Japan - True feelings?

[Paul22118]

I think the tradegy in Japan is horrendous as many have said on these pages. May I share a comment with you made by another (which I happen not to agree with but understand)
He is a Scot who was captured by the Japanese in WWII and badly starved and tortured. He survived but has always hated them for what they did to him as a man. In reespect to recent natural events he said "I was captured by the Japs in the war and was beaten, starved and tortured. They hit me hard and broke my legs and punched me so hard my stomach has never recovered. At my lowest darkest days I used to think where are you Lord when I need you most. Now I know".
Tragic is it not?

[sp1814]

-cntd-

But a huge bad point for the British Empire is that they were the leader of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the empire controlled about 90% of the slave trade and used it as a crucial factor in expanding their countries economy. This is offset slightly as the British Empire was the first to realise that all people deserved freedom and therefore they were the first to make the trade illegal in all provinces that were directly controlled by the British Empire.

From what has been seen so far it becomes obvious that the decision of whether the British Empire was good or evil is not actually that straight forward as the British Empire used the slave trade to become one of the most powerful Empires in the world but when it had equalised again after the huge upheaval due to the Industrial Revolution it then used it’s power and influence to push or even shove the abolition of slavery into the rest of the western world.

The British Empire has done many things in its long life that are both good and bad, and so it’s seems to me that the British Empire is more of a neutral faction that being good or bad. Because of this, they used the evils of the world to establish a huge empire and dominate the western world but once it had done this it used the power it had gain to stop most of the bad things that were happening at the time such as slavery.

[sp1814]

All of the above is rather badly worded, but the intent is valid. Let's try not to think of the British Empire as a force for good, or a force for evil, but think of it as an organisation who reason for being was to foster British colonial interest (and Christianity) to all four corners of the planet.

This had very positive effects (government, democracy, trade agreements) and extremely bad results (slavery, the displacement of religious practice, ethnic reorganisation).

[funkyav]

one thing british people seem to overlook is that we have been invading/torturing etc for thousands of years. Pathetic/naive/ignorant to think of the Japan disaster as any type of divine retribution

[Lonnie]

modeller, I stand by what I said, all life is nothing against the forces of nature, and compared to that, we have to make the best of any situation, but again, in perspective, against nature, wars, all wars, and i've been in enough of them, are petty.

[modeller]

poor alfie // Was your granddad tortured and bayonetted for the entertainment of the local populous ? // Had he been I don't think he would look so benevolently upon the perpetrators as you appear to do so. You have the privilege , for which your granddad died , to adopt a holier than thou attitude. Unlike you I don't need to look at pictures I worked with hundreds of ex-SS
and I know their attitude. I would add that compared with the Japs the SS were boy scouts.
On your last rather silly question . We are talking about the past wartime generation not the present one who is blameless and should be treated as such.

[modeller]

lonnie Nothing can compare with the overall power of nature but name me just one natural event that killed 60 million people and damaged several hundred million more lives in just 6 years.
You may call that piddliing and petty. I don't think many would agree with you.

[Zeuhl]

Maybe the Tsunami was the Ocean's retribution for years of deliberate cruelty by Japanese toward dolphins, whales and many other endangered marine species?
.

[Lonnie]

modeller, I'm Jewish, half my family come from Eastern Europe, half from the Middle East, so I know about the horrors that mankind inflict on mankind, also I've been around the world with the British Armed Forces, so I've seen first hand Human horrors of all kinds that you couldn't even imagine, But, I do believe, and its my belief, (everyone is entitled to different viewpoints) that you have to compare the forces of nature against the abilities of mankind to do good or evil, for me, there's no comparison.

[Zeuhl]

Lonnie
sorry, to save reading thru all previous...

do you mean mankind's abilities (good or bad) are small compared with the power and signifigance of nature?

[owdhamer]

There have been so many disasters. natural,man made, financial, etc, that i seem to be losing my feeling of sympathy. I wonder if anybody else has the same emotion