Quote:
Originally Posted by dogsbody70
I feel that it is important to teach younger generations. Yes 70 years ago is very distant-- but none the less truth should be told.
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I actually very much agree with you, Dogsbody. In our history education we had a very narrow scope of 'history', and what little we did learn about WW2 was very much glossed over. We were told for weeks about the evils of the Nazi government, but our own mistakes and America's (particularly Hiroshima) were completely ignored. I didn't even learn about Hiroshima and Pearl Harbour in the school environment at all. Countries like Japan didn't even exist in WW2 according to what we were taught :P
I think it's highly important for children to be given a well-rounded education. It seems very much that 'history is written by the winners', and we're that determined to be the good guys and the heroes that we ignore any parts of history that undermine that image. We want our kids to be patriotic and proud, and admitting to mistakes seems contrary to that. Of course, I don't speak for all educational systems, and I'm not sure if things have changed since I studied history either.
As for apologising for past errors, I agree with Dayanx. If a country has made a mistake then it needs to apologise for it, it's not so much that it gives closure but it reassures the victims involved that things have changed, that the other country knows it was wrong and that it'll endeavour not to commit the same error again.