In the aftermath of World War II Germany and Japan, the two major Axis Powers, responded to their role in the war in different ways. Germany aimed at compensating Holocaust victims and ensuring justice with respect to war criminals and the historical record. Japan aimed at rebuilding the nations it had attacked through monetary and developmental aid. Nevertheless, Japan faced major criticism from both the West and Asia regarding its postwar policies, which some felt were aimed at minimizing, whitewashing, or denying its war crimes. Such critics often contrast the Japanese actions with those of Germany.
Germany
Germany's response to its war crimes has been largely lauded by the former Allies. The German government has offered official apologies for the role of Germany in the Holocaust. Additionally, German leaders have continuously expressed repentance, most notably when former Chancellor Willy Brandt fell on his knees in front of a Holocaust memorial in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1970. Germany has also paid extensive reparations, including nearly $70 billion to the state of Israel. It has given $15 billion to Holocaust survivors and will continue to compensate them until 2015. Additionally, the government of Germany coordinated an effort to reach a settlement with German companies that had used slave labor during the war; the companies will pay $1.7 billion to victims. Germany also established a National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Berlin for looted property.
Germany's treatment of war criminals and war crimes has also met with approval from outsiders. Germany cooperated in tracking down war criminals for the Nuremberg Trials and opened its wartime archives to researchers and investigators. Additionally, Germany verified over 60,000 names of war criminals for the U.S. Department of Justice to prevent them from entering the United States and provided similar information to Canada and the United Kingdom. The German education system focuses on teaching about the Holocaust and the Third Reich and denounces the crimes committed during World War II. Additionally, German legislation outlaws Nazi works like Mein Kampf and makes Holocaust denial a criminal offense.
However, Germany is still criticized by some regarding its response. The German government never apologized for the invasions or took responsibility for World War II. Additionally, the emphasis for blame is placed on individuals like Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party instead of the government itself, so no restitution has been made to any other national government by Germany. Even after German reunification in 1990, Germany rejected claims to reparations made by Britain and France, insisting that the all reparations had already been resolved. Additionally, Germany has been criticized for waiting too long to seek out and return looted property, some of which is still missing and possibly hidden within Germany. Germany has also had trouble dealing with stolen property in private hands because of the need to compensate the owners. On the whole, however, Germany's efforts at restitution are considered satisfactory by both her conquerors and her victims.
Japan
Japan has also attempted to make up for its role in World War II. Chinese historical artifacts from the war were placed in Japanese museums with information about how they were obtained through Japanese aggression. Japan established a private consolation fund for comfort women who were used as sex slaves during the war. Unlike Germany, Japan has paid monetary reparations to many of the individual nations it invaded. It allocating $3.9 billion to the Philippines, Vietnam, Burma, and Indonesia, in addition to giving $300 million and loaning $200 million to South Korea as "management of claims" for a former colony, although the Korean government supposedly hides this from its people. Also unlike Germany, Japanese prime ministers have apologized directly for the invasion of China. Most notably, former Prime Minister of Japan Murayama Tomiichi offered an apology ("owabi") in 1995 on the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II.
Many governments, including Thailand and China, relinquished their claim to Japanese reparations. Japan responded by compensating factories and railroads in China's Manchuria region with billions of dollars. The Chinese government later asked for direct compensation. Japan began Official Development Assistance to China in 1979. It has provided $30 billion through the ODA and continues this practice today. Additionally, Japanese school textbooks describe the invasion of China and its subsequent negative effects on the Chinese people. Japan also allows freedom of speech and discussion among the differing views its citizens have regarding issues like its role in World War II and the efficacy of its retributions. Finally, the government of Japan was judged responsible for the war and war criminals were taken to task by Allied forces or the People's Liberation Army. Until 1950, Class A, B, and C war criminals working for Japan, both Japanese and foreign (e.g. General Hong of Korea) were judged; some of these are still banned from entering the United States.
Nevertheless, Japan has faced strong criticism for not doing enough to atone for its war crimes. While prime ministers have offered personal apologies, neither the Diet of Japan nor the Emperor of Japan has offered an official government apology. In fact, Prime Minister Murayama failed to obtain support in the Diet for an official apology by a margin of almost 2 to 1. Additionally, during that time, a former Education Minister organized a campaign and gained 4.5 million signatures against Murayama's resolution. Moreover, Japanese textbooks have been criticized for downplaying the extent of Japan's war crimes and the large ultra-nationalist movement within the country is allowed to publicly deny wartime atrocities. Even the language prime ministers have used to apologize has been criticized. Once, a Japanese prime minister "apologized" to Korea using an archaic word that forced even Japanese reporters to consult their dictionaries. Korean newspapers first printed it as "apology" but later retracted the statement. Except in the case of Murayama, government apologies have always come in the form of the word regret ("hansei"), which many consider insufficient. Bills have been introduced in US state and federal legislatures requesting a formal apology.
Japan's payment of reparations has also been criticized. Japan refused to pay compensation to individual victims, instead providing money to governments, and even there the monetary compensation is small compared to that of Germany. Japan has also been accused of covering up evidence of wartime slavery and paying $450 million to "compensate" 135 companies for "managing the contract laborers" after the war. Additionally, Japan's 1965 treaty with South Korea has come under fire because Korea was in the midst of a major domestic upheaval. The Korean presidential assistant at the time, Min Chug-shik, testified that then-President Pak Chong-hui was forced by Japan into accepting the Japanese pre-drafted version of the treaty.
Another reason behind Japan's conduct can lie with the Chinese — in the battle for Japan's diplomatic recognition, both the People's Republic of China and Republic of China neglected to take a hard line against Japan. In recent years, however, the PRC has increasingly evoked Japan's apparent unrepetance as a means to bolster Chinese nationalism.
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of postwar Japan's attitude toward World War II is the alleged public worship of war criminals and denial of war crimes. Japan has been accused of refusing to open up records of military sexual slavery and biochemical warfare experiments and failing to cooperate in the war crimes investigation or to verify the names of war criminals to the US DOJ. Additionally, the Japanese government has been accused of claiming comfort women were privately employed prostitutes when in fact they had been forced into sexual slavery and often underwent forced abortion, sterilization, beatings, maiming, murder, and even forced cannibalism. The Chinese government has repeatedly maligned Japanese textbooks for exaggerating incorrect or controversial accounts that ameliorate Japanese atrocities, including descriptions of comfort women as paid prostitutes or paid workers.
On the same day that Murayama offered his apology for Japan's aggression, eight members of his cabinet paid homage at the Yasukuni Shrine, which contained the ashes of executed Class A war criminals. One reason the Japanese government does not want to apologize is the cultural fear of blaming ancestors and dishonoring dead war heroes. However, some government officials have gone so far as to claim that Japan was not an aggressor in World War II or even that the Rape of Nanking never occurred and was a lie made up by the Chinese. The Japanese government tolerates these claims. Such a response has lead many to look with skepticism on the Japanese attitude toward the relative importance of cultural sensitivity or civil liberties over truthfulness.