this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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Viewers are divided over whether the film should have shown Japanese victims of the weapon created by physicist Robert Oppenheimer. Experts say it's complicated.

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[–] TooMuchDog@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The killings of Native Americans in the US can absolutely be called a genocide. The use of nuclear weapons in Japan was a horrible act of war that killed so many people, but it is by definition not a genocide. Calling it one dilutes the meaning of the word genocide. Using the right words and definitions when talking about tragedies of war is not denial of said atrocities.

[–] DauntingFlamingo@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Genocide is the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.

What the Nazis did to the Jews was genocide. What the Chinese are currently doing to the Uyghurs is genocide. The Circassian genocide in Russia was happening around the same time as the US genocide of the Native Americans.

The troll doesn't understand the meaning of genocide, and doesn't understand strategic bombing. The US didn't want to extinguish the Japanese, and neither the Japanese of that era or the current era believe(d) it was genocide. They had great respect for US General Douglas MacArthur, so much so that Japanese Emperor Hirohito stood side by side with him and publicly declared his respect for his one-time opponent.

Trolls seem to think US schools don't teach this stuff. My children learned it and taught it to my immigrant ass.

[–] Redward@yiffit.net 7 points 1 year ago

The Japanese on the other hand could perhaps learn about genocides of their own actions.