History Main / NuclearWeaponsTaboo

On one hand, the aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the apparent fixation on the bombings that treats Japan as an innocent victim tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though fortunately not a majority) in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, the aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, an apparent fixation on the bombings that treats Japan as an innocent victim tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though fortunately not a majority) in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, the aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, an apparent fixation on the bombings while treating Japan as an innocent victim tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though fortunately not a majority) in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, the aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, attempts to treat Japan as an innocent victim tend to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though fortunately not a majority) in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, attempts to treat Imperial Japan as an innocent victim tend to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though fortunately not a majority) in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, their apparent fixation on the bombings does tend to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though fortunately not a majority) in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the national fixation on the bombings does tend to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though fortunately not a majority) in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the national fixation on the bombings does tend to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, their fixation on the bombings does tend to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, efforts to portray Japan as an innocent victim of the bombings tend to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the fixation on the topic by Japanese nationalists tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the fixation on the topic by many Japanese (not always Japanese nationalists, either) tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the fixation on the topic by Japanese nationalists tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

** Nuclear weapons ''do'' exist in most continuities, but their use tends to be limited by {{Nuclear Nullifier}}s and FictionalGenevaConventions. Inevitably, some sides violate the latter, but are usually thwarted with far fewer civilian casualties than {{Colony Drop}}s or [[DeadlyGas gassing]]. We also see nuclear weapons used for things besides bombing populated area; ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'' has opposing sides using nuclear bombs/missile to [[ExplosionPropulsion send an asteroid toward the Earth]] or to break it apart.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the country's fixation on the topic tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the country's fixation on the topic tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled numerous attempts to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the country's fixation on the topic tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled numerous attempts to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crime list is, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the country's fixation on the topic tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled numerous attempts to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination; discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards, as terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crime list is, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the country's fixation on the topic tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled numerous attempts to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination; discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards, as terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crime list is, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended a war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended a war already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the country's fixation on the topic tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from Imperial Japan's extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled numerous attempts to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination; discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards, as terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crime list is, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended a war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended a war already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

Naturally Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable, given the mark they made on their history. That said, the country's fixation on the topic tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from Imperial Japan's extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled numerous attempts to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination; discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards, as terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crime list is, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended a war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended a war already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

Naturally Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable, given the mark they made on their history. That said, the country's fixation on the topic tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from Imperial Japan's extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled numerous attempts to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to the sum of said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination; discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards, as terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crime list is, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended a war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended a war already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

That said, while Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable, given the mark they made on their history, their fixation on the topic tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from Imperial Japan's extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled numerous attempts to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to the sum of said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination; discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards, as terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crime list is, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended a war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended a war already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

** Also, the Proto Metal Gears all had the advantage of being easier for Third World Countries to have Nuclear capability of their own. The greatest danger was that every Non-Superpower Country having such power would completely mess up global politics. Especially since they were willing to sell them to terrorists or "Freedom Fighters" if the price was right. Now imagine a world where every Osama Bin Laden, Pol Pot, or RightWingMilitiaFanatic had their own Walking Nuclear Death Mobiles and you can understand why the concept of a Metal Gear scared the ''shit'' out of everyone who knew about them.

* In the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' franchise, the ability of the Metal Gear machines to launch nuclear weapons is basically the reason they are "bad." They also used a large {{railgun}} to fire warheads as sub-orbital artillery. Because these warheads were not technically part of missile systems, they did not violate several otherwise applicable treaties. "Loophole nukes" of a sort. Also, these weapons can't be detected the way normal nukes are, which completely destroys the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction; any country with a REX derivative can launch a nuke at another country and be guaranteed that there will be no retaliatory strike, because there's no way to determine where it came from or that it's even happening until the nuke hits.
** Also, the Proto Metal Gears all had the advantage of being easier for Third World Countries to have Nuclear capability of their own. The greatest danger was that every Non-Superpower Country having such power would completely mess up global politics. Especially since they were willing to sell them to TERRORISTS or "Freedom Fighters" if the price was right. Imagine a world full of Osama Bin Ladens, and each having their own Walking Nuclear Death Mobiles.

That said, while Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable, given the mark they made on their history, their fixation on the topic tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from Imperial Japan's extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled numerous attempts to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to the sum of said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination; discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards, as terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crime list is, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended a war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended a war already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more ambiguous ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

That said, while Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable, given the mark they made on their history, their fixation on the topic tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from Imperial Japan's extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled numerous attempts to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to the sum of said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination; discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards, as terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crime list is, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended a war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended a war already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more comprehensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

That said, while Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable, given the mark they made on their history, their fixation on the topic tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from Imperial Japan's extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled numerous attempts to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to the sum of said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination; discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards, as terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crime list is, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended a war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended a war already going on ''six'' years and counting and would have cost ''millions'' more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more comprehensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly war-ending battle (and in fact likely would have caused the opposite effect) and which there is much less documentation about even today.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

That said, while Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable, given the mark they made on their history, their fixation on the topic tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from Imperial Japan's extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled numerous attempts to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to the sum of said war crimes. Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

That said, while Japan's aversion to nuclear weapons is understandable, given the mark they made on their history, their fixation on the topic tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from Imperial Japan's extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled numerous attempts to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as something that made Japan a victim, or otherwise see a false moral equivalence between the bombings and said war crimes. Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.