War Guilt Quotes

Killing Japanese didn't bother me very much at that time... I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.... Every soldier thinks something of the moral aspects of what he is doing. But all war is immoral and if you let that bother you, you're not a good soldier.

Lust of power; the subjugation of inoffensive and law-abiding neighbors; autocratic aggrandizement, is the cause of this war. In its cause the allies have been guiltless.

To counter this situation it would be most convenient if the Japanese side could prove to us that the emperor is completely blameless. We think the forthcoming trials offer the best opportunity to do that. Tojo, in particular, should be made to bear all responsibility at his trial. In other words I want you to have Tojo say as follows: “… I had already decided to push for war even if his majesty the Emperor was against going to war with the United States.”

If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals.

The thing about watching a show about the Iraq war, especially for an American audience, is that it reminds them they're responsible in some way.

He could have a thousand faults, but I do not blame anyone in particular and I despise brutality with which the Nazis acted against Israelites; but the fault is not only of Hitler, but a group of high-ranked dignitaries.

Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.

The responsibility for the risks we posed to others in some of our most extreme actions in those underground years never leaves my thoughts for long. The antiwar movement in all its commitment, all its sacrifice and determination, could not stop the violence unleashed against Vietnam. And therein lies cause for real regret.

War should be made a crime, and those who instigate it should be punished as criminals.

The 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, has not so far provoked the kind of anguished debate that accompanied the 50th anniversary. The lack of controversy is fitting because there wasn't much soul-searching at the time.

If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged.

We have as a nation been duped by those who use our guilt about how we treated the innocent pawns in the Vietnam War game - the soldiers - into missing the point once again about the utter senselessness that is war.

War of aggression, war which does not imply defense of one's country, is a collective crime.

Germany remains among the few countries in Europe to acknowledge, officially and nationally, its responsibility for the crimes it led against our people.

After the war, Germany fully confessed to all its dirty tricks. It's necessary to is draw a line under the past, even if people did something evil. Until we do, wounds won't heal.

When you look at the startling ruins of Nuremberg, you are looking at a result of the war. When you look at the prisoners on view in the courthouse, you are looking at 22 of the causes.

It was important that the Japanese accept responsibility for their savage behavior during the war [World War II], [but] responsibility was a question of morality and morality was a matter of religion. Japanese worship nature, but have no religious or philosophical moral basis .

Germany's historical responsibility will not expire. We want to live up to it - and you should judge us on it.

Undoubtedly the war with Iraq was a tragedy. I think it was also a crime.

A thousand years will pass and still this guilt of Germany will not have been erased.

The idea that somebody who has done something horrible in a war is not willing to talk about it for 32 years is hardly a shocking idea. Quite the contrary.

Most Icelandic people are really proud to be from there, and we don't have embarrassments like World War II where we were cruel to other people. We don't even have an army. So it's sort of like an all-around good, innocent place.

America has made no reparation to the Vietnamese, nothing. We are the richest people in the world and they are among the poorest. We savaged them, though they had never hurt us, and we cannot find it in our hearts, our honor, to give them help-because the government of Vietnam is Communist. And perhaps because they won.

I think that NATO is itself a war criminal.

I accept responsibility for U-boat warfare from 1933 onward, and of the entire navy from 1943 on, but to make me responsible for what happened to Jews in Germany, or Russian soldiers on the east front it is so ridiculous all I can do is laugh.