August 8, 2025
Cliff Potts, WPS News

For 80 years, Japan has wept beneath the shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And yes—those bombings were horrifying. Civilians were incinerated, radiation scarred generations, and the world was shown the true face of technological slaughter. But we need to ask a harder question—one the Japanese state and far too many of its citizens have never seriously confronted:

Where is Japan’s remorse for what it did before the bombs fell?

Because while the world watches somber ceremonies and hears poetry from survivors, the bodies buried in Nanjing, Manila, Seoul, and Hanoi rot in historical silence. And that silence is intentional.

The Forgotten Brutality

Let’s stop pretending Japanese imperialism was anything but genocidal. In Nanjing, the Japanese army raped 20,000 to 80,000 women and butchered over 200,000 civilians in 1937–1938 (Chang, 1997). In the Philippines, Manila became a slaughterhouse in 1945, as retreating Japanese forces massacred over 100,000 civilians (Bolaños, 2020). In Korea, girls as young as 12 were forced into sexual slavery as “comfort women” for the Imperial Army (Yoshimi, 2000).

Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia—the list goes on. Japan’s wartime record is soaked in torture, starvation, forced labor, and institutionalized sexual violence. But if you ask Japanese textbook committees, those were “incidents.” If you ask Japanese prime ministers? You’ll get hedging, dancing, and language that’d make a Holocaust denier blush.

Germany Faced Its Sin. Japan Never Did.

Germany, for all its failings, did what Japan never had the courage to do. It put its crimes on trial. It built memorials. It made education about the Holocaust mandatory. It paid reparations. Its leaders have stood on the ashes of Auschwitz and said, “We did this. And we were wrong.”

Japan? It still has government officials who visit the Yasukuni Shrine, where Class-A war criminals are honored as martyrs. Still has politicians denying comfort women existed. Still whitewashes textbooks. Still paints itself as the victim of WWII, rather than one of its most sadistic aggressors.

Capitalism, Samurai-Style

You want to talk cruelty? I’ve worked for Japanese corporations. Let’s just say the worship of hierarchy, obedience, and silent suffering didn’t vanish in 1945. Toyota doesn’t cut off your head with a sword, but the dehumanizing culture still thrives. The Emperor-God is gone, but the reverence for power remains.

And no—this isn’t “just like American capitalism.” That excuse is lazy and blind. Japan’s brutality didn’t come from Christianity, colonization, or capitalism. It came from inside the culture itself: a militant nationalism married to divine authority and zero accountability. That fusion still echoes today in the way it dodges the truth.

Maybe the Bombs Let Them Off Easy

It’s a hard thing to say, but someone needs to: the atomic bombs may have spared Japan from facing full global judgment. Two bombs ended the war instantly. There were no Tokyo firebombing trials. No wide public reckoning. No tribunals for mid-level officers. And certainly no national soul-searching like Germany endured.

Instead, Japan got to step into the role of victim—a role it wears well, and with great emotional theater.

Conclusion

This isn’t about denying the horror of Hiroshima. It’s about refusing to let that horror whitewash the crimes that came before it. If Japan wants the world to hear its pain—and it should—it must also speak honestly about the pain it caused.

Until then, Hiroshima can’t be the end of the story. It’s just the place where a different kind of silence began.

REFERENCES (APA Format)

Bolaños, A. (2020). The Manila Massacre: WWII Atrocity in the Philippines. Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Chang, I. (1997). The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. Basic Books.
Yoshimi, Y. (2000). Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II. Columbia University Press.

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