War without end? Japan sends troops to Iraq and Germany debates a Holocaust memorial--and both nations struggle with the legacies of their World War II conduct.

Japan's decision last summer to send troops to aid the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq seemed natural enough since Japan and the U.S. are such close allies. But Japan has not sent soldiers into a combat zone since the end of World War II in 1945. As the troops now begin to arrive in Iraq, there is concern in Japan that any casualties might reignite the ultranationalism that fueled Japan's wartime militancy.

In Berlin, Germany's capital, a memorial is being built to the victims of one of history's greatest horrors: the murder of 6 million Jews by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. But last fall, Degussa--a German chemical company which was to provide antigraffiti protection for the memorial--was identified as the affiliate of a company that made Zyklon B gas pellets, poison used by the Nazis to murder millions of people in concentration-camp gas chambers.

The foundation responsible for the construction of the memorial at first decided not to use Degussa's product. But Degussa, by all accounts, has an exemplary record in examining its wartime past and making restitution to Nazi victims. And so a debate erupted in Germany over where to draw the line: At what point has a company made up for its past behavior?

JAPAN: MILITARISM TO PACIFISM

For many Americans, World War II is the stuff of the History Channel. But for Germany and Japan, the legacy of barbaric war crimes against civilians and soldiers still lingers: Questions of guilt, forgiveness, and remembrance related to the war--which by conservative estimates claimed more than 35 million lives--are still debated in the two countries whose aggression in Europe and the Pacific started the war.

In Japan, the government's decision to send troops to Iraq has run into an intense Japanese squeamishness about combat that is rooted in World War II, and the militaristic nationalism that led up to it.

Japan sent 2 million soldiers to their deaths during the war and, especially toward the desperate final stages, used its men as if they were ammunition. The military code issued to soldiers in 1941 forbade retreat or surrender, leading to kamikaze air attacks and large suicide missions.

After the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, Japan surrendered almost immediately. After the war, the country embraced a U.S.-imposed Constitution, whose Article 9 contained a "peace clause," which prohibits the use of force in the resolution of disputes.

But with its dispatch of troops to Iraq, Japan seems to be groping to find its way somewhere between the extremes of its World War II militarism and its post-war pacifism.

After September 11, Japan began a shift toward a new policy when its troops aided the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. But Japanese forces were restricted to noncombat support roles outside the country. The Iraq mission places Japanese soldiers in a combat zone, but under Japan's Constitution, the troops in Iraq are supposed to participate only in relief and reconstruction missions, firing only when fired upon.

The decision to send troops to Iraq has put the Japanese government on the defensive. At home, the main opposition party gained a significant number of seats in November elections and has intensified its criticism of the deployment plans. Public opinion is overwhelmingly against the deployment, and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizuini also faces opposition within his own party.

A GERMAN COMPANY'S ROLE

In Germany, the debate over the country's wartime past put the Memorial Foundation for the Murdered Jews of Europe, which is responsible for the Holocaust memorial, in a difficult position.

At first, the foundation's board forbade Degussa, which is based in Dusseldorf, from participating in the project because of its links to Nazi atrocities. But Degussa was also one of 17 German companies that raised millions of dollars for a special fund for victims of concentration camps and slave labor during the Nazi period.

So the issue quickly seemed less than clear, and two weeks after barring the use of the Degussa product, the board reversed itself and announced that it would be used after all.

The debate also raised questions about whether Degussa was being singled out when many other German companies, including Daimler-Benz (which is now DaimlerChrysler), and telecommunications giant Siemens, also collaborated with the Nazis.

"We all know that it's a very sensitive issue," says Sibylle Quack, a spokeswoman for the Memorial Foundation. "On one hand you have survivors of the Holocaust who can't stand a firm like Degussa being involved in the memorial, and on the other hand you will hardly find firms in Germany that were not involved with the Nazis."

FORGIVENESS VERSUS REMEMBERING

People familiar with the board's decisions say objections were first raised by Holocaust survivors. One woman, whose parents were murdered at Auschwitz, told board members that she would not be able to visit the memorial--which, when finished in 2005, will be the size of two soccer fields--if the Degussa material was used.

In the ongoing debate, two principles compete with each other: One is forgiveness for a company that has taken action to atone for its past. Also, the people who work at Degussa are not the same people who worked for it 60 years ago: Should they be penalized for something that they had nothing to do with?

The other principle is that the feelings of the Holocaust survivors themselves must be honored.

"You can't argue to the survivors that Degussa has become a very fine company, so you have to change your view of this case," says Klaus Hillenbrand, editor of the Berlin newspaper Die Tageszeitung. "It's a personal question. If there are survivors of the Holocaust who feel this way, you just have to accept it."

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

* What is the value of learning about events like World War II that have long since passed?

* Was the memorial board correct to reverse its decision about Degussa?

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand how memories of the horrors perpetrated during World War II still affect public-policy decisions made by Germany and Japan.

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

CRITICAL THINKING: A key question about both Japan and Germany is that of lingering guilt. Write "Guilt by Association" on the board. Are students familiar with the term? The people who work for Degussa today had nothing to do with the Nazis and Zyklon B. And today's Japanese had nothing to do with World War II. So why do the horrors of the war linger?

WEIGHT OF HISTORY: Tell students that, just as American students learn about U.S. history, the horrors of the war have been passed down to Germans and Japanese--though more so in Germany than in Japan, which only grudgingly acknowledges its actions during the war. Students should understand that the debates in Germany and Japan illustrate the power of history to influence ideas and values long after historic events have passed. (Is lingering racism in the United States today a legacy of slavery?)

ROLE-PLAY: How would students have voted on the Degussa contract if they were members of the memorial, committee? How would they respond to the woman whose parents had been murdered at Auschwitz, who says she won't visit the memorial if Degussa participates in its construction?

FAST FACTS: IBM, Ford, and General Motors also operated in Germany early in the war, though Ford and GM say their facilities were seized. Henry Ford, however, accepted a Nazi medal in 1938. And Ford's German company gave Hider a $14,000 birthday gift in 1939, after anti-Semitic violence had been documented. Should these facts color the companies' images today?

WEB WATCH: For many teens, the Holocaust is an abstraction. Tell them that children were often special targets of the Nazis. Go to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum at www.ushmm.org. Hit "Launch Exhibition," then "Enter," then "The Plight of Jewish Children."

DIRECTIONS: Circle the letter next to the best answer.

1. "War Without End?" says that Japan's World War II
   aggression was fueled by

   a ultranationalism.
   b jealously of U.S. wealth and power.
   c fears of conquest by Russia.
   d religious zealotry.

2. The German memorial debate focused on

   a differing interpretations of the law.
   b conflict about the design of the structure.
   c questions of forgiveness.
   d other Europeans who had been victims of the Nazis.

3. Japan's decision to send troops to Iraq is complicated for
   several reasons. Among these is a renunciation of war in
   that country's

   a application for membership
     in the United Nations.
   b peace treaty with the United States.
   c World War II surrender document.
   d constitution.

4. The best description of Japanese views on the deployment
   of troops to Iraq is

   a guarded optimism.
   b universal support.
   c majority opposition.
   d universal opposition.

5. The Memorial Foundation for the Murdered Jews of
   Europe changed its position on the Degussa company

   a after the German government requested it.
   b in large part because the company had helped
     create a fund for victims of the Nazis.
   c because so many years have passed since the war.
   d after relatives of Nazi victims agreed to the change.

6. The debate over Degussa was complicated by the fact that

   a there was no solid evidence against the company.
   b the time limit for punishing war crimes had passed.
   c many other German companies had also collaborated
     with the Nazis.
   d Degussa's products are vital to Germany's economy.

ANSWER KEY

1. (a) ultranationalism.

2. (c) questions of how to assign blame.

3. (d) constitution.

4. (c) majority opposition.

5. (b) in large part because the company had helped create a fund for victims of the Nazis.

6. (c) many other German companies had also collaborated with the Nazis.

RELATED ARTICLE: Capping the cost of atrocity.

A survivor of Nazi experiments says $8,000 isn't enough.

The medical experiments that Simon Rozenkier says he saw and suffered through in Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Buchenwald--concentration camps in Poland and Germany--strain the imagination. He saw a hunchback whose hump had been cut off by Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi doctor. He saw German doctors administer intense X-rays to the genitalia of Jews and Gypsies to sterilize them. And he recalls how a German doctor repeatedly injected him with chemicals to sterilize him, all part of a Nazi effort to perfect ways to keep Jews from reproducing.

Rozenkier, 75, a native of Poland, survived the camps and emigrated to New York in 1947. In the 1950s, doctors told him he was sterile.

Last year, Rozenkier filed a lawsuit accusing two German pharmaceutical, giants, Bayer and Schering, of providing experts and drugs to Nazi doctors for sterilizations.

But German companies argue that an agreement in 2000 between the U.S. and Germany means Rozenkier's lawsuit should be dismissed. The agreement created a $5 billion fund to compensate Nazi victims.

Rozenkier says the $8,000 the fund awarded him was inadequate. The lawsuit does not seek a specific amount.

"What they did to me is beyond right and wrong," says Rozenkier, whose parents and four siblings were murdered in the Holocaust.--By Steven Greenhouse

Norimitsu Onishi is the Tokyo bureau chief, and Richard P. Bernstein the Berlin bureau chief, of The New York Time.