2 SEPTEMBER 1995, Page 23

The status quo

Sir: Your moving article 'This is your tor- turer' (29 July) perhaps omitted one point. You note the general lack of remorse in Japan for war crimes, but dur- ing the war, when in Shanghai, I realised that they really did not regard cruelty, even atrocities, as abhorrent and, in fact, probably accepted torture themselves as the way things were.

The Nazis were different. They had seen the light and deliberately put the clock back — abundant cause for repentance.

Daphne Fredericks

(Interned by Japanese, Shanghai 1943-45), Crawborough, Charlbtny, Oxford