[dan-o]

Personal experience aside, you have to admit that the main axis powers, Germany and Japan, have not exactly taken their roles in World War II lightly.

I can't speak for Japan but my experience with germans (my friends are 30-50yo) is that they regret the past without bearing personal responsibility for it.

 

[valve bouncer]

Why don't we ask VB what his rugrats learn in school?

Well, VB? What do the little ones say?

MD

I tell my boys that if you're ever given a hard time because dad's a round eyes you just say "remember 45". Also if I'm losing an arguement with the missus my tactic of last resort is "just you remember who won the bloody war". Goes down like a lead balloon.
In answer to your question though my little blokes are only 7 and 5 so I doubt they've been delving too deeply into Japanese history at this stage of their scholastic lives.
The arguement as to how school textbooks portray the war is a perennial sh*tfight in Japan. To my way of thinking the issue is whitewashed somewhat but it's not avoided entirely either. The information is out there, the Japanese certainly aren't denied access to it. Most don't care, too busy playing pachinko and going to karaoke.
Suffice is to say the Japanese view the war very differently to the way we do. Most Americans see the war starting at Pearl Harbour, while some Japanese would see it as an inevitable consequence of the day Perry's black ships arrived on the scene.

 

[valve bouncer]

I laughed pretty hard at that one. We were two short haired americans in a green passat with NL plates though. He probably thought we were part of the NATO base just over the border from Aachen when in reality we were coming back from DH sessions in Bad Wilbad and Todnau with gear bags full of leftover ganja and hash.

I rode those 2 places with Partsbara in 2004. Lovely part of the world.