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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   15341 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 6, 2025

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I think it's true that the Axis war machine was broken without genocide, but after the war both nations had their borders redrawn at bayonet-point, with Germany being split in two and millions of Germans forcibly relocated. Hundreds of thousands of them died and others (including civilians) were sent to forced labor camps. This policy was (in part, at least) approved by the "big three" (UK, US, USSR) during the Potsdam Conference and wasn't just something the Russians "got away with" after the Iron Curtain came down, and Western countries, including the US, UK, and France used POWs as forced labor until the late 1940s. Similarly in Japan, the Kurils were occupied by Russia with American assent and the Japanese inhabitants removed. It seems fair to say that no genocide was committed, but it might be worth remembering that what we would today call ethnic cleansing was a part of the Allied postwar strategy.

Similarly in Japan, the Kurils were occupied by Russia with American assent and the Japanese inhabitants removed.

Even bigger than that was the removal of ethnic Japanese from Manchukuo, as well as from China proper

Oh interesting, although I can't say I am surprised. Do you have numbers on the removals there? I think there's an intuition to look at what happened in Manchukuo or Poland and say "well [some of] those people wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for [Axis actions] so it only makes sense to kick them out." But that's not true of what happened in Kaliningrad, or the Kurils.

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