Japan does not face up to its past very well.
Nobody likes to dig up the ugly past about themselves, except for maybe the Germans.
Only 20% of Japanese universities' medical facilities teach their charges about war crimes committed by medical workers in the former Imperial Japanese Army's
Unit 731.
In Germany, almost all universities medical faculties hold such classes.
Nearly all (42 of 43) universities in Japan hold ethics lectures. However, only 12 mention things like the "Declaration of Helsinki, a set of medical principles developed by the World Medical Association to guard against human experimentation based on lessons learned from medical war crimes."
Only 21% of Japanese universities taught students about Unit 731's human experiments with biological weapons in China, vivisections of POWs at Kyushu Imperial University and other such war crimes committed by doctors.
Germany on the other hand - 83% taught students the Helsinki Declaration and 92% held lectures on war crimes committed under the Nazi administration.
Why is Japan so reluctant to look at its past, to admit shortcomings, to let the younger generation learn from those mistakes?
Comment Preview