Given the number of individuals involved in war crime at all levels, I'd happily to assume there must have been some who were truly repentant. But as Don Corleone says it impossible to be 100% sure and there are reasons to fake it. So while I still believe the first part in general, I would struggle to apply it to individuals I didn't know very well for a long time (and even then).
First sentence absolutely true. Second sentence half true. The attitude in Germany in the 50's was half-hearted apologetic and that was no hindrance to be part of society. Admitting own faults would go against the norm then.
I think it's a tragic misunderstanding, because in the original post the @ is missing.
Yeah, people in those years had a totally different mindset. And people now usually like to give crap to the "I was just following orders" mentality, but it was even more true at that time.
So what you're saying is that they shouldn't have fought the Nazis because they knew some Germans?
No he's showing that the motivations to fight for those soldiers were different from what you would expect. They were very much fighting a war out of nationalistic motives, not entirely because why we think they fought the good fight (Sure Nazi Germany was a conquering nation, but their evil went beyond that). But that isn't so odd, because we have the hindsight of the total picture, which they hadn't.
Wrong World War.
True Doh on my side. I knew this. Although slightly in my defense, it might have still have been true for some (although perhaps less) in the 2nd war, that they personally knew Germans.
Reading his wikipage on post WW2 activities, i'm not really convinced he fits the bill. It seems his main criticism on Nazi-Germany is that they lead the country in a war they lost and thus divided Germany. He seems to be like his friend Guderian a proponent of the clean Wehrmacht myth. It would show repentance, when he would have talked about the Einsatzgruppen.
If imamura was so guilt ridden there are plenty of shark infested waters around Japan
