G'day guys

Well I was at work the other day chatting to a mate there and we got on the subject of ww2, well the receponist there is a Japanese living via a work visa in Australlia, she overhead the conversation and just listened about what was being said (I was explaining what an anti-tank field gun was lol) anyway she then said to me I know japan was in the war against america and england. I said 'you forgot australia' and she replied to me 'Australia was in the war with japan?' . After a brief explanation of it she said she never knew the two countries had fought or that the japanese almost invaded australia or even about the bombing of Darwin. I expained a few more facts and mentioned about the prisoners and the attocities that the japanese did to the australian prisoners, and she was amazed 'japanese soldiers would never do that' she said. She said sorry for what her country did, this amazed me and I said you don't have to say sorry for anything you didn't do it. well I was amazed that japan had not taught there students this kinda thing.

Now I was talking to a few Germans that came into work(we get alot of backpackers coming in) and they said that they know all about the jews and the holocaust but not alot and they said that it is briefly skipped across and it is frowned apon to talk badly about jews or meation anything about neonazi's(this I can understand).

Anyway the question I have is this. Do all countries that have commited attorcities through war hide these facts from there new generations, is it a sign of guilt from the government or is it something they just want to forget?

Because here in Australia we are taught all about these facts, now does that have to do with the fact that the allies won and therefore get to 'write the history' or becuse we have no guilt, but if that is true do american's teach there students details about the atomic bombs on japan or do they skim across that.

See I don't understand becasue as I have said here we are taught all about these sorts of things and I don't think that it has to do with it being other countries because we are taught all about the attocities that the Australian government did to the indiginous people of australia during the lost geneartion and basic acts of rasicm.

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They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

Well in Japan at least there was no education about wartime attrocities until very recently, in fact I knew an English lady who was teaching over there when the first documentary about Japanese warcrimes went out, she said the next day her class sat in silence before one of the boys stood up, bowed and apologised on behalf of the class. Strange situation to be in.

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There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

The lady at work is only about 24years old so she is not too old does her age fit in the very recently time line you have?

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They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

After the war in Germany there was also something like this. It was verboten to talk about ww2. It was just skipped over in the history lessons.

Japan did that more intensive. Many generations passed and still the Japs didn't taught anything about ww2. Or maybe judt the facts about manchuria and the glorious wins before ww2. I'm not quite sure about what they just teached but I don know that's it not lang that they started teaching about it. Japan always sais that they treatened the POW's with the upmost respect and that not that many soldiers died.

I think it's just for 4 or 5 years now that they appologized for those things an admit theire mistake.

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64 pilots and crew members of bombers lay at Wevelgem communal and still today many locals pay theire respects to those brave men high in the skies.

I was watching the interviews with Japanese actors in Letters From Iwo Jima nad they all said that they never knew anyhting much about WWII, because they never even learned about it in thier history lessons. All the actors had to go through a huge private research project on Iwo Jima to get thier info level up.

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"Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts." - Cicero

When in Japan do what the Japanese do, deny everything.

WRT Japan: the first time that I bought a history book on Japan and got it home and read it, I was surprised to find that WWII -- and the occupation of China that preceded it -- took up all of about 5 pages

Yeah, I think you're on to something with your question about the victors getting to write history... but more to the point, it was the atrocities themselves that lent the final psychological justification to a war for those Allies on whose ground the war was not being fought -- i.e., the US, Canada, Oz, etc.

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It's not the number of breaths you take in life that matters but the moments that take your breath away.
Babs

I once heard from a tourist whose been beating up because he was telling lies about the war.

In fact he was just telling the truth, but those poor Japs didn't know that because it wasn't theire truth.

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64 pilots and crew members of bombers lay at Wevelgem communal and still today many locals pay theire respects to those brave men high in the skies.

I don't understand it they should teach there newer generations about such things, it is supposed to be how we change the future and prevent the same things happening again and again.

I do understand that war it all it many years will never leave humanity because there is always someone out there who thinks that they are better then someone else and want to prove it or someone who thinks this bit of land belongs to their country and so on and so onm but al least by teaching such attocrities when can at least we can try to prevent them.

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They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

Sure thing but admitting defeat is not alway funny and you know the japanese they are very proud. So it would be a blame on that proud to admit you lost.

whe've got a saying here in Belgium: "Rare jongens,die romeinen." (Actually obelix says that in Asterix and Obelix and that's a comicbook serie / cartoon/ movie.)

It means strange people, those romains. but it acually means strange people those other cultures. Don't try to understand them just leave it like that.

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64 pilots and crew members of bombers lay at Wevelgem communal and still today many locals pay theire respects to those brave men high in the skies.

but we should try to understand becasue people fear what they do not understand and by understanding each others cultures and traditions we can avoid stepping on toes and starting disputes because 'knowlege is the key to victory'.

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They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

True my friend.

But knowledge can sometimes be dangerous too.

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64 pilots and crew members of bombers lay at Wevelgem communal and still today many locals pay theire respects to those brave men high in the skies.

WW2 is rarely taught in schools unless you're taking a course specific to it. Its never included in 'General' History classes. This is my first year out of college, so i think i have a pretty good say on that.

Of course, the Winners write the History Books, so you're never taught about any American or Allied War Crimes/Atrocities, always about the Germans and Japanese and - to an extent - the Russians.

Germany - present day Germany - would love to forget about what happened during WW2 but the stigma is there and they can't get rid of it. 'Nationalism' etc is basically outlawed - no Germans fly the German Flag or anything. Sadly, its something that will probably never go away until the rest of the world is more educated on WWII and who exactly the Nazis were ("Every german is a a Nazi").

With the Japanese, it helped that they were a different 'race' so focusing hatred towards them is pretty easy. You also never hear of anything other then the atrocities the Japanese committed because its what war-time media focused on and because its the only thing you ever really hear about the Japanese in WW2.

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I disagree with that because here in Australia general ir modern history is taught as a selective subject and when I was there we learnt all about Nazism at its worst(we watched Schindlers list) and communism and all about the Japanese, plus we learnt all about basic battle plans and military disasters of ww2. But by saying that we also learnt about what Australia did to the indigenous people here in the past as well.

I do agree with everything else you said

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They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

Perhaps only in Australia then - in the States thats not the case.

All the 'Modern' History courses i took never had 'time' to cover WW2. In Highschool, for instance, we didn't get a chance to go over it at all.

I self-taught myself the majority of what I know about WW2.

It wasn't until my Senior Year of College that I took a course that touched WW2. The name of the course: Interwar Germany: 1919 - 1939

Not exactly WW2, but the closest i've gotten to taking a course that touches it. That course was actually one of my favorites - my final Research Paper was on the Paramilitary groups in Germany during that period (namely the SA) and how the Nazis used them to their advantage and as a way to avoid the '100,000 Man Army' that had been placed on them.

The course, covered everything from Women, Politics, Media, Race, and Religion in Inter-war Germany. Pretty interesting stuff.

For instance, Art in Germany.

Early 1920's it was all abstract, non-traditional etc. Some good/famous pieces. When Hitler took over, he banned all of that type of art and returned the trend to Classical, Traditional type paintings (I wonder why... )

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Well Mussolini. It probably won't suprice you but here in Belgium Ww1 and Ww2 is a part of history lessons. We even do fieldtrips to different locations. (Always funny if you know more then you're history teacher ) I can agree with the fact that ww2 isn't taugh over the entire world, but it still suprises me. It 's been a great factor in modern history. I mean atomic bombs, first jet planes, D-day, Pearl Harbor, ... to say just a few.

Hmmm know I wonder how if ww2 is educated in other countries.

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64 pilots and crew members of bombers lay at Wevelgem communal and still today many locals pay theire respects to those brave men high in the skies.

I got taught about WW2 in school. General history lessons, and as far as i can remember it was quite large scale.

It taught Why, When, What and How it ended. Nothing specific like vehicles or anything. Some politics behind it all were taught aswell.

IMO, for basic teaching it was very good!

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“It is well that war is so terrible, or we should get too fond of it.”

I'm quite a bit older than some of you and going to school in the late 60s and 70s in Canada we were taught about WWII with varying degrees of detail as we got older. Students, especially now, don't do as in depth a history of what happened when and where (at least not in the curriculum but individual teachers sometimes go much more in depth), but Remembrance Day is always a major point of the school year. Veterans Week runs from November 5 to 12. Most Teachers, particularly in grade school, get material from Veterans Affairs. Veterans Affairs Canada - Anciens Combattants Canada There are also various programs with Veterans speaking at schools. Sometimes there are projects where the students have recorded the memories of various Veterans. Veterans Affairs also runs contests for the best poem, essay, and b/w and colour posters and the winners of each category attend the Remembrance Day service on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. In recent years, the services both local and the national one have increased tremendously in the numbers who attend. There are an amazing number of young people at them.

I live in Saskatoon, and in August we also have a tribute called the "Canada Remembers Air Show" that has military exhibits, the air show including vintage planes and the Snow Birds. Sometimes there will be an American fighter jet in the show as well. They also have a static exhibit where people can see the planes.

The schools teach what the community supports. I believe that American scools, and for a time the Canadian ones as well, reacted to the anti-war sentiments of the Vietnam and post-Vietnam eras - so anything militaristic was viewed negatively and taught that way - if at all.

Michelle

Musso maybe USA is trying to hide something for you lol

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They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

When i was a young pup i can tell you that WWI & WWII were extensively taught in schools, including all the attrocities Japan perpetrated during their invasion of China, we also were extensively taught about the European theatre of war including the Holocaust, i remember seeing in school the film footage of the aftermath of the rape of Nanking, the bulldozing of Jewish bodies in the death camps, no punches were pulled, we were taught the brutallity of warfare.

Japan on the other hand refuses to teach what they did in WWII, it is a national shame they refuse to acknowledge, while others like Germany bend over backwards to acknoweledge what they did, but in some ways they are hogg tied to the past and todays generation are made to feel guilty for what their grand parents did.

Also we are constantly reminded of all the wars with Rememberance Day and also Anzac Day.

Now that you mention it, I don't think I was ever taught WWII in school either. I remember one unit on Chinese and German history. The German history stopped in 1939 or thereabouts, and never went onto WWII... Most of what I know of WWII comes from documentary-films.

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WWII-era pen-advertisement
P-51 Mustang fighter-plane.
Parker '51' fountain pen.