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Originally Posted by edelweiss
Apparently the OP hasn't heard the the axiom "History is written by the victors". All historical events are white-washed after the fact by the people on the side of the winners. True from ancient history until now.
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This held true for more ancient history, but less so for WW2. Our history from the WW2 is not all hearsay, we have plenty of audio and video from the war, as well as stories from reporters on the scene, who wrote down what they saw as it happened.
We have movies and photographs taken by Japanese and German soldiers (you can find them on Youtube if you like) which recordered their deeds (and sometimes attrocities). We recovered official transcripts in German and Japanese of staff meetings between military commanders. We also have intercepts of messages between government/command/soldiers which were obtained when the Japanese and German military codes were broken, not to mention hard copies of most of this information.
No doubt some "coloring" was done, but very little was necessary; no one with an iota of intelligence can deny that the Germans and Japanese were truly evil enemies. No tears were shed by the lands of the conquered when the Germans and Japanese were finally driven out.
History has been revised somewhat in Japan, not because the Japanese believe what they did in the war was right, but because even after more than 60 years the shame of their wrongs is still unendurable.
I believe this is wrong. The main reason I believe this is wrong is because there are some Japanese who haven't learned. They drive around in trucks painted with the Emperor's seal and the Japanese flag. These trucks have speakers on top from which messages similar to those of the war are blared out "Japan is the best, the Emporer is Divine, Foreigners are bad..." etc. These people wear uniforms with the Japanese battle flag on one arm and the Swastika on the other. They are the Japanese equivalent of the KKK. These people demonstrate at the various train stations, parks, government buildings. There are often fights between these idiots and those older people who remember the war, and who don't want to see such things repeated.