Reasons why the Japanese so merciless to Chinese people during World War II
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Reasons why the Japanese so merciless to Chinese people during World War II
Japan believed China and the Chinese people were inferior barbarians. Now with the Nazis, these racist attitudes were the basis of their ideology. In Japan, these were more like attitudes held by the general population.
Reason 2: Nationalism
The Japanese were intensely nationalistic. Now people confuse patriotism and nationalism a lot so let’s clear that up.
- “America is the greatest country on Earth but I think Iceland and Canada are great countries too” = Patriotism
- “America is the greatest country on Earth and all other nations are inferior barbarians that deserve death” = Nationalism
Now this is a VERY basic outline of nationalism and it’s missing some key concepts but you get the idea. The Japanese saw other nations as barbaric and uncivilized and had little mercy for them.
Reason 3: Bushido

There are 2 key things to grasp here
- The Japanese Military had becoming an extremely powerful political organization in recent years. They had a stranglehold on all politics and Japan’s identity overall
- The Japanese Miltary had revived the “Bushido” code, seeing it as their warrior tradition. This code viewed death as honorable and surrender as a great shame.
So this uber-power military had come to view surrendering enemies as inferior and dishonorable. This opened the flood gates so to speak and gave Japanese soldiers justification to brutalize surrendering enemies.
Reason 4: War
News flash, war sucks. We’ve seen images and videos of how horrid war can be in the recent Ukraine war. Well WW2 was 10,000 times worse.
“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.”
-Ernest Hemmingway
The truth is that when men are in war, their ethics…. slide shall we say. You are hungry, dirty, and afraid at all times. You’ve seen your friends die and fear that you will be next. This all makes ou angry, wrathful, and bloodthirsty.
If even 5% of an Army decides to commit war crimes the devastation will be horrific. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of men, armed to the teeth with hyper-deadly weapons. Think about what 1 mass shooter can do in a few minutes. Now imagine if there were 100,000 of them.
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