2 ms·
"Japan was put on trial for waging 'aggressive war' for monopolizing Asia, even while the Dutch, British, etc. had completely destroyed Asian economies only in
by jariel 6y ago
"Japan was put on trial for waging 'aggressive war' for monopolizing Asia, even while the Dutch, British, etc. had completely destroyed Asian economies only in the past century."
This is ridiculous - there is no comparison between 'The Dutch' and 'The Japanese' incursions into Asia.
The Dutch were traders, with some geopolitical leverage, money and a few ships.
The Japanese literally invaded and marauded most of E. Asia causing millions of casualties, literally destroying cities, taking sex-slaves on mass, i.e. 'Horrors of Mechanized 20th century' - on par with Nazis. Not some localized trade dispute with a pack of merchant marines firing on innocents, 'monopolizing trade of a few sectors'.
- inawarminister 6y agoHi, Indonesian here. The Dutch also marauded throughout Asia, to the point of genociding wnole populations of spice islanders just to keep controls on commodities https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/island-traded-for-manhattan https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/island-traded-for-manh... There are too many others sins of the VOC and Royal Dutch colonial authority for me to list still; regardless, no one is a saint. We hate both colonists equally - well, one colonised us for 350 years, the other for 3,5 years. But both are hated still.
- mdpm 6y agoWhile the Japanese were no saints, and have had one of the largest rebrandings in history - please don't underestimate the VoC.