Being an historian and having the chance to teach history for a living is a blessing, beleive me. I like the many discussions about historical topics in this forum because they show so many differents points of vue and perspectives. But honestly, I must state that because one have read a few books and have a opinion, that still doesnt make him an historian. The historical porcess by itself is a long one and it demands a solid formation. That being said, everyone is intitled to his own point of vue, that still doesnt means its the truth. As many knows, in history only the facts are certain, the rest, mostly interpretations, are a construction made by historians by reaching some concensus in the scientific community. Many would be surprised how difficult it is to reach a concensus within this historians community nowadays. The Interpretation of historical facts must be made after considering the facts themself, selecting the sources, taking in account the past historiography and so on and so on... Its called the historical method and its teached at the university. Its teached during the first year of most history programs so the futurs historians wont be tempted to give quick, emotional or easy interpretations to historical facts after reading a few books on the subject. The same goes for the books themselves. Not all of the monographies (about ww2 for exemple) have been written by qualified historians. Some history books are political statement, other are only giving the point of vue of the author etc etc. So all of this to say the one must be very very carefull when attempting to give a judgment about historical event as we know them. Of course history is written by those who won, but that doesnt mean its all lies and propaganda... Honestlly, you'd be surprised by the way most historians today consider that period. We shoulld have some modesty when its time to make sens of historical events, its not as simple as many seems to think. But about the present subject, I can say that its broadly admitted that the Japan and Germany went way deeper in the organized horror then the western allies all combined (I,m not talking about the soviets here because they werent in the initial discussion). I'm not saying that the allies had their hands clean all along, but to put them on the same level as germany and Japan is an insult to the victims and an shortcut in historical reasoning.
