C Lund wrote:

> So... basically you're a kook with a cause...

That's about the size of it. Which is not to say that the accusations 
are totally without foundation:

 >Special military units conducted physiological experiments on
 >civilians and POWs. One of the most infamous units was Unit 731. 
 >Victims were subjected to vivisection without anesthesia,
 >amputations, and were used to test biological weapons, among
 >other experiments.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes#Experiments_on_human_beings)

Shusaku Endo's most famous novel, The Sea and Poison, explores the guilt 
- at a personal and national level - arising from such actions.

And, while it is arguable that Japan has not done enough to expiate the 
guilt of this and other shameful episodes in its not so distant past, it 
is also true (for example) that it is only in the last year or so that 
Britain has acknowledged the existence of a torture chamber in London, 
both during and after the war.

I'd be the first to agree that Japanese Whaling Science Unit 731 and 
wwerewolff@yahoo.com (in the "Do Japanese people have personalities?" 
thread, http://tinyurl.com/ku7xo) are fanatical and one-sided in their 
condemnations (the one of Japan, the other of America; perhaps they 
should get together!). The latter, in particular, gives credence to some 
very dubious sources.

But - while they may be completely unbalanced in their views - there is 
a grain of truth underlying their prejudices.

Now, if they could tone down their one-sided condemnations on the one 
hand, and throw the collective guilt of almost every nation on earth 
into the balance on the other, they might come to realise that the evils 
they recount are not the particular legacy of any one nation or culture 
but - lamentably - a part of the human condition.

John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com