On another thread we have a number of people discussing the Japanese Prime Minister's apology/non-apology for forcing comfort women into prostitution with the Japanese Imperial Army in WWII. What I'd like to discuss is war guilt and the moral basis for warfare.

What strikes me is how there is a constant clamor for the Japanese and Germans to accept their war guilt while there is rarely any similar clamor for an acceptance by the Allied countries to admit their guilt in crimes against humanity. Now, I take it for granted that the Allies were less cruel and committed fewer acts that could be considered "criminal" than the Axis countries. (If you want to argue otherwise, please start another thread.) What I would like to point out, however, is that the reason why the Allied countries managed to take the moral high ground in World War II isn't simply because the people in those countries are morally better people. It has to do with geography and history and this history reveals that the Allies simply managed to get their atrocities out of the way before they were described as war crimes.

Why did the Allies defeat the Axis forces in WWII? You can't argue that this was due to superior Allied tactics or weaponry as many Axis planes, tanks, etc. were admittedly superior to Allied equipment and the Axis inflicted far more casualties on the Allied forces overall than vice versa. What defeated the Axis was the enormous production by the Allied powers, especially the United States. While the US fought Britain twice in its first fifty years of existence, the cultural connections between the two nations have led to the two having cordial relations ever since the mid-19th century. So what led to the Anglo-Americans coming to dominate most of the world and being able to defeat Germany? Germany cruised over all the continental armies except for the Russians. So what held up Germany from conquering Britain? Simply put, the English channel. That barrier has allowed Britain to only rarely be the subject of foreign invasion and yet is small enough that trade easily crosses so England has the best of both worlds. It received all the cultural benefits of Europe without having to be subject to all the destructive wars on the continent.

And so England became a major power while the mainland countries were periodically devastated by warfare. These wars also influenced the character of these nations. Countries in Europe, especially in the middle of the continent where natural barriers to foreign invasion were nil (eg// Germany) developed xenophobic attitudes and regarded foreigners with far more suspicion than the English did.

The American colonists inherited the English character and conquered themselves a country. Don't for a moment think that this was done without bloodshed. The all but complete destruction of the Native Americans within the area that became the United States was done with considerable bloodshed and atrocities were commonplace, on both sides. But the Native Americans could argue they were defending their homelands. The Europeans who moved to the US had no such justification. They didn't think they were committing evil but from the Native American perspective it definitely was. We still hold Germany in moral bondage for its association with the Holocaust yet why don't we similarly hold the Americans to moral condemnation for slaughtering countless Indians? Yes, the Holocaust was more organized a genocide than the one perpetrated against the Native Americans, but how does that defend the slaugher of Indians and justify the continued condemnation of Germany?

By the time of the World Wars the Anglo-Americans (and the French and Dutch) had already conquered their colonies and were on top of the world. Germany was united relatively late, something that can definitely be attributed at least in part to the fact that as a Central European country it was subject to a lot more destructive warfare than the rest of Western Europe. Germans were understandably jealous of the colonies of their neighbors but by the time they got their act together there weren't many "free" areas for the taking and what was left wasn't that desirable from a colonial perspective. Plus, the mentality of the world was changing. Overt, aggressive warfare was no longer seen as honorable or decent, no doubt in part to the fact that the Western Europeans had already conquered their empires and if the political situation changed it could only affect them in a negative way. And so, when WWI came, Germany was easily seen by most of the world as the aggressor and bearing the guilt for the war. And the fact that the Allies won the war made Germany's moral position as the defeated, guilty power all the more inescapable.

And it was in the first half of the 20th century that the perceptions of war changed. No longer was warfare considered a glorious action, but something to be abhored and feared. Nations changed from having Ministers of War to having Ministers of Defence. But Germany hadn't extinguished the old attitudes to warfare and this, plus their understandable desire for revenge for their defeat in WWI and recovery of lost territory started WWII. Germany and Japan lost because they were not only outnumbered, they had no way of bombing American factories. The US has no enemies in the western hemisphere that could threaten them while Germany was surrounded by enemies who could and did bomb Germany's factories and cities. Anglo-American superiority in numbers and production, and the protection of its armed forces and armaments from foreign attack, won the war.

And how did the Anglo-Americans come to enjoy such an unassailable position? Through the genocide of the Native Americans and other indigenous groups that originally occupied the lands of Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand and all the other colonies and former colonies of the British Empire. So don't act so smug and self-righteous. Our ability to be friendly to our enemies, and feed and clothe them, is the result of our having all but completely wiped out native peoples so we could exploit their countries and defeat our own enemies back in the Old Country.