[deleted]
… that was only heard from word of mouth or tabloids (newspapers).
I think your question is one of perception.
People trusted “tabloids” (newspapers) back then. They were respected institutions, generally. Public payed attention to investigative journalists, and how stuff got out.
They read news. From newspapers. This was normal.
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit or Twitter (X)
…And these kind of took over from sheer engagement, not necessarily reliability.
TBH, if someone on X told me the sky is blue, I’d still be skeptical. Hence I’m the opposite of you, I suppose: I find it wild that these artificial spaces have become the world’s de-facto news feed over professional journalism.
NochMehrG@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
I don’t know about specific programs like Unit 731. But in general: People wrote letters. People came home and talked to their spouses. Concerning the Germans: A lot of people were involved. The Einsatzgruppen were staffed by ordinary police. The Waffen SS fought alongside the ordinary Wehrmacht which had their ugly share of atrocities. All these people wrote and came home and talked. And the concentration camps on German home soil were not isolated. People saw what happened there. People worked there as civilians. People who say the general public didn’t know are lying.
animemann80@feddit.online 3 weeks ago
Unit 731 had vivisections (dissecting a person alive) in which scientists conducted experiments by testing people’s pain tolerance via torture or inject them with diseases or toxic chemicals using prisoners (civilian or allied forces who are captured, but the majority of prisoners are Chinese). Japan today knows it happened but still remain in denial about the topic.
NochMehrG@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Sadly I know about that. (As another comment: Sometimes you hear that these unethical experiments gave humanity insights that have been valuable. But at least in general that is not true, not lastly because it was shit science by shit scientists to begin with. )
I just don’t know the extent of these things being known in WWII Japan. I would assume it was similar to Germany but for Germany I have read enough to know it for sure that it has been known at the time and not just for a chosen few.
NochMehrG@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
And adding to that: People saw what happened to their Jewish/Romani/Disabled/Communist/Queer neighbors. They worked in the clinics where disabled children were selected and sterilized or (sent off to be) killed, knew the police men who rounded up homeless people etc. And people came back from concentration camps as well. Some people did time there for ordinary crimes. German citizens incarcerated in concentration camps even had to pay for social security while incarcerated, so that their insurance history wasn’t broken afterwards.