This decade old article pretty much sums up, in general if somewhat questionably in detail, why Japan has managed to preserve in government and society some of the features which took it to war and which still allow it to avoid confronting and dealing with its past, so that its nationalist elements still remain a threat to Japanese and regional stability where Germany has long since dealt with and disposed of those issues.
And a lot of that comes back to MacArthur as the old Asia hand choosing to preserve the Emperor to assist the Occupation rather than imposing a crushing a defeat on the Japanese people, as happened with the German people. Overall, this looks like another of Mac’s great disasters as one of the greatest commanders in history, according to him and his adoring public as informed by his huge personal propaganda machine.
As Auschwitz has become a symbol of the Jewish Holocaust and Nazi atrocities in World War II, Nanking has become the symbol of the Japanese military’s monstrous and savage cruelty in the Asian-Pacific War from 1931-1945. But in comparison to the Jewish Holocaust, relatively little has been written about the atrocities committed by the Japanese military in China, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia, where close to 50 million people died as a consequence of Japanese aggression. In China alone, an estimated 30 million people lost their lives. While there are thousands of volumes, numerous museum exhibits, documentaries, and feature films about the Holocaust, literature about the Japanese atrocities has been scant in the fifty years since the end of the war. In fact, Eugene B. Sledge has written that “the best kept secret about World War II is the truth about the Japanese atrocities” (Sledge, 297).
Why has this part of World War II been kept from the world, and why has the present-day Japanese government not faced up to its militarist past and has eluded justice? For one thing, the Japanese government has utilized, for all that it was worth, its position as the primary victim of the war because of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Because the United States felt guilty and responsible for the bombings, we helped Japan rebuild and nurtured Japan’s victim status. For another, the Cold War made it necessary for the United States to cultivate Japan as an ally to counter the Soviet and Chinese threat; therefore, its past transgressions were overlooked. China has also played a significant part in not publicizing the wartime atrocities because it was engaged in a vicious civil war of its own after World War II. And after the civil war concluded, both China and Taiwan “needed Japan to play off against each other” and subsequently needed Japan as a trading partner (“The Forgotten Victims of World War II”). Therefore, China has never demanded an apology or reparations.
Probably the most important reason for Japan’s reticence, lack of remorse, and continued denials is what has been called the Showa-era continuum, or the transwar continuities in Japan. The most important symbol of this continuity is the reign of Emperor Hirohito after the war. He was exonerated from any responsibility for war crimes through a secret arrangement with General MacArthur, who engineered the surrender of Japan and the subsequent U.S. occupation. Emperor Hirohito, therefore, remained in power until his death in 1989. This is the equivalent of exonerating Hitler from war crimes committed by Germany during World War II. Along with the emperor, a great number of politicians, bureaucrats, and technocrats continued their positions in the public sector after a brief respite. They received a slap on the wrist and then went back to work. It was because of this continuity that Japan would never admit to the Rape of Nanking, preferring to regard it as a lie, a fabrication, or just a part of war.
It is equally regrettable that in Emperor Hirohito’s Imperial Rescript, delivered on the occasion of Japan’s surrender, he never mentioned remorse, guilt, or responsibility for the war in the Pacific. He denied any aggression on the part of Japan, stating that war was declared on America and Britain “to assure Japan’s self-preservation and the stabilization of East Asia,” nor did Japan intend “to infringe upon the sovereignty of other nations or embark upon territorial aggrandizement” (Imperial Rescript, August 15, 1945). Therefore, he admitted to no wrong-doing or the commitment of any war crimes. Japan came away with a clean bill of health.
However, as the century draws to a close, there are renewed calls to bring Japan to justice. Japan must come to terms with its past. As the Nobel Laureate for literature, Oe Kenzaburo, aptly noted: “[Japan’s] unwillingness to come to terms with its past is not just morally offensive (emphasis added), it prevents Japan from playing its proper role in Asia” (“Denying History Disables Japan,” New York Times, July 2, 1995).
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-497785_ITM
during Korean war.