I notice a very bizare tendency for Westerners to praise the Japanese military of WW2. I still remember how kids and even-mind you HISTORY TEACHERS with DEGREES-to praise the Japanese soldiers in WW2 for refusing to surrender and preferring to commit suicide. In their view, its the MOST OUTSTANDING act of bravery to believe surrendering is cowardly and instead to fight to the death.
Even those who are familiar with the warcrimes of the Japanese still praise them for their discipline and insane reckless courage.
So I am fascinated. The Japanese military of WW2 did some of the most horrific crimes in modern warfare. In fact despite all the criticism on the Germans for being so evil, Japanese soldiers on average did more terrible things. Hell they even RAPED Japanese women and massacred Japanese civilians during the final days of the war for the hell of it!
But yet Muslim terrorists have the same mentality. They believe fighting to the death is glorious and most would rather commit suicide than surrender. There are cases of terrorists doing epic last stands and taking out lots of American soldiers in minor firefights.
But these Muslims get nothing but contempt even fro historians. From a ratio basis the typical Muslim terrorist probably killed much less people in their life time than the typical Imperial Jpaanese soldiers so going by acts they commit less than the Japanese (even though its comparable in vileness).
The reason these Muslim terrorists get bashed as ABSOLUTE EVIL is because they target civilians. But wait didn't the Japanese army gunned down civilians for fun? Even formally capturing civilians and creating official games where Japanese soldiers get awarded for beheading the most number of PoWs in a contest?
So many of these guys even call Muslim terrorists COWARDS because their leaders like Bin Laden refused to commit sucide-ignoring the fact some leaders of the Imperial Japanese army ran away and tried to avoid punishment. Some such as Masami Kitaoka even pledged allegiance to Americans after the war and helped them. We're talking about guys who experimented on children who didn't follow the Bushido Code out of fear of death and giving up worldly pleasures.
In fact even when Japanese warcrimes are known by belligerents discussing history, they always still end up praising the Japanese soldiers immense professionalism and discipline in the battlefield. I seen experts in Westpoint praise Japanese soldiers for their performance in say the Battle of Singaphore.
Yet even Muslim terrorist groups show superb discipline comparable to armies of Western superpower such as the Mujahideen of Afghanistan, military historians don't even at least praise their fanatical discipline. I mean some of the Mujahideen that fought the Americans have shown such precision in timing their ambushes that only a profesionally trained army can perform. Even if they are the BAD GUYS can't we at least give credit due since the Imperial Japanese Army always get praised?
Yet in a twist of irony in wars before 9/11 I have read of statements by American military and Western historians PRAISING the PERFORMANCE of Muslim terrorists. For example Horne frequently states the FLN of Algeria have shown such superb patience in fighting their war against the French. When the Soviets were in Afghanistan, American SF commented on how its good the Mujahideen were our allies because they provided such SUPERB fighting abilities against the Soviet forces.
If Muslim terrorists are considered evil for their warcrimes, why do so many westerners praise the Japanese army of World War 2 (who practically committed the same crimes)? Wouldn't by that logic the Japanese military of that time be a terrorist organization like Al Qaeda?