I noticed this disconnect with the Japanese...much as I love them...and to me they are the nicest most gracious people on the planet. We love Japan, modern Japan, and to some extent the Japan of the past - and the proud culture which they have managed to preserve. But they certainly had a very mean streak during WWII...My wife was born slightly after the war...but her parents told her of Japanese soldiers taking a liking to local Filipinas and either raping, and usually killing them afterwards, or causing them to flee high into the mountains to get away from the Japanese 'attention'. Here's where it gets a little weird...In the mid 60's when the local island (Negros) was doing very well with its sugar industry...and the standard of living was amongst the highest in Asia...A local Filipino (man) married a Japanese woman. She came over by boat and they raised a family. She was terribly lonely - being the only Japanese in the area (and Japanese were - very unpopular of course at the time)....Anyway, my wife, in high school at the time, befriended her as best she could - living nearby and trying to overcome the language barriers... and this Filipino/Japanese family grew with a few children, but of course the wife always missed Japan which she sadly never saw again. However, my wife did some tracking down and found their children grew up to be very successful, mainly living in the US...Kind of a sad story...stuck on a foreign island for life and never seeing your homeland again....My wife said she was so very isolated...but she raised her children as best she could....and died fairly young, when she had done her best....
