I was going to vote this comment down, but stopped myself and reconsidered. The thing is, it's actually true and is important context.
Sentiment is all well and good, but wars are started by people making a choice. They aren't natural disasters we have no control over or responsibility for.
You have to remember what kind of society Germany was. It was very disciplined and Japan-y. It's not that Germans were specially inclined to be Nazis, but they were specially inclined to follow crazy orders. It was the inheritance from Prussia. Japan was, of course, even worse. When you visit the two countries you can still notice it. Germany is mostly rid of it except an excruciating attention to detail, bureaucracy and status. Japan is more recognizably hierarchical and disciplined. Be wary of people who are patriotic and proud of following orders.
Oh yes, for sure. The reason I initially was going to vote the comment down was because I percieved it as casting blame, on children no less.
Even so, the comment is still basically true. Europe of that time was a very different place, where wanting to grow up to be a soldier and go and fight and kill fellow Europeans was a laudable ambition, not just in Germany. It doesn't make the loss of life any less tragic, but it's also important not to over-sentimentalise things because that can blind you to the stark realities.
I think all of Europe learned some valuable lessons from WW2. I hope Japan did too. Overall I'm very proud of my nation's role in history, as a Brit, but we perpetrated enough massacres and precipitated enough famines that it's tinged with a realisation that my heritage carries a fair few obligations with it as well.
At the WWI memorial they provide some insight into the prevailing mindset of that age. 40 years before WWII, Darwin published his famous work. It got applied to everything, including nations. The Chancellor of Germany was certain that war was normal competition between states, that only the fit would survive, and that Germany was thus destined to rule the world.
>they were specially inclined to follow crazy orders.
This sounds more like post-hoc justification for war. It isn't exactly novel to paint the enemy as "not like us" or as having that one trait that happens to make them a dangerous people.
Actually, that's the thing that worries me about the American "support the troops! Support the war!" warrior culture.
Anyway, you can go to Japan tomorrow and observe yourself. I've only been to Berlin, so I haven't noticed much of this in Germany (Berlin is very hippie-hipster), but I think you will have better luck observing the phenomenon in Bavaria, which is generally regarded as more old-fashioned, strict and conservative.
