Hi, I'm an English student writing an essay on Kazuo Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World, which takes place in post-war Japan, October 1948 to June 1950. I was shocked to see no real discussion of Japanese war crimes between the characters, considering the protagonist was a propagandist. There are mentions of "war criminals" and the "China Crisis", but nothing concrete like the Nanking Massacre, Unit 731, the Bataan Death March, Three Alls Policy, etc.

So, my question is, would these people have been genuinely ignorant about the actions of the Imperial Japanese Army, or are they deliberately choosing not to talk about it?