Relationship: USA - Japan

hans hodenkrebs · 21 Sep 2003

Hello Everybody!

I'm a 17 year old Guy from Germany.
Yesterday, I asked myself what the japanese People think of the USA, because in World War 2 the USA bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki with two nuclear Bombs.
What do the japanese People think about this nowadays?
Here in Europe, it seems as if nobody cares of that "happening" and like the Americans as econonmy Partners.
Well... I hope you unterstand me. I wan't to know, what the "normal japanese Man/Woman" thinks of the Americans.

Best Regards

Iceman

ViciousBrutality · 21 Sep 2003

Well I am an american and I'm very suprised that you say the people in Europe don't hate us (except the french, they don't like us at all or anybody else for that matter). I would expect the Japanese to hate us, we are a VERY arragant nation. Especially now that are son-of-a-***** president is trying to take away our rights and destroy other countries for their oil and bully everyone else into helping and so on. So thanks for not hating us

-X-

hans hodenkrebs · 21 Sep 2003

Well... I don't hate Americans... I just hate the aggressive Politic of George W. Bush you f***s up the whole western and eatern world... :-X
Iirc, then there are about 120 Millons of People linving in the USA.
I dont think that all of them are such stupid Rednecks like their President.

mdchachi · 21 Sep 2003

Before I went to Japan, I thought the same thing but I found that Japanese were generally very friendly towards Americans. Even older Japanese. I heard various stories about things getting better after the war ended and American soldiers giving kids candy, etc. It made me feel good about my nation.
Nowadays with little living memory of the war, there seems to be little consideration given to the war. Even in Hiroshima where there are constant visible reminders of the event, it seems to have retreated into the realm of history. I found people there to be just as friendly as they are in the rest of the nation.

hans hodenkrebs · 23 Sep 2003

*push*
Is there no japanese Man or Woman who can tell me about their feelings about Americans?
Thank you foru your replys

noyhauser · 23 Sep 2003

Sigh... another politcally motivated post.... "why don't you hate US because they did such and such." If you are angry, come out and say it please, don't try to make it seem that you are unbiased by asking a question.... its really bothersome. Its like Fox news saying they have journalistic credibility just because they are journalists.

The US had a major role in rebuilding post War Japan and across the world. The japanese accepted that they were wrong in going to war in 1941 and the US's aid in rebuilding them was unexpected and welcomed. Look at the Billions of dollars that were outlayed in the Marshall plan in 1947. the Marshall plan reached even the most remote villages. There are people in Greece and turkey who got donkeys, goats and other animals because of the marshall plan, and they remember the US for stuff like that. Many germans in the older generations and people in the new Europe love the US... why? because they saved them from Communism. When JFK went to say Ich Bin ein Berliner... everybody loved the US, because they saw a nation that was fighting for them to keep them free. My mother who fought the communists in Czechcoslovakia still thinks the US is a good nation, and so does many in the Former communist bock. More people in poland and the Czech republic would rather be a part of NATO than the EU, why? . France and the UK screwed Poland and the Czechs over, Germany took them over, and russia then repressed them. But it was the US who was always there who they see as the "good party". You can say whatever you want about the US doing it purely for their own interests, but when it comes to the end, alot of the older generations still remember what the US did for them, and look upon the US favorably.

Everybody is up in arms over George W Bush did, but great, that was one president. There is a good chance he will get kicked out of office next term, and someone else will replace him, who will be more moderate on his foreign policy goals.

senseiman · 23 Sep 2003

I think the original question was quite reasonable. I mean, there are lots of older British people who still resent Germany over the Blitz, which killed far fewer people than the American bombing of Japan, so wouldn't it be reasonable, America's post war benevolence aside, for some Japanese to feel bitterness at the Americans who killed so many of their relatives?

Of course, the Japanese started the war so the country can't claim to be an innocent victim of American aggression or anything like that. The Japanese wartime leadership also deliberately sacrificed the lives of millions of Japanese in continuing to fight a war they knew they had no chance of winning. But I could definitely understand how some Japanese who had seen their entire hometown wiped out by a single American bombing raid would have a right to remain bitter. Americans still talk about Pearl Harbor, which was a single air raid against a military facility, like it was the worst atrocity ever commited in the history of mankind. The big difference to them between that and, say Hiroshima is that the Pearl Harbor attack was unprovoked. The fact that more than 20 times as many people, almost all of them civilians, were killed at Hiroshima doesn't seem important. Nor does the fact that since pearl harbour the US itself has launched countless unprovoked attacks against other countries. Seems rather hypocritical to me.

budd · 25 Sep 2003

"Is there no japanese Man or Woman who can tell me about their feelings about Americans?"
is only replying in Japanese language okay?

magpies · 25 Sep 2003

I don't hate American people becasue of the war....

i) The war is over. Why do we have to stack with memory of the war? We won't forget what was done to our country but past is past.
ii) We did so many horrendous things to our opponents in the war, these evils gave us back ... We can't say anything....
iii) American people brought us a lot of goodness after the war.
Lots of money and food. More liberal constitution. Free speach.
iv) Although Amelican people could have claimed compensation for the war as a defeater, they did not demand anything to us. They just humanitaly helped us to rebuild new law and order.

hans hodenkrebs · 25 Sep 2003

The war is over. Why do we have to stack with memory of the war? We won't forget what was done to our country but past is past.

*Thumbs up*
Thats a fact, which many germans won't believe.
That war is over and past is past.
But today you are still "strange" when u have hung a german flag out of the window or anything else...

magpies · 26 Sep 2003

Hi there.
Do you mean that Geman people have a different idea about the "memory of war"?

Grandpa Frank · 26 Sep 2003

Great reply !

You sound very sensible Magpie, what age group are you in ?

Frank

magpies · 26 Sep 2003

Hello Frank
I'm 28 years old.
Thanks for your compliment.
I was actually encourgaed to give my voice in this kind of discussion. I felt it's a little bit unconfuterble to speak out in public.....(especially in English...)

budd · 26 Sep 2003

thanks for posting!
i have been feeling guilty myself -- this war vet i worked with in the post office was hallucinating one day and confessed to assaulting (i am not really saying EXACTLY what he did -- however he did it WITH A WHOLE PLATOON) a Japanese woman during the war "When I was in WWII, I saw this Japanese woman. She walked down this big hill... we all..."
war is just plain terrible.

noyhauser · 27 Sep 2003

Im putting out a retraction of sorts, I didn't mean to be so overly hostile in my post. After reading the initial post a second time, it doesn't seem to me that Iceman was really being that underhanded.

sigh... I need a vacation

hans hodenkrebs · 27 Sep 2003

Hi there. Do you mean that Geman people have a different idea about the "memory of war"?

They have a negativ memory of war. The are all ashame.
Everything what was involved in the WW2 is going to banned out of public or even banned.
No more graves of fallen Soldiers or Airman.
You may say a rolling thunder of political correctness.
I'm not a Nazi. But i also don't understand, why our politics ban our history and want to forget?
It wasen't me who made war. That was another generation.
So i even don't anyone else because of the WW2.
You cannot hate a whole Race/Folk/Group.

antantrevolution · 23 Jun 2004

Iceman said:
Hello Everybody!

Well... I hope you unterstand me. I wan't to know, what the "normal japanese Man/Woman" thinks of the Americans.

Iceman

Well, my fiance is Japanese so I guess that she has no problem with me being an American. Hell, I can't think of more than 2 people the whole time I was in Japan that didn't care for me.

Ant

Knives · 6 Jul 2004

well heres 1 thing that the japanese have done about this is that they have MOVED ON WITH THERE LIVES ww2 is over and times have changed if japan really hated america then we would proboly be at war with them

Arch · 6 Jul 2004

Iceman, i asked the same question to my japanese friend. She told me that very little japanese hate america over the war, the only people who do are older genration who lost family/friends in the atomic bombs.
So its pretty much no. I was treated great in japan, and most japanese think you are american cos you are white, still got treated very well.

cricket · 6 Jul 2004

I think the Japanese people thinks highly and is still awed by America.
They like to think of the U.S as their big brother.

Just like most countries, they also have a love-hate relationship with America.
Their mentor but also their rival, in many sense of the word.

Lately,there have been many arguments of Japan should stand on her own feet and
to decide things without America's influence.

Not long ago,there was a best seller book by the Governor of Tokyo,Ishihara Shintaro whose title is "The Japan that can say No". More and more people nowadays feels that way,especially with this Iraq thing.

I used to envy the Americans before (my father is a green card holder,though) but now,having a U.S passport seems like a liability,what with these hostage taking and always the number one in the terrorists' lists. What a sad world!

Hayaku senso nakunaranai ka na...

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