the war criminals, the murderers, the cannibals, and the rapists. The militarist and revanchist attitudes of mind increase.

[Drlee]

This story is nonsense. The statistics are preposterous. The post claims, in effect, that the Japanese kidnapped half of the entire population of Korea.

There is no doubt of Japanese brutality. That should not be forgotten. The facts are bad enough.

[ThirdTerm]

So, during the occupation of Korea the Japanese kidnapped over 8 million 400 thousand Koreans. More than 417 thousand people were taken away on the field of war as cheap cannon fodder, and 7 million 784 thousand 800 people for hard work. And more than 200 thousand Korean women were killed in the brothels of the Japanese army. The compulsion of Korean women into sexual slavery was part of the strategy of the Japanese military leadership.

The unprecedented mass killings of Koreans by Japanese imperialists are, in fact, a deliberate attempt to exterminate the Korean nation. It is the most barbaric and heinous inhuman crime on the scale of cruelty. However, today Japan tries to avoid the responsibility what causes the anger and the outrage of the world community.

There was no such thing as mass killings of Koreans during the colonial era but up to 2 million Koreans were conscripted as slave labourers who worked in factories and coal mines in the 1940s. Under the national mobilisation law enacted at the time, Japanese citizens also had to work voluntarily for the country just as Korean workers did. The Japanese military was responsible for running military brothels and up to 200,000 Asian women worked in these military brothels from the 1930s to the end of the war. Korean comfort women possibly made up the majority but around 20% of them were Japanese and most of them returned safely to their home countries after their contracts with civilian brothel owners expired. Tragically, when the American soldiers liberated these military brothels, they mostly encountered Korean comfort women because Japanese comfort women had committed suicide to avoid the humiliation of being captured by the enemies, while Korean comfort women were encouraged to stay alive by their Japanese captors. Other than that, colonial Korea was a normal colony which was run efficiently just as the British had done to Malaya and Hong Kong.

[unbalanced zealot]

From my understanding of the subject I agree that the article posted exaggerates the situation quite seriously. The Japanese occupation of Korea was a strongly negative scenario for Koreans and there were human rights abuses no doubt. However, compared say to the European colonial experience in Africa or the occupation of East Timor by Indonesia, the brutality was limited and the lasting effects less devastating.

Japanese war crimes, especially those in Manchuria, including Unit 731, were sickening. IMO the Japanese never did anywhere near enough repenting for what they inflicted, and if lingering resentment from non-Japanese east Asia keeps afloat anti-Japanese sentiment then so be it.

[Atlantis]

There was no such thing as mass killings of Koreans during the colonial era but up to 2 million Koreans were conscripted as slave labourers ...

Wouldn't you agree though that there was an attempt at what today may be termed cultural genocide in that the use of the Korean language, names and traditional institutions was restricted by the occupiers?

However, compared say to the European colonial experience in Africa or the occupation of East Timor by Indonesia, the brutality was limited and the lasting effects less devastating.

Western colonialism lasted longer which allowed for more horror to accumulate, but considering the short period of time the Japanese expanded in Asia, they managed to commit quite a lot of crimes (a bit like the Germans in Namibia).

EDIT: The bottom line is, though, irrespective of the gravity of the crimes committed, the Japanese contend that they have a right to their national narrative and that they don't have to bow to the winner's narrative (which isn't true of course, the Japanese are more in the pocket of the US than the Germans). I have a hunch that questioning the validity of the national narrative won't go down well on Pofo.

[ThirdTerm]

Today many Japanese leaders deny the fact that the Nanjing massacre took place. So, ex-governor of Tokyo Shintaro Ishihara said: "It is said that the Japanese made a Holocaust but that is not true. This story was made up by the Chinese". In the popular Japanese history textbook "Nanjing incident" was described in short: "In December of 1937, Japanese soldiers occupied Nanjing. During the occupation many Chinese were killed, among them were women and children".

The Nanking massacre was a mass execution of Chinese POWs who were suspected to be anti-Japanese partisans in civilian clothing, hiding in the Nanking Safety Zone established by Europeans. Up to 60,000 people lost their lives after going through the selection process by the Japanese military and young men were lined up to get inspected for suspected guerrilla activities. When mothers cried out to Japanese inspectors for mercy, their sons were released. So many lives were spared because of the heroic zone administrator, John Rabe, who is credited with saving 250,000 Chinese civilians who were harboured in the Nanking Safety Zone. The population of Nanking was around 300,000 at the time and only 16%-20% of them were massacred, while up to 80% of people in Nanking survived the Nanking massacre. Meanwhile, the number of victims of the Katyn massacre is estimated at about 22,000. NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria proposed to execute all captive members of the Polish officer corps in 1940, which was approved by the Politburo.

The Nanking Massacre killed 50,000 to 60,000 civilians according to John Rabe, while Rabe and his zone administrators tried frantically to stop the atrocities. His attempts to appeal to the Japanese by using his Nazi Party membership credentials only delayed them; but that delay allowed hundreds of thousands of refugees to escape. The documentary Nanking credited him for saving the lives of 250,000 Chinese civilians. Other sources suggest that Rabe rescued between 200,000 and 250,000 Chinese people.[5]