Japan probe・South Korea protests about new Japanese history textbook
Japan Probe・Japanese veteran talks abour war experiences in China
全文は下記に掲載するが、要点は、ドイツは戦争に関して二つの記憶をもっている。一つはホロコーストでもう一つは外地の占領地などでの戦争犯罪である、といい、日本ではホロコーストはなかったが、後者の戦争の記憶はドイツと共有し、日本はすでに何度も謝罪している、というものだ。
ドイツの後者の記憶については例えば、スターリングラード攻防戦などをあげ、ビデオなども紹介している。
more of the Stalingrad (1993) trailer
ウィキの記述からちょっと抽出すると、
、
ドイツ空軍は連日のように猛烈な爆撃を加えて市街のほとんどを廃墟にするとともに、ヴォルガ川を航行する船舶にも昼夜にわたり砲撃と航空攻撃を加えている。ヒトラーもパウルスも、スターリングラードは数日の攻撃で陥落できると楽観的に考えていた。8月28日になってスターリンはようやく非戦闘員の退去を許可したが、その間の爆撃で数万人の一般市民が犠牲となった。
包囲されたドイツ第6軍と枢軸国軍の将兵23万あまりのうち、パウルス元帥と24人の将軍を含む、生き残りの9万1000人が降伏した。捕虜の運命は過酷で、ベケトフカの仮収容所まで雪道を徒歩で移動する際に落伍した将兵は、凍死するか銃殺された
。
両軍とも戦闘に補給を傾注させた結果、食糧と飲料水、さらには医療機材は著しく不足した。傷病者は両軍将兵も市民も無残な最期を迎えた。ヒトラーの野望は、莫大な損失のみをもたらした。
こんな感じである。こうして、多くの捕虜や一般人が巻き込まれている。
日本では南京虐殺などの違法性を否定するものが一部いるが、しかし、広島の原爆による虐殺の違法性、中国のチベットでの虐殺の違法性を否定する論者を想起させて感心しない。
こうした違法な虐殺は現代人も真摯に受け止めるべきである。もちろん、誇張や嘘をそのまま飲めというわけではないが、一般市民や抵抗できない俘虜の虐殺は許されるべきものではないし、正当化されない。
いわゆるホロコーストは戦争勃発以前からはじまっており、論理的には区別されるべきものではある。
で、この視点はジョージさんがおっしゃるように重要だとおもうのだが、様々な差異があることはある程度わかるのだが、決定的な差異というのはなんなだろうか？
どなたか、歴史に詳しい方、ご教示いただければありがたい。
Comment by Georgie Pye
2009-04-11 01:21:15
“releasing a textbook denying the holocaust is a punishable offense according to the german penal code. ”
I do wish people would stop comparing apples with pears. Germany has two sets of war memory: the first where all the Germans were responsible for the Holocaust, which they have rightly acknowledged and apologised for; and the second where Germans occupying foreign lands and fighting in battles against foreign foes are generally seen - as they sometimes are in Japan - as normal people caught up in terrible circumstances, and who, under normal circumstance would have been “against” the evil regime. This is a pretty strong thread in popular German war discourse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3usU25Z9ICE
The second “set” of war memory is that which is broadly comparable to war memory in Japan. Japan didn’t have a Holocaust; like Germany did also, it had wars and occupations. And yet, there is, if anything, more reluctance to apologise for atrocities that occurred on the front or in occupied territories in the German case than in the Japanese. When there is some sort of apology given for this type of war action, Germany seems to run into the complexities that relate, for example, to “state-versus-individual” apologies that Japan does.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/may/11/andrewosborn
Other parallels can be observed in the religious symbols that both nations use as recognition of their soldiers. When I lived in Germany, I noted that many of the statues in villages set up to commemorate the local fallen displayed crosses or other religious symbology, most of which, in the area where I was, belonged to a variant of Christianity whose head at the time blessed Hitler and lent him legitimacy after the war. Japan, meanwhile, has Yasukuni, which also worked to confer a sort of legitimacy on Japanese leaders. But somehow, even though most Japanese actually aren’t religious, religious observances related to the war are seen as threatening to Japan’s neighbours, while Germans get to worship the same God that helped them in their wartime battles. I guess the reason for this is that reflection of the role of the Catholic Church would cut too close to the bone for many of the Second World War’s “good guys”. (Yes, yes, I know that a big chunk of Germany isn’t catholic, but the most nationalist parts were, and today the most conservative parts still are.)
http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Volkstrauertag018.JPG&filetimestamp=20061119170521
To bring things back to the textbook, as a product of both the German and the Japanese education systems, I can only remember German textbooks talking about how evil the Holocaust and the Nazi government was. I don’t remember any long soliloquy on Germany’s conduct in its occupied territories, whereas most Japanese textbooks go into events like Japan’s occupation of Manchuria and the Nanjing incident at length. Even the previous edition of the book we are talking about here - which I currently have on my desk - has a whole section on Japan’s war in China and mentions that the Japanese army killed many people in Nanjing and that this it is a controversial issue.
So Germany gets off the hook when it comes to apologies for atrocities committed during the occupation because it had the Holocaust and that overshadows everything else. Japan has to kow-tow eternally because its government didn’t slaughter its internal minorities.
Comment by Georgie Pye
2009-04-11 12:14:29
Yeah man, what LB said (except for the bit about the French, Italians, Swiss and Danes.
und bisdem du ja schon ein bisschen deutsche Geschichte gelernt hast oder, ja, danach Japanische, kannst du mich ins Arsch ficken, netter Kerl.
What happened in China was not a Holocaust, it was war. War sucks and the Japanese government has apologised for the universal fact that war sucks and the particular fact that their one sucked in particular. What is your proof that they don’t mean it? Is it because some of their politicians refuse to acknowledge history? Come on, man, while there may be individual politicians who every now and then cast aspertions on the MAINSTREAM constrition in Japanese society for the war, I don’t think there have been any members that have split away from the LDP specifically to join a party that does things like agitate against war memory. This has happened in Germany - yes to much outrage, but similar outrage as would happen in Japan.
http://www.rep.de/content.aspx?ArticleID=d9a9921e-d293-48ee-ba5b-d84706d58625
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Republikaner#Bundestag
Look, baby, I know me some Japanese and German politics and history. Just about every example of war related thought crime you can mention in Japan, I can show you an equivalent in Germany. So please don’t lecture me about the goodness of the Germans vis-a-vis the Japanese, because I will hand you your ass.
