Why Italy

What are German, Japanese and Italian history students taught about their countries during WW2?

Here, we called the triple axis with Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini evil, world-conquering dictators that we fought against for freedom and human rights. Do students in those countries learn the same? What do the Japanese teach their students about the bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the US? Sorry, Hirohito wasn't a dictator, but he was leading an empire pushing toward imperialism through invasions.

Public Comments

1. We had a Japanese exchange student staying with us a few years ago. It was in November around Remembrance Day so the TV had a lot of programs about WWII on at the time. Suddenly she came racing upstairs crying and apologizing to us for what her country had done to ours during the war. (I am Canadian) She had never been taught anything about Japan's actions. She had only been taught that there had been a military government in power at the time and the rest had been glossed over. I know that the country of Japan has never publicly apologized to any Allied countries about their behavior during this time period nor their treatment of Allied prisoners of war or to the Chinese for their treatment so I guess the government of Japan just sweeps that part of their history under the rug and hopes that everyone will forget about it. I know that the German students are taught about Hitler and the Nazis and it is against the law in Germany to deny the Holocaust.
2. The Germans teach that they started the war with Hitler and his idea of cleaning the world. The Japanese do not do this, they believe that it was American Aggression.
3. We has German exchange students while I was in high school and they said they learn about WWII for one whole year in school. It must be very in-depth. Japanese however, it is not so. Other governments accuse the Ministry of Education of revising history, omitting things, and using less hostile/more vague words. The Japanese government says they have apologized. The Chinese and Korean governments disagree. Some Japanese are more informed than others but as a whole I think they are largely ignorant about the details of WWII because they were never taught it in schools and anyone who dares to criticize usually gets censored by the right-wing. Japanese are aware that crimes were committed to other Asians, I just can't say how much they know, to what degree. Let's face it, Japanese are ignorant or have selective hearing when it comes to even their own domestic matters. There's the famous Yasukuni Jinja (shrine) in Tokyo that is often the center of international tension between Japan/China/Korea, especially when politicians visit there. (It enshrines war casualities, even war criminals, even those whose family members do not want them there.) I wanted to see it in person to help understand but I somehow couldn't bring myself to enter the museum which supposedly has revisionist history. Talking about it afterwards with the taxi driver was very enlightening into the mind of older conservative males. He just didn't understand what the big deal was about that place and why China/Korea is so upset. P.S. Hirohito wasn't a dictator.
4. I can confirm that German students are actually very much exposed to their country's history, although the terminology is different, e.g. what Americans or English call Axis is referred to in German as "Dreimächtepakt" [pact of the three powers] (in Italian: Patto tripartito). In a certain way, in Germany you cannot study quite the same thing as a student in the U.S. might do, as you really must do much more, aside from reiterating facts, key battles and dates, a young Geman must learn to deal with and learn from his/her own bitter history. Also, although the term freedom is always used when a nation wants to enter into a war, it was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that triggered the U.S.'s entry into World War II; human rights was not a proclaimed reason for the U.S.' involvement. After all, the U.S. itself was very much segregated and unequal at the time. Germans still experience a high guilt factor and any public action by a German is always viewed not by their own merits but under the magnifying glass of perceived Nazism. Who wants to travel the world and be constantly reminded, ridiculed, accused, of something you personally have no control over? No matter how hard you try, you are still called a nazi, as this is a skin you can never shed. In this context, one should not forget Austria. When I speak with Austrians about this period, I sometimes get the response that they were the victims and dismiss any involvement. Let's not forget that Hitler was born Austrian, and secondly, his army was cheered by many Austrians who welcomed the Anschluss into "Greater Germany". This may have been due to effective propaganda on both sides. A Japanese reader would certainly be better qualified to answer this part of the question, but I wanted to mention that a younger Japanese co-worker told me she had "no real knowledge about what happened in the 30's and 40's, as it was "a long time ago." However Hiroshima is still very much a part of the national psyche. She would mention that her American relatives were confined in camps in the U.S., yet could not believe that the U.S. confined German-Americans in a similar manner. I have quite a few Italian relatives who were exposed to their history in school as well, but it was always stressed to me that their guy, Mussolini, was not really that bad, the real bad guy, if not the only bad guy, was Hitler. In fact, by entering into an agreement with Nazi Germany, Italy had hoped to snap up a piece of France in the course of the war, but failed. Nowadays, though, especially due to the freedom of press and most of all, the Internet, anyone can educate themselves about the misdeeds of their forbears. I must caution, however, that one cannot use the standards and expectations in a democracy to judge people living under a dictatorship. After all, it is one of the markers of dictatorship that they do NOT tell people what is really going on. News reporting was "standardized", speak, there was NO free press. A very effective law enacted as soon as the Nazis came into power ensured that there was no deviance in the news and only "government-approved news" was permitted to be disseminated (imagine all TV channels reporting Fox news, and a major Fox spokesperson delivering the only truth, i.e. the government approved version only). Printing equipment had to be registered with the government. People were encouraged to "do the right thing and tell" on = denunciate friends, neighbors, spouses, parents, teachers, etc. Foreign language instruction was largely discontinued, under the guise that this was "un-German", but actually aimed at preventing people from listening to foreign radio stations or reading foreign press. Hitler's propaganda minister and advisor, Goebbels, was very skilled in guiding the public psyche into the desired direction. It is now never mentioned or even imagined that teenagers HAD to join the Hitler Youth; people HAD to show up at parades and HAD to raise their arm to "hail Hitler". On a personal note, my mother, a little girl at the time, told me that a number of people, to avoid saying hose dreaded words, quietly said something similar-sounding, such as "schei** Hitler" [shi* on Hitler]...
5. It's been ages since I browsed a history textbook but in short form I can give you the worst propaganda you can find: After WWI in Italy there was a lot of political unrest. Mussolini took advantage of the situation. He was supported by greedy industrials who feared workers would ask for better wages, and spineless politicians hoping that he would do the dirty job and then they could get rid of him. But he established a dictatorship and fooled everyone. Mussolini entered the war to please Hitler, who in reality considered him a buffoon and his generals held the Italian army in contempt. At first, he ordered that Italy attack France when it was already defeated, just so he could have "a thousand dead" when the peace treaty would be signed. But the Italian soldiers were too kind for this, so they aimed high when shooting the French. Then Mussolini ordered to invade Albania and Greece. The Greek gave the disorganized Italian army such a beating that Hitler had to intervene offering German support. So then Italy fought alongside the Africakorps. They were defeated at El Alamein because the troops were badly equipped and because the Allies knew the German secret code and our supply convoys were sent to bottom. When Hitler invaded Russia, a contingent of mountain troops was sent to help (the ARMIR). They were provided with summer uniforms and cardboard boots. When the Wehrmacht was forced to retreat, the Nazis saved their asses first, and our soldiers had to hike back on foot. Many did not return. In Italy, Rome had been bombed (the North had been bombed since the beginning of the war so it didn't count), Allied troops had invaded Sicily and popular sentiment was mounting against the government, so the Great Council of Fascism voted against Mussolini and ordered his arrest. But Mussolini was rescued from his prison by daring German commando Otto Skorzeny. The King and his ministries signed a peace treaty with the Allies and escaped to Bari. When the Allies revealed the treaty, Italian troops fighting alongside the Nazis found themselves surrounded by enemies. Some surrendered, some were shot, some managed to escape. Mussolini was set as Hitler's puppet to govern a so-called republic in Northern Italy, with the aid of German occupation troops, fanatic Fascists and the like. But the population rebelled. Already they were hiding downed Allied pilots, Jews and political opponents but now many people took up arms and went 'to the woods'. Women, boys helped, running errands or acting as sentinels. The behaviour of the Nazis was barbaric. Not recognising partisans as combatants, they shot them after capture or worse. Innocent people were hanged or shot or buried alive in retaliation for the attacks. Brave partisans pressed on and a general insurrection was planned for April 1945. When the Americans reached major cities in the North, in many cases the Germans had already fled. So, as you can see, only the Fascists and the King were to blame.