The Wages of Guilt

In The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan, Ian Buruma discusses how the Germans and Japanese come to terms with their nation's actions during World War II.

He makes some interesting points. For example, Auschwitz is the main association of the war in the German mind, while the Japanese focus on Hiroshima. Separate chapters describe how Germans approach the Holocaust, how the Japanese remember Hiroshima (in ways similar to the US reaction to 9/11), and how the Japanese consider the Rape of Nanking. In general, the Germans accept guilt for their wartime actions, while the Japanese deny that they launched a brutal war of aggression.

Buruma’s research was very impressive. For both Germany and Japan, he read the postwar literature, spoke to a variety of individuals, and so on. However, the book was disappointing is some ways, since he didn’t provide the insight into German and Japanese psychology that I was hoping for. Maybe that’s because he focused on elite opinion, such as what the artists and political leaders were saying, instead of the man-on-the-street reaction. The Wages of Guilt wasn’t quite as good as it could have been.