Why no decent WW2 Japanese solider Bust?

[jjgurk]

I'm currently reading Max Hasting's "NEMESIS", The Battle For Japan 1944-45 and it is an excellent and sobering read. There are quite a few personal insights from both sides of the conflict. As to men who stood out, there could be a few, but this book has really given me some terrific insight into the endgame of the war in the Pacific. Highly reccomended.
John

 

[Nappy1]

Who Cares...

My take on the lack of Japanese figures centers around their unbelieveable atrocities and barbarism in WWII, including POW cannalbalism, random beheading of prisoners, starvation of POW's, and medical experiments on POW's and civilians that out-Nazied the Nazis. And you can read about the rape of Nanking if anyone wants more stomach-churning details.

No busts of Jap soldiers? Who cares.

 

[Barke02]

Woooaa! Steady on.

I can't believe this is a model based forum sometimes.

Don't forget the biggest crime was the war itself, and how it can make seemingly normal rational people do very disturbing things. It allowed absolute psycho loonies to be listened to and obeyed, and I'm not talking about politicians, I mean corporals, sergeants and officers.

I consider myself to be a rational human being, but I still suffer the odd bout of road rage. The only difference between now and then is that I have to swallow my pride and get on with it, rather than declare you all inferior beings and have you all killed!

Atrocities are committed by all sides during wartime, how many people have to die to make it an 'atrocity', 1, 2, 100?

Every battle in history has been an atrocity,....and a shame, and a tragedy....

I personally think the lack of Asian WW2 figures is based more on the lack of translated into English language first person memoirs.

It is only recently that those of the English speaking world have become 'au fait' with the history of people like Wittmann and Pieper, and that is only because it has been translated for them. If the same were to happen with Japanese war heroes/victims then I'm sure we'd see a shift in the western modeling world eventually.

Is it not ignorance that leads us into war in the first place?

Cheers,
Jon.

 

[tonydawe]

Gents,

Please let's not fall into the trap of playing the "blame game" here. As Jon rightly points out, the real atrocity is war itself. Both the Allies and Axis powers committed atrocities in WW2 (and in previous and subsequent wars). The difference is the Allies won the war, and it is they who get to right the history of that war.

I recently saw the documentary "Fog of War" which recalls the life of times of US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. He said the decision by US Air Force General Curtis LeMay to fire bomb over 80 Japanese cities with incendiary bombs was a "war crime". More civilians died in those bombings than in both atomic bomb attacks combined (Japanese cities were mainly built of wood in those days). There is no doubt that the RAF firebombing of Dresden could also be seen as a war crime, particularly from a German perspective. My father in law participated in those attacks as an rear gunner in Lancaster. There is guilt and shame on all sides.

Even the other day, our local newspapers ran a previously untold story about a massacre of Beduion tribesmen committed by the Australian Light Horse in Palestine, after WW1 had ended. This incident has tarnished the otherwise proud and noble image of the Australian Lighthorse, but it won't stop me from making figures of Lighthorsemen,or SS soldiers or Japanese soldiers

There may be many reason for the paucity of Japanese WW2 busts , but one thing is for sure. History is written by the victors. Those who lose wars, must not only endure the shame of defeat but the cold, dead hand of history on their shoulder.

The real atrocity is war itself.