The Debate over Japan... WW2

Err... Me and YL are having this debate...
(Although I'm supposed to be doing my lab report, but what the heck...)

I shall not post up the entire comment things lar, but I shall give a brief description...

YL: Japan at fault in World War 2!!! Their reasons for invading are not justifiable...

Me: Japan is wrong during WW2, but you can't blame Everything onto them!!!


Back then...
Japan was a very ambitious country, and they lacked true natural resources...
Also they were the only Asian country with a blooming industrial economy at that time, they were afraid that without the much needed raw materials, they would not be able to grow...
As they were ruled by the militarist clique then, they would tend to use more agressive ways of obtaining it...
So Japan invaded Manchuria, the Northeast of China, in an attempt to increase their supply of resources...

The United States and Britain reacted by giving loans to China, funding their military, and increasingly tried to restrict the amount of raw materials going into Japan...
On August, 1941, United States initiated a complete oil embargo on Japan...
This has a very great impact on Japan, for it threatened to cripple both the Japanese economy and military strength...

Japan choose to go into war over resources rather than appeasing the US...
At that time, Japan hated US power in the region and the US did not trust Japanese intentions...
The two were often in competition for resources...
Some Americans began to develop racist feelings towards Japanese and other Asian Americans...
Several laws were also passed in America and Canada which were more or less prejudiced against the Japanese and other Asians...


Thus I shall say this again...
Japan may be at fault during world war two, but it is ridiculous to blamed everything on them...
They may be at wrong when they tried to invade China, but if the west hadn't tried to gain too much power, or tried to help china by loaning them money and restricting the much needed resources to Japan, Japan probably wouldn't feel the need to expand their territory in asia in order to get the natural resources essential for growth and survival...

History books doesn't says this, you know why??
Because they are written by the "WINNERS" of the war...
You think those winners will record down everything that happened in war??
Nope, unfortunately, they happened to have very "selective" memories...


YL says that it doesn't justify their actions...
But who are we to judge whether their reasons are justifiable??
At different era and at different cultures, any reasons they give may not be good enough for us, but it may be a matter of national honour to them!!!

Nationalism ---> an ideology that holds that a nation is the fundamental unit for human social life, and takes precedence over any other social and political principles....
Japan sured valued it greatly...
And the constant struggle for natural resources...
As we know, Japan truely lacks in it, so for the survival of their country, Japan needs to find ways to gain those resources or faced the consequences...
They may take the "wrong" approach through war, but in their eyes, it is sacrificed for their country...

They are very cruel to many people in WW2...
But... Tell me...
How many conquerers do not torture or kill many civilians during wartime??

War is cruel...
Winners in War are even more so, no matter which nationality they are from...