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Old 03-29-2003, 03:58 PM   #19
Mike P
Jiggin' Leper Lawyer
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: 61° 30′ 0″ N, 23° 46′ 0″ E
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How long is a sufficient time for a nation to atone for its past sins? Lest we all forget, the only foreign invading force that ever landed on US soil after independence was the British, in the War of 1812. They burned the White House and looted the Capitol. I think we all agree that the British have atoned for that sin with interest over the years.

The Japanese planes that led the attack on Pearl Harbor were manufactured by Mitsubishi. IMO Japan has atoned sufficiently, and it's also of note to point out that this was a military attack on a military target. However, they brutalized occupied countries and their treatment of Allied POWs was atrocious. Despite all that, we treated their people magnanimously after the war, allowed Hirohito to remain in power while punishing severely the militarists who led them into war and were responsible for most of their atrocities, established self-rule after a relatively short period of occupation, and they have been a stalwart friend over the years, and remain so today in this war.

Germany is a different issue. I'm still uncomfortable buying German products. And I would not touch anything I knew was made by IG Farber (Faben?) who manufactured the Zyklon-B used as the poison to exterminate 11 million human beings. Whatever excesses the Japanese committed against the Chinese and Koreans during their occupations (and make no mistake--the SS treated POWs as badly as the Japanese), they did not engage in a campaign of mass genocide that resulted in the extermination of 11 million civilians in death camps.
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