American GIs/Marines in Japan — Good Guys … or Mass Rapists?
January 2nd, 2009 From
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>Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 18:51:21 -0500 (EST)
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>To: mahan@microworks.net
>From: rickt@cris.com (Eric Bergerud)
>Subject: Re: American GIs/Marines in Japan — Good Guys … or Mass Rapists?
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>Sender: mahan-owner@microworks.net
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>
> >Eric,
> >
> >Is the U.S. historical community then taking substantive action
> > to organize a refutation of Yuki Tanaka’s charges of mass rape by GIs?
> > … a charge which … after the recent Okinawa incident … is of
> > intense interest to the Japanese people.
> >
> >Since my purging from H-War (and WWII-L, which is less vital), I’m not
> > up-to-date on developments.
> >
> >Thanks.
> >
>Lord, this is a new one on me. I haven’t heard a word about it. Lately H-War
>has been squabbling with the Minerva crowd (women infantrymen will end rape
>etc etc) and refighting the 1948 Israeli war of independence. Now…it would
>not suprise me at all if it is true that rape etc was part of the
>occupation..within limits. There have been explosive charges made in the
>past few years about GIs both taking “liberties” in Germany and turning a
>blind eye to ugly violence caused by freed POWs and camp survivors against
>local civilians. My Lai took place too. In all things of this nature, what
>is vital is scale. Compared to what the Japanese did in any of the countries
>where they met resistence, US behavior in Japan was excellent. BTW: Japan is
>a country where rape is very sensitive. It is quite common in one guise or
>another (what we’d call “date rape” especially) and the Japanese have never
>looked at sex and violence in the same way as we. Now that US cultural
>values are being imported over there (probably more successfully than US
>products) the fur is starting to fly. Now a lot of Japanese blame us for
>that. The Japanese Left has always blamed us for “creating” JAPAN INC, and
>the Japanese Right blames us for all kinds of spiritual ills. A lot of
>Europeans blame the US for the ills of the late 20th Century: the underclass
>doesn’t know it’s place, less wine being drunk, no more three hour lunches,
>German students paying fees for college etc etc etc. The US is a big target.
>I think it’s a kind of mercy that the average American doesn’t know what
>goes on outside our borders. It’s also true that MOST foreigners trust our
>intentions to a degree without precedent in history. Can you think of any
>other great power that smaller nations ask to stick around?
>Eric Bergerud, 531 Kains Ave, Albany CA 94706, 510-525-0930