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An understanding of the history of Asian-American and Japanese-American relationships may change your mind about this issue.

I don't believe the government of any nation should be excused for acts of aggression or targeting civilians during a war. However, what is aggression and what is self defense is hard to decipher when two nations have complex histories and other nations are involved.

In the 1890's and early 1900's the U.S. fought a war of aggression and grabbed the Philippines. During the same period of time the Japanese grabbed Korea. The U.S. recognized Japanese control of Korea because we wanted the Japanese to recognize our colonization of the Philippines. In retrospect both the U.S. and Japan were wrong in these attacks on sovereign nations.

Japan was a peaceful and isolationist nation in the mid 1850's. Her leaders had watched European powers prey on China and just wanted to be left alone. But the U.S. sent battleships under Commander Perry to Japan, demonstrated our advanced weaponry, and forced Japan to allow us to establish shipping points. In self defense Japan undertook a program of modernization and militarization. Copying the U.S. (which was created by centuries of aggression against Native American Indians) Japan became an aggressor nation within a few decades of being slapped in the face by the U.S. Navy.

The U.S. and Japan became allies during World War I, but that changed when Japan started to copy the European-American policy of colonizing Asia by grabbing parts of China. The U.S. had no problems with the British grabbing Hong-Kong or the French grabbing Indochina, but we wanted China for ourselves, or at least a free trade zone. The Japanese offered to join the allies in World War II, contingent on keeping control of northern China, but the U.S., France, Great Britain and Russia, with their own bloody claws dug deep into Asia, preferred making Japan an enemy.

Japan's invasion of China was wrong, and the attack on Pearl Harbor was wrong, but the U.S. fleet was at Pearl Harbor, and U.S. troops were in the Philippines, because Franklin Roosevelt planned to use military force to push her out of China.

So I don't think you can excuse the U.S.'s (or anyone else's) war crimes, in particular the purposeful targeting of civilians, by claiming that Japan was the only aggressor.

Even when there is a clear aggressor, all parties to a war should spare civilians and prisoners of war (POWs). War is wrong in and of itself; killing civilians takes a nation to the level of true evil. The U.S. atrocities against Japan were inexcusable. Having performed the deeds, our whole nation went into denial. Oh, we love to tell the stories of how the Japanese butchered Chinese civilians, and Hitler butchered Poles, and Stalin butchered anyone who disagreed with him. But we deny our own crimes.

When you deny your own crimes you set yourself up to commit them again.

The United States should try leading the world with ethical behavior, not brute force. We should admit our past crimes. We should agree to allow the World Court to judge whether we are committing new war crimes or crimes against humanity. And given our history, we should amend the U.S. Constitution to allow our military to be used only for self-defense.

Learn more about this author, William Meyers.
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