> Sugihara was then asked to resign by the foreign office. The official line was downsizing, though many, including his wife Yukiko, believe it was because of what happened in Lithuania.
It's important to note that, unlike Germany, Japan has never really admitted or apologized for what they did. See this shocking video by historian Mark Felton about what you can find today in a Japanese museum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngzesh6eN14
The Nazis were on a mission to annihilate the Jews, so in relative term they killed many, but in absolute terms the Japanese probably victimized a lot more people. It's just that there were a lot of Chinese people to victimize, so the magnitude of the crime is less apparent.
Their cruelty was even worse in some ways, as it was officially sanctioned and encouraged by their institutions as such. The Nazis, while they did not hide their hate for the Jews, went to some lengths to hide what they were actually doing to them -- which is probably how the German population could claim to not know what was going on. (To quote Speer: "I didn't know, I could have known, I should have known." He's been vilified but I haven't seen anything to paint him as a liar as far as this is concerned.)
Put simply, the Germans are ashamed of that past, even the Nazis had shown some signs that they knew it was shameful, but the Japanese have never demonstrated any shame.
Maybe he did, but the deniability was indeed plausible. And I'm aware that many doubt his sincerity, and it's perfectly reasonable to do so. That being said, I find his explanation not just plausible as well but more useful as an explanation. People chose not to see or believe what was too inconvenient. See cognitive dissonance. That explains how the Nazis got them to do what they did. Note that I'm not saying that they were ignorant of every crime, just that they were spared the undeniable knowledge of the most offensive ones, making it easier to support or at least fail to oppose the régime. Deporting the Jews was bad enough, and that was done in plain sight, but not quite as unpalatable as their mass murder.
The point here is that Japanese soldiers were massively trained to perform horrible things. They mistreated prisoners of war, civilians, anyone, everywhere, and new recruits were forced to perform horrors as part of their induction. Germans on the other hand respected the rules of war in the West (though certainly not in the East) for instance, except obviously for the SS. They were certainly keen to appear legit in that respect. The Japanese were not, ever.
> In the letter to Jeanty, written on December 23 1971, Speer wrote: "There is no doubt - I was present as Himmler announced on October 6 1943 that all Jews would be killed".
Not much plausible deniability there. He lied at the time to avoid being executed.
(To quote Speer: "I didn't know, I could have known, I should have known." He's been vilified but I haven't seen anything to paint him as a liar as far as this is concerned.)
Read Gitta Sereny's "Albert Speer, his battle with the truth". It's a thick book, but fascinating. She casts serious doubt on Speer's assertion that he didn't know about the death camps, or that Jews were systematically being exterminated.
> However I think you're grossly building up Germans as ignorant goodmen.
That's not at all what I'm saying, if you mean Germans during WW2. However if we're talking about today, it's certainly the case that Germans are unequivocal about their past while Japanese people as a whole are not.
It's important to note that, unlike Germany, Japan has never really admitted or apologized for what they did. See this shocking video by historian Mark Felton about what you can find today in a Japanese museum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngzesh6eN14
The Nazis were on a mission to annihilate the Jews, so in relative term they killed many, but in absolute terms the Japanese probably victimized a lot more people. It's just that there were a lot of Chinese people to victimize, so the magnitude of the crime is less apparent.
Their cruelty was even worse in some ways, as it was officially sanctioned and encouraged by their institutions as such. The Nazis, while they did not hide their hate for the Jews, went to some lengths to hide what they were actually doing to them -- which is probably how the German population could claim to not know what was going on. (To quote Speer: "I didn't know, I could have known, I should have known." He's been vilified but I haven't seen anything to paint him as a liar as far as this is concerned.)
Put simply, the Germans are ashamed of that past, even the Nazis had shown some signs that they knew it was shameful, but the Japanese have never demonstrated any shame.