Those who lived in Okinawa during the battle mention the horror of seeing people murdered, shedding new light on a war they thought was much less bloody than reality. A young nurse recounts the stress put on avoiding being captured. For Japanese soldiers, death was more honorable than being captured as a prisoner. Families would kill each other under the belief that they were saving themselves from the torture of Western capture. Propaganda painted Western soldiers as monsters and demons who would do things like physically torture Japanese people for sport. For much of the older generations, the idea of honorable suicide holds strong, but younger people often believe it was unnecessary and horrible.
After learning a bit about the war and how it was seen at the time, I decided to ask my Japanese friends about their experiences learning about World War II. “We learned about the events of the war, but in public school, we did not learn a lot of details,” my friend, Hikaru, explained. “I think it was more about the parts that could not be questioned, maybe to avoid opinion.” She also told me that Japan, even though they suffered major losses, was extremely careful about how they depicted themselves. However, she also explained that she thinks her experience is not the only one. Her friends in college say they learned about some events in a lot of detail and covered some of the atrocities of Japan like kamikaze pilots, Pearl Harbor, Nanking and so on, even if parents were upset by this. Hikaru believes her experience is probably the most common. Much like America, what is taught varies depending on the classes, the materials and how the teacher approaches the subjects.
