So i watched a video with the dumbest take yet.
The video claimed that the culture that East Asians have "group loyalty, respect for authority and collective responsibility" which the video claims is the reason they have low crime rates and also claims that it is also the same reason for why East Asians can also be brutal during war times like how Imperial Japan behaved or how China behaves against the Uyghurs or how North Korea's regime is very brutal.
I thought this was an absolutely retarded take. Black people have very high crime rates and they don't have respect for authority or collective responsibility, and yet Africans are also very brutal and commit tons of atrocities and brutal war crimes against other African tribes on a daily bases. And they also commit genocides like what Haiti did to White people.
Imagine trying to make the claim that fucking "collective responsibility" is what makes people commit bad war crimes. Imagine trying to claim that "the same culture that makes people have low crime rates, is also what makes people brutal during war times " Black people completely disprove that considering they have high crime rates in" peaceful times" AND are brutal in war times.
Considering those values are all things our enemies hate, that does sound like a propaganda piece, yeah.
And the whole argument is also a moot point since, like you say, the cultures without those values also commit atrocities. So, you can be a high trust, loyal, successful culture, that might commit warcrimes when the times comes...or you can be barbarians, that will also commit warcrimes when the time comes. The choice is obvious.
Now, to play Devil's advocate, I could see why "group loyalty, respect for authority and collective responsibility" could at least contribute to atrocities.
Group loyalty means you value your own people more than the outsiders (which you fucking should, of course), but that also can lead to not valuing outsiders at all, and allowing atrocities against them. Taken to the extreme, in group preference does allow you to do anything to the out group.
Also, relatedly, honor culture did lead to mistreatment of POWs, as I understand, since the Japanese thought you were a fucking pussy underserving of anything, if you got caught alive at all. Why the fuck didn't you fight to your last breath, even if you knew you would die?! Their honor culture made their prisoners underserving of any rights. If you were caught alive, you were already a bitch, and deserved whatever they wanted to do to you.
Likewise, respect for authority will let you go along with more stuff. If the higher ups want warcrimes...you do the warcrimes.
But, like I said, it's a moot point, since you're probably doing warcrimes without those values too, so you might as well have a functioning and successful culture for your people.
Too binary.
It's possible that one of the paths to brutal warcrimes is asian cultural stuff, while not being the only path. It can be the cause without being the only possible cause.
Do I agree with the video I've not seen? Not particularly, but your critique is weak too.
A man walks up to me and requests that I punch him in the face. If I do so, does that make me a criminal?
If they want to die, who am I to stop them?