Odious, laughable WWII revisionism by Australian Prime Minister

[Rising_Sun]

.
.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/prime-minister-shinzo-abe-vows-japan-will-never-again-follow-the-path-of-war/story-fn59nm2j-1226981494689

Japan and Australia, suitably concerned by the possibility of Chinese expansionism, are somewhat desperately sucking up to each other at top political levels, demonstrating in the process that hypocritical conservative Japanese politicians denying the reality of their nation’s conduct in WWII can’t hold a candle to hypocritical conservative Australian politicians denying the reality of their nation’s conduct when it comes to licking each other’s arses in the interests of mutual survival.

Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott (a.k.a. The Mad Monk, referring to his time as a trainee priest and somewhat erratic life long conduct and opinions) said yesterday in welcoming Japan’s Prime Minister Abe to the Australian Parliament, and referring to a specific group of Japanese submariners who attacked in Australian waters* but clearly using them as emblems for the whole of Japan’s military conduct to cosy up to Abe:

"even at the height of World War II, Australians “admired the skill and the sense of honour that they brought to their task although we disagreed with what they did”.

“Perhaps we grasped, even then, that with a change of heart the fiercest of opponents could be the best of friends.”

What a load of appallingly ill-informed and idiotic rubbish!

Contrast Abbott’s absurd historical revisionism and offensive sycophancy with contemporary Australian WWII opinions about the Japanese, such as Australia’s commander General Thomas Blamey:

“Fighting Japs is not like fighting normal human beings. The Jap is a little barbarian…. We are not dealing with humans as we know them. We are dealing with something primitive. Our troops have the right view of the Japs. They regard them as vermin.”

As for seeing during WWII the possibility that with a change of heart we could be the best of friends, I’m old enough to remember plenty of WWII generation Australians, and not necessarily returned service people, who wouldn’t buy a Japanese car, as indeed there were plenty of Jews here who would never buy a German car.

I have long been critical of the duplicity of the likes of Abe in denying Japan’s crimes against humanity and war crimes in China and the Pacific War, but my contempt for them doesn’t begin to register on the scale of my contempt and disgust for the Prime Minister of my nation in making inane and utterly wrong statements about Australian attitudes to Japan during WWII.

I suspect those of my parents’ WWII generation still alive generally share my amazement at our Prime Minister’s disgraceful arse licking and moronic rewriting of history for current political purposes. Those Australians not alive, including the many thousands who died at the hands of an enemy devoid of any concept of honour as understood by Westerners, must be spinning in their graves.

The bodies of the four Japanese crewmen from the midget submarines launched by I-22 and I-27 were recovered when these two midget submarines were raised. They were cremated at Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs Crematorium with full naval honours. Rear Admiral Muirhead-Gould, in charge of Sydney Harbour defences, along with the Swiss Consul-General and members of the press, attended the service. The admiral’s decision to accord the enemy a military funeral was criticised by many Australians but he defended his decision to honour the submariners’ bravery. He also hoped that showing respect for the dead men might help to improve the conditions of the many Australians in Japanese prisoner of war camps.
http://www.ww2australia.gov.au/underattack/sydharbour.html

Yeah, that worked well for the poor bastards in Japanese POW camps, e.g. Sandakan, where only six of about one thousand Australian POWs survived after the Japanese men of honour tried to exterminate all of them to remove evidence of their war crimes. https://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/stolenyears/ww2/japan/sandakan/

[JR11]

I had not heard of these comments, RS* - but what do you expect ? He is a politician. Seriously, these comments appear crass and excessive, even in the context of political “cosying”. Have you ever seen the “Not the Nine-O-Clock News” sketch, “This is the sort of politician …”? Best regards, JR.

[garm1and]

In the U.S. of A, I think we would also describe your PM’s comments as " Political Correctness."

[H_I_Sutton]

From my understanding they are not entirely without basis even if they are selective history. The memory of WW2 is no doubt bitter for many, but there were times when there was respect and admiration of sorts, particularly the midget sub attack on Sydney.

[Rising_Sun]

@H_I_Sutton

From my understanding they are not entirely without basis even if they are selective history. The memory of WW2 is no doubt bitter for many, but there were times when there was respect and admiration of sorts, particularly the midget sub attack on Sydney.

Not from any average citizens of my parents’ generation who lived through WWII in Australia, as distinct from Muirhead-Gould’s hopeless attempt favourably to impress the Japanese in the hope of helping Australian POWs in Japanese hands.

I base my opinion on the strongly held views of my parents’ generation rather than the facile view from a usually reliable historical commentary that an editorial piece in a newspaper represented popular opinion http://ajrp.awm.gov.au/ajrp/ajrp2.nsf/pages/NT0001200E?openDocument , not least because editorials are usually attempts by newspapers to influence public opinion. (There are also countless other idiotic and historically wrong newspaper opinions from know all / know nothing journalists, such as the assertion that treatment of Australian prisoners improved after the submariners’ funeral. Tell that to the poor bastards on the Burma Railway.) If public opinion corresponded with the editorial and Muirhead-Gould, there should have been a rather better public presence out of 7 million or so Australians at the funeral than “The sole mourner was an unidentified grey-haired woman in the chapel among the representatives and reporters.”

By the time of the funeral, plenty of information had filtered back to Australians about the cruelty and barbarity of Japanese troops in their various massacres of captured Australian and other troops and civilians; hospital patients; Chinese in Singapore and elsewhere; Rabaul massacres, and so on, which merely reinforced the already well established reputation of the Japanese as cruel and barbarous from well-publicised events such as the Nanking massacre.

Our current Prime Minister’s statement that "even at the height of World War II, Australians “admired the skill and the sense of honour that they brought to their task although we disagreed with what they did” reflects at best a reprehensible ignorance of history and at worst a typical politician’s willingness to corrupt and misrepresent everything necessary to achieve their current objective.

Our Prime Minister dishonours every Australian who fought and especially all those who died fighting Japan with such obnoxious and historically idiotic statements.

The man is an unmitigated **** when it comes to respecting our current and past service people, but he probably can’t help it because he is a professional politician and they are by nature given to promising a land fit for heroes to those who actually offer their lives for the nation. Those promises are never honoured.

Our Prime Minister is currently big noting himself in Iraq with our troops after denying them a fair pay increase and reducing existing benefits.

He has not earned and does not command any respect for his views on anything to do with past or current service people. It is insulting to see him visiting troops in Iraq when he is cutting their pay and benefits. Like most khaki politicians who have never served, he is happy to ride on the backs of service people while treating them like shit.

He’s of the same ilk in Britain and America who, despite motherhood statements, treat veterans with contempt, while boosting the interests of the big end of town which provides the big dollars for campaign funds to ensure that the big end of town’s interests are protected by the service people who do the bidding of governments committed to the interests of the big end of town.

They’re all a bunch of arseholes who, collectively, aren’t worth one grunt who puts his life on the line for them and their interests.

Yeah, these are memes, but they sum it up nicely.

Note the screen at back.

[Rising_Sun]

@H_I_Sutton

From my understanding they are not entirely without basis even if they are selective history. The memory of WW2 is no doubt bitter for many, but there were times when there was respect and admiration of sorts, particularly the midget sub attack on Sydney.

Not from any average citizens of my parents’ generation who lived through WWII in Australia, as distinct from Muirhead-Gould’s attempt favourably to impress the Japanese in the hope of helping Australian POWs in Japanese hands.

I base my opinion on the strongly held views of my parents’ generation rather than the facile view from a usually reliable commentary that an editorial piece in a newspaper represents popular opinion http://ajrp.awm.gov.au/ajrp/ajrp2.nsf/pages/NT0001200E?openDocument , not least because editorials are usually attempts by newspapers to influence public opinion. If public opinion corresponded with the editorial and Muirhead-Gould, there should have been a rather better public presence out of 7 million or so Australians at the funeral than “The sole mourner was an unidentified grey-haired woman in the chapel among the representatives and reporters.”

By the time of the funeral, plenty of information had filtered back to Australians about the cruelty and barbarity of Japanese troops in their various massacres of captured Australian and other troops and civilians; hospital patients; Chinese in Singapore and elsewhere; Rabaul massacres, and so on, which merely reinforced the already well established reputation of the Japanese as cruel and barbarous from well-publicised events such as the Nanking massacre.

Our current Prime Minister’s statement that "even at the height of World War II, Australians “admired the skill and the sense of honour that they brought to their task although we disagreed with what they did” reflects at best a reprehensible ignorance of history and at worst a typical politician’s willingness to corrupt and misrepresent everything necessary to achieve their current objective.

Our Prime Minister dishonours every Australian who fought and especially all those who died fighting Japan with such obnoxious and historically idiotic statements.

The man is an unmitigated **** when it comes to respecting our current and past service people, but he probably can’t help it because he is a professional politician and they are by nature given to promising a land fit for heroes to those who actually offer their lives for the nation. Those promises are never honoured.

Our Prime Minister is currently big noting himself in Iraq with our troops after denying them a fair pay increase and reducing existing benefits.

He has not earned and does not command any respect for his views on anything to do with past or current service people. It is insulting to see him visiting troops in Iraq when he is cutting their pay and benefits. Like most khaki politicians who have never served, he is happy to ride on the backs of service people while treating them like shit.

He’s of the same ilk in Britain and America who, despite motherhood statements, treat veterans with contempt, while boosting the interests of the big end of town which provides the big dollars for campaign funds to ensure that the big end of town’s interests are protected by the service people who do the bidding of governments committed to the interests of the big end of town.

They’re all a bunch of arseholes who, collectively, aren’t worth one grunt who puts his life on the line for them and their interests.