>>>>>>>>>>>I am sure they now feel very good about themselves and those who find their findings valuable will get a little frisson of righteousness as well.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>You're shooting the wrong messenger.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Not shooting any messengers, just musing on soi disant judges of those with whom they do not share common interests, common goals or common responsibilities.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>In any legal system, I don't see how the judges and the accused share any interests, goals or responsibilities. On most of those, they are on opposite ends.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>This does not represent a legal system, it represents a self-appointed group who put on a show to validate "findings" which would better be described as ideological opinions. they are entitled to the opinions, just not the self-annointed righteousness. The people they are "indicting" are actual elected government officials with responsibilities only to the people who elected them. If you want to be legalistic, this kangaroo court has no "standing".
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I also find it amusing that, of all the world, this would happen, and be publicized, in Japan. The country which has learned so much from the US... but is very sensitive to matters of war.
>>>>>
>>>>>But still seems to have problems with Nanking, comfort girls, Bataan ... Another major component were Germans.
>>>>>
>>>>>I guess if you are going to be tried for war crimes, it may as well be by people who brought it to a whole new level.
>>>>>
>>>>>Wanna bet if the North Korean's start missile testing in the direction of Hakkaido again the Japanese will be real glad they've got Atsugi, Okinawa and some other little places where there is Yankee stuff tucked away. A mini 9/11 in Germany or France would bring out stuff that has made anything we've done in Guantanamo look like kid stuff.
>>>>
>>>>Perhaps due to this link:
>>>>
>>>>http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Scholar_links_Bush_s_US_and_Hirohit_10312007.html
>>>>
>>>>Bush is now being tried here by a law school as well:
>>>>
>>>>http://www.opednews.com/articles/LAW-SCHOOL-TO-ORGANIZE-BUS-by-Sherwood-Ross-080615-783.html
>>>>
>>>>I guess we'll know the results soon...
>>>
>>>But so much of this is like "courageous" Hollywood taking a left-wing position. Courageous would be taking a right-wing position. In a Mass. law school, trying Pinch Sulzburger or Michael Moore for treason would be kind of interesting (though equally silly). This is just academic masturbation.
>>
>>You forgot it is entertaining and it will put the school in the media (an absolute must)....
>
>I did particularly like this part (and imagining what kind of an idiot you would have to be to write it with a straight face)
>
>"He noted in the years since the prosecution and punishment of German and Japanese leaders after World War Two those nation's leaders changed their countries' aggressor cultures. One cannot discount contributory cause and effect here, he said."
>
>Getting their heads handed to them as a nation, complete collapse of the economy and dependency on an occupying power for both security and survival may have contributed a bit as well.
>
>I really am impressed at the degree to which some academics can go to inflate their own sense of importance and fuel their grandiose self-image as The Anointed.

One factor which (I think) helped Germany was the splitting of to the east of Prussia. Prussian dominance was always a big part of German military power. I personally didn't welcome German re unification. I was happy to see the fall of the communist regime but would rather have seen the split remain.