There are many fallacies to your argument. Some German criminals got away, yes, as some criminals always get away, but the vast majority were punished. Building weapons, for whomever, is not a crime, but using them the way the Nazis and the Japanese did is.
Even disregarding the example of Wernher Von Braun and the assorted scientists we will still end up with literally thousands of Top Nazis who escaped prosecution after ww2. Many did go to work for the Allies.
In the words of Eli Rosenbaum of the justice Department (well known Nazi hunter and spokesperson for the Holocaust survivors )
"the real winners of the Cold War were Nazi criminals, many of whom were able to escape justice because East and West became so rapidly focused after the (Second World) War on challenging each other that they lost their will to pursue Nazi perpetrators
And they even deemed some of the criminals to be useful allies in conducting Cold War intelligence operations"
to cut a long story short; some of the Most wanted Nazis (along with thousands of others) escaped, and some worked for the ww2 Victors.
These infamous Characters include
Josef Mengele "The Angel of Death" who carried out the horrid human experiments during ww2.
Klaus "Butcher of Lyon" Barbie, of the Gestapho
(he worked for the CIA after ww2 )
Adolf Eichmann "The architect of the Holocaust"
the list goes on.
Even to this day, some of the files pertaining to the cooperation between Nazi war criminals and the Allies intelligence/governments after ww2 are still classified.
What exactly should the Japanese do? Fully recognize and apolgoize for their crimes. I don't expect them to pay reparations or try the war criminals who are still alive, but I do expect them to at least recognize what they've done and do so at the extent that Germany has done.
I agree with this. I'm quite surprised that they didnt already. I was under the impression that the Axis nations apologized after the ww2. This is the least they could do.
And for the record, the amount the Japanese suffered isn't nearly as brutal as years of occupation but that's not really the point. Making them suffer just as much as the Chinese, Vietnamese, Koreans, Philipinos, etc. did will only perpetuate the cycle of violence. To continue your biblical theme, all the Japanese have to do is to confess their sins.
Of course; I never meant they were equal or downplay the suffering the other nations endured under the axis. I agree with your statement. Japan should at least make a full apology.
My post was actually a reply to some in this thread who claimed that post ww2 Germany was actually better than post ww2 Japan. Many of the Germans who supported the allies during ww2, and especially those brave men who tried to assassinate Hitler; were treated as outcasts by the German population well into the late 60s. I remember listening to the story of a doctor (who was the son of one of the Germans who tried to assassinate Hitler) explain the discrimination he and people like him faced in post ww2 Germany. For all the "apologies" the government was making; there was a strong undercurrent; even amongst his fellow students and teachers in his school that was pro Nazi. He and his ilk were called "traitors" by most of the Germans.
Even God doesn't forgive those who don't confess and repent, why should we?
Well said.
on an unrelated note, as an Advaitin Hindu and as someone who believes in democracy; I find the concept of god (which implies inequality) a figment of the human imagination.
