> ? You do not end up killing millions of peoples without systemic targetting and industrialized organisation.
No, they do. That's how any war runs. Countries don't start wars with plans on for wiping out the citizens in the most efficient way.
If a massacre happens, then it's something more spontaneous, happening on the spot.
> The fact that it might be called genocide or democide or something else is semantic ...
No, it's a significant difference in intention and execution. Germany had an elaborated logistic for transporting their victims through the country and continent. They had death camps with full planning on how to kill people. They even started the war with the side-intention to "cleaning the world".
Japan, like every other invader did nothing like this. They started wars and accepted that people will die, but this was not their goal. And neither were the massacres and other crimes their goal, it just something that happened along the way.
> Anyway my point (albeit unclear) was more that you are arguing the premise of the parent post : "Germany and Japan committed roughly equivalent atrocities" which I believe is quite difficult and in a way reinforce the parent since he appears to believe there is a systemic diabolisation of the Nazi as way to target by proxy the white (anyway that's how I interpret: "great punching bags by proxy for what the what the author really wants to say")
Sure, but your reasoning is wrong. Japan did bad things, but they are just one of many evil empires in history. It's not exceptional unique in what they did. But the Nazis were unique and exceptional. That's where your argument fails. Japan is just one of many, and people denounce those many equally, more or less. But there was just one event on the scale of the Nazi-Crimes.