How people back in WWII knew about war crimes committed by the allied forces or axis powers? At the time: it’s not like you can just say “I’m posting this online!”, there was no such thing as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit or Twitter (X) since they didn’t exist in 1939-45. The internet didn’t exist when Pearl Harbor was attacked, so that was only heard from word of mouth or tabloids (newspapers).
Now, when speaking about war crimes that the Americans, Brits or French committed during that era: people were oblivious about it at first only seeing them as liberators whilst overlooking their flaws (due to the propaganda floating about back then). They did kill German PoW’s, but how would the average joe in 1945 know that without the reliance of computers, search engines or social media feeds.
The thing is, how did normal people during that era manage to call out the Allies or Axis for their war crimes without the reliance of computers, social media or the internet (let alone livestream) during 1939-45? Japan did establish Unit 731, where Chinese and Allied PoW’s were subjected to brutal torture or human experimentation. How would people know its existence (let alone what goes on inside) during the 40s?
They didn’t have modern technology at their fingertips: only radio, newspapers, press and word of mouth. It really depends on what country you lived in during that era (US, UK, Japan, Germany, Russia, France, etc). have their own perspectives regarding the war.
They have their own takes on it, if you grew up in Japan during the 40s: you’ll be brainwashed to believe that Americans are the bad guys (or that’s how the government puts it) while another person from the UK during the same time knows what Japan is really up to.
All of that is correct and completely unrelated to the topic at hand.