HH:-
I just don't understand what point RR is trying to make...that Japanese soldiers committed atrocities? Does anyone on here really believe that any country has clean hands over war time atrocities?? Or peace time ones as well
Well, I guess it all depends on what you call atrocities. The main "atrocity" levelled at the UK, and in particular the RAF, is of course Dresden. Why one bombing of one city should be picked out from all the other bombings of all the other cities mystifies me, so let's call all the bombings of all the cities "atrocities". Indeed, let's agree that all war is an atrocity. In which case I would still contend that an army on the rampage; murdering, torturing and raping civilians and POW's alike, needs a special term for its conduct. So let's instead call that an atrocity, and the bombing of cities war.
What RR's point is he must say. My point is that the Japanese Emperor, his Government, nor his people have ever disowned the barbarities carried out by the Imperial Japanese Army in the 1930s and 40s. That contrasts sharply with the atonement of Germany, and makes me fearful of a revitalised Japan that elevates its "self defence" up by several notches.
None of the above implies any less worry about the threat from China, indeed it simply adds to it...