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My grandfather was in World War II, and every time we went to visit him after I started getting into Japanese culture and anime, my mother would tell me to 'act normal'-- meaning, 'don't talk about Japanese things'.

Well, I've been thinking about this for a long time, especially after having some discussions with her.

Now, there's something I've never understood about Americans. Throughout my entire life, I've heard people say that '_______ is horrible'. Things like genocide and slavery. They direct their hate at the people causing things like that without ever thinking about something that I find blatantly obvious-- these are the things that made America 'great'. These things, genocide and slavery, are how we got this far.
And yet most Americans don't think about things like the smallpox blankets (given to unsuspecting women and children) or the overseers with whips that made this country what it is today, do they? We place this stigma on people who wipe out other people or who enslave them, without even thinking about our own country's past.

How is that right? Japan did a lot of the things it did in war-time. I'm not saying that excuses it, but war-time is most certainly different from peace-time. America, on the other hand, did the things it did during times of peace. So is it right that we place a stigma on people who do the same things we did without taking a black mark ourselves?

Discuss, please? Alternate points of view are wanted.

There was never anyone to tell us what's right and wrong, we had to learn from our mistakes. But when people throw accusations at other people and don't even consider the fact that they're being hypocritical, we wont progress. We should learn from our History, not hate it and repeat it in a different manner.

It's good to see that you acknowledge the situation.

Watching the History channel gives you the basic facts, but the way they deliver them is very bias. They dull down the negative actions of the Americans and exaggerate the negative actions of the opposition.

Just seems to me like they portray anyone that opposes them as heartless monsters some times. I prefer learning from an independent resource that isn't as bias as the people that took part in it.

Hmm, you raise an interesting point, but looking at it from the perspective of the nation-state I don't think that this hypocrisy is wrong. Given that a nation strives to continue to survive as a nation, it must differentiate itself from others. So we get a "them" and "us." To help national integrity, we must be better than them, so it makes sense to point fingers at others while conveniently forgetting about the bad things we have done. And the stronger the difference between us and them, the stronger our own national integrity can be. Hopefully that's comprehensible, I didn't write it out very well.

I don't think we should forget about what we've done in the past, but I consider it understandable how our perceptions function. I wouldn't say it's right, but it's understandable. You could look at the current issue of torturing suspected terrorists. I understand why the United States government wants to do it, but I don't think it's the right thing to do. That will only stop if the people make enough noise, I think. Sorry, I don't know where I'm going any more.

Summary: It's wrong, but understandable/acceptable.