My question to Vizzed users is: Should we continue to hold a grudge against Japan for attacking Pearl Harbor? Take the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki into consideration when you reply. Even if you're not an American, you may still reply.

Japan of the past didn't attack. The Japanese state attacked, not the Japanese people of now. No grudge should be held.

My opinion is that we killed a lot more people than they did, therefore we should call it even. They're attack is certainly unforgivable, but I think people need to stop overreacting about it.

If anything, I suspect that the American state should be the one to apologize. I believe I recall reading of an attempt, before Pearl Harbor, by the United States federal government to restrict Japanese access to resources and antagonize the Japanese state with the positioning of the U.S. Navy.

The lives of at least tens of thousand, if not several hundred thousand or however many when fully held to account, of innocent Japanese civilians were taken by the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, among other events. The American state might as well have rounded them all up and gassed them or used machine guns. Except it was even worse because of radiation.

icrazyforpokemon :
Mattu197 :
So when does it stop?at what point doest it stop?should i still hate the romans for invading us,and using us as slaves?should i hate the normans for stealing our lands?should i hate the english for there suppresion,murder and conquest that wracked my country on and off for more than a hundred years?the people who started the world wars are dead along with most who fought in them, be they brits, amercanw, germans or japs.maybe they have a reason to be angry but anyone else,its just xenophobiea.
You are upset because you suffered one bad attack, and yeh, it was pretty bad, but you retaliated by killing tens of thousands of japanese civilians, there are no innocent powers in war.and in contrast, the germans bombed britain mercilessly, they conquered most of the continent and some countrys lost up to a quarter of there people, put that into context, and do these nations hate germany?no, they formed the european union with them.today germany and japan are at the forefront of technology,you take it for granted how much these two countrys provide for you.

Cultural grudges seem to be a really bad flaw of the human race. throughout history there are many accounts of aggressive actions from one culture to another for historical reasons that didn't presently effect those people. Regions of the world are still ripe with cultural bigotry and tensions relating to actions their great grand parents only heard as stories. Maybe it's that we hold on to those grudges as a part of our identity and can't see giving it up. One of the greatest things about the internet and our fast connect world is that we might start to see the qualities in each other that make us similar more than those that make us different. Though from the looks of the current situation in the US politically, we should start at home and work our way out.

I have to say that The US did what they had to do in both retaliation, and defending themselves. First, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor without warning, and viciously (a crime of war). The gerneal who planned the attack knew the Japanese were going to lose (There were no airplanes seen in the photographs, CONSPIRACY!![Different time >.<]). So we declared war on them and the rest of the Axis declared war on us. Most people don't know, but the Japanese were as brutal, if not more brutal than the Nazis. The Raping of Nanking, and they had death camps for POW and Chinese. So, we were being the 'good guys' by dropping the bomb on them in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. It was to end a war, and we did it before they could drop one on us.

Pearl Harbour wasn't unprovoked, the US's oil embargo put the Japanese into a corner, so the US should have been aware that Japan might do something like Pearl Harbour, Japan did the same thing in the Russo-Japanese War. (Btw I'm not justifying Pearl Harbour in any way, just pointing out that the US should have seen Japan reacting that way and been prepared). Pearl Harbour was an attack on a military target, the two atomic bombs were dropped on civilian targets and killed far more people.

I'd say Japan has more reason to hold a grudge for that, but then again what the Japanese did in China, I would point out China has even more of a reason to hold a grudge against them.

This is all irrelevant though, that was over 60 years ago and the people who committed these crimes are all dead, there is no reason to blame the children and grandchildren for the crimes of their parents as it'll just perpetuate the cycle of hate and vengeance to no end. Plus lots has changed in that time, the Japan of today has nothing in common with the Japan of WW2. Both are radically different, Japan's constitution doesn't allow aggression and the US hasn't used a nuke since. Today the two countries are close allies and have been ever since the Japanese surrender.

I can't understand why any one would still hold a grudge against Japan.  I bet the people that still hold a grudge against Japan still hold a grudge against England for trying to reclaim the American Colonies.

I would like to point out a few more things about the Pearl Harbor incident. Many have allready stated that America has an oil embargo against Japan. This was mainly due to the fact that Japan was very agressive from the 1920's  until WW2 and invaded many  smaller countries and even parts of China. Japan was pissing off alot of Pacific countries including USA. Many historians and military leaders of that time, figured that an American-Japan war was inevitable. One of these people who thought war was inevitable was President Roosevelt, who in the Summer of 1940 (almost one and a half years before the attack) ordered the majority of the Pacific Naval Fleet to be stationed at Pearl Harbor.

So here is a brief time line of events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

*1920's+*   Japan invades several countries to get resources such as Malaya , East Indes, Manchuria , and China.

*1937*    Japan "accidently' attacks and sinks USS Panay

*1937* United States, the United Kingdom, and France  provide loan assistance for war supply contracts to the Republic of China in their battle with Japan.

*Summer of 1940*   America creates an embargo on Japanese oil and Roosevelt orders the Western Fleet to be stationed at Pearl Harbor.

*Dec. 1941*  Japan "suprise" attacks Pearl Harbor


Although we may not have known when the attack was going to come, or which side would attack first it is evident that there would be a war. The tension had steadily been climbing for over 20 years. In fact, Japan at the time thought of the attack as preemptive as they too thought a war would be inevitable. I like to think of the tension between America and Japan is similar  to the Cold War in some aspects. Unfortunetly, tragedy was only avoided in one of these scenarios.

daniggs : Please see my post on the first page for a brief history lesson.

It is a historically documented fact that the Japanese sent a coded message declaring the attack well before it took place, and the decoders failed to complete before the attacks happened because they didn't take it seriously.

We entered war with Germany and Italy not because of Pearl Harbor, but because of messages intercepted in Mexico that showed Hitler was trying to convince them to join him and declare war on us to keep us out of Europe.

Sephitard9001 : It might just be your wording... but it sounds like you said that Japan deserved the two atomic bombs because of the Holocaust. Hate to break it to you buddy, but Japan had nothing to do with the Holocaust. The extent of the Japanese involvement with the other Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Romania) was the Anti-Comintern Pact, which was formed as a partnership against their common enemy: the Soviet Union. It basically stated that neither party would form treaties with the Soviets and that should the Soviets attack, the countries would work together on a plan of action. So to say that the Japanese deserved two atomic bombs dropped on their cities because Hitler hated Jews seems extremely callous. At least blame them for the crimes they actually committed.

Elara : I know they themselves weren't involved in the holocaust, I meant that they were in a faction responsible for the deaths of millions of people. That either means they condoned the acts, or they didn't know about them. If you want a crime they were involved in, then I can only offer the Bataan Death March. 78,000 prisoners were tortured and thousands died. I don't know the exact amount dead, but not all of them were killed. So that's around 100,000 + deaths on the Allied side with a couple hundred thousand deaths on the Japanese's side. If you tally everything together, we only killed a couple thousand more of them than they did of us, I'd say it was fairly equal in terms of war. It was war, what did they expect? For the Allies to hold their punches? They got what was coming to them, not that necessarily deserved ALL of it.

Sephitard9001 :

~100,000 American deaths < 570,000+ Japanese killed by the bombs.

Couple thousand? I don't think so.

And saying that the Japanese are at fault because their faction ally was insane is like saying that we Americans are responsible for the atrocities that Stalin committed in the Soviet Union. So if we look at it that way, America and the UK are responsible for over 680,000 deaths on Soviet soil. That argument doesn't really make much sense, does it?

I have never denied that the Japanese did some really bad things during the war. However, the major difference between the actions of the Japanese and the Americans is that after 1945 there were no deaths attributed to the Japanese. Unlike the hundreds of thousands that died from radiation from the bombs since then.

I think it is rather ridiculous to hold a grudge against Japan for the Pearl Harbor attacks, especially in modern times. I could see why someone would have held a grudge at the time, especially if they lost family members due to the attack, but it is utterly preposterous to do so now. To make such a claim in modern times is nothing but blatant racism and trying to make scapegoats out of an entire group of people.

As far as the "surprise attack" goes, I am actually amazed the generals and admirals did not see it coming. The fact is, The United State's policy of isolationism at that point in history blinded the leaders into thinking they were safe when information readily available indicated the contrary. As well, MacArthur's response following the  attack was sloppy to the point of nearly costing America the war. Had Japanese leaders opted to hit the oil at Hawaii and had the Carriers not been out at sea at the time, the United States were that badly prepared, then they would have won. Bottom line is that it was not necessarily unprovoked and it by all rights should not have been unexpected but carelessness prevailed.

As far as the Atomic bomb goes, I want to mention briefly...what has spawned from this weapon being deployed? We had a serious nuclear war brewing and cocked with the pistol aimed for over 40 years, and several countries today are at tensions because of these destructive weapons. I don't think I need to mention the czar bomb's capabilities 50 years ago, but imagine how powerful such a weapon could be today.

Elara : We never really trusted the Soviet Union to begin with. Especially after the war. That's what the whole Cold War was about. I don't really call it a true alliance so much as us partnering with them in order to win the war. But I digress, about Japan: I don't hold a grudge which is what I think the original question was. I think it would be the Japanese to hold a grudge against us if anything, but whatever. There's a reason why Japan/U.S. help each other out now.

Personally, I don't think so. If anyone has the right to hold a grudge, it's Japan. We annhialated there own cities, I would feel bad for doing that to them.

Dude, first of all the statement is wrong. We don't hold a grudge against Japan, that's China and Japan man, so don't go pointing fingers when there's no reason to. Japan and America are cool, and they've been cool. The debate between Pearl Harbor and the Atomic bomb droppings was a good idea, but not whether we should hold a grudge against Japan or not. Japan is a democratic government, so we'd have no concern because they believe in power to the people, unlike China, dirty little communists. But I do agree with calling it even because we did kill a lot more Japanese with the two Atomic Bombs, but we did give them warning. See when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, they didn't give us any warning, they just sent a notice (after the attack) to Washington that they wanted to discontinue relation with them. Now that's cold. But that's in the past man, let's focus on the future, America and Japan are just like two hippie's in a drum circle man! 






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Well, I have a biased opinion cuz my mom is Japanese... Pearl Harbor was a naval base. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were civilian cities.
HOWEVER, I don't think war is a good thing in the first place. It shouldn't be a matter of race/nationality but humans doing stupid things for stupid stuff. There were people in Japan who were hurting as a result of the war; there were people in America who were hurting as a result of the war. 
Tbh I don't really see dropping two bombs on civilians that can vaporize anything within a half mile radius and have enough energy to produce a flash of light visible from Jupiter "even" to a surprise military strike on a naval base... just sayin' 

But people should not hold grudges on a nation or group of people as a whole... some people need stop bein so salty 
It's not EVERY Japanese person's fault that Pearl Harbor happened; It's not EVERY Americans fault the Atomic Bombs were dropped-- I could go on forever with that. I blame the government and their use propaganda to get masses of people to hate another mass of people.  

lol it's stuff like this gets me fired up... it's kind of a let down cuz i know i can't really do anything to change it


~Victims of the system~

I didn't know Pearl Harbor was still a major issue to people in America. Personally I think the a bombs were necessary. An allied land invasion
of Japan would have caused much more widespread destruction and death than the atomic bombs did to the cities.

I think that Japan should be the one holding the grudge against us for dropping not one but TWO atom bombs on the country.  The damage ratio from the damage at Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the damage from Pearl Harbor is absolutely one sided in favor of Japan.  Sure, Japan was the one to attack us first without warning and kill thousands of people, but we were the ones who dropped the bomb (literally) by unleashing the power of the fission of atoms upon the two cities, thus causing over one hundred thousand deaths in Japan.  You may say that the attack on Pearl Harbor was bad, but that, in my opinion, is a biased opinion if you live in America, just for the fact that it happened to your country.

America we did what we needed to

No grudge. Japan did a premteptive strike on a military base that "barely" did any damage.
USA did a... part-way-through-war-bombing (what are they even called?) on two civilian cities that killed more than 150000 civilians.
I'd say we're pretty even now, wouldn't you?