Ernest Schaal wrote:

> in article 4177C2C7.B6C3D8E4@yahoo.co.jp, Eric Takabayashi at
> etakajp@yahoo.co.jp wrote on 10/21/04 11:08 PM:
>
> > Scott Reynolds wrote:
> >
> >> Maybe people are less likely to hate their own kind. That attitude may
> >> not be right but it is not really all that surprising.
> >
> > PRECISELY!! (I will not call it wrong in and of itself. The problem is the use
> > of this double standard on others.)
> >
> > WTF are you the only one willing to admit this in this thread?
> >
> > It is true of many Japanese. It is also true of many Americans or other
> > foreigners.
>
> I will agree with you that initially the Mi Lai war crime was not believed,
> in the same way that the Watergate scandal was not believed, since it was
> hard to believe that one of our own would do something like that, but once
> the evidence because clear, there was a lot of bitterness about both.
>
> Lt. Cali was hated by veterans and peaceniks both. Because hating the crime
> itself, the veterans hated Cali for dishonoring the military and bringing
> them shame (this was a time when the peaceniks would be telling amputees
> from the war that they were "baby killers") and the peaceniks hated Cali for
> being part of the big, bad military complex. The 60s definitely was not an
> age of peace and tolerance.
>
> There may be some that still don't believe in the massacre, but they tend to
> live in wooden huts in the Northwest and are no more reflective of American
> society than men in the green trucks are reflective of Japanese society.

Now, the attention has been focused on My Lai or Abu Ghraib, but the issue is that
is hardly the limit of US wrongdoing, but the men of the US military and the US who
commit such acts (even when they are discovered) are not treated the same or
regarded the same (by Americans) as say, people from other countries who do such
acts (such as WWII Japanese).

> > PS to Ernest: It is in no way my intention to downplay the atrocious acts and
> > attitudes of Japanese in WWII, or to excuse modern attitudes, ignorance or
> > lack of interest.
>
> Thank you for the clarification. I appreciate it.

--
 "I'm on top of the world right now, because everyone's going to know that I can
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