I was arguing with some friends as we were playing a trivia game. What do you think about these two history questions: How many Jews were killed during the Hollocaust? (6M) How many Japanese were killed during the bombing in Hiroshima (80k) Do you think they're acceptable question for a broad audience? Politically incorrect questions? Shocking questions? I consider these two events as recent history and I think most people should at least have a vague notion of these. Talking about them does not hurt my feeling (but I'm neither Jew nor Japanese) I don't feel that any of these questions are judgmental about history. (edit: and I'm not American either but that was probably obvious) What do you think?

That stuff can be awkward. Try not to bring up deaths during a trivia game that's supposed to be fun.

Reading those two questions thogeter could be read like: "It was okay to kill 80 thousand Japanese because their allies killed 6 millon jews".

Some people could find such interpretation disgusting.

Ignoring whether it's P.C. or not, aren't those numbers just estimates, meaning there is no right answer?
When you say "during the bombing", does that count people who died after the bombing from the injuries they sustained (because those people are still dying to this day)?

In Japan they don't like to talk about WW2 atrocities, and I'd assume the Hollocaust would be an uncomfortable subject to bring up in parts of the world too...

If you don't mind awkward looks and loosing friends, I'm sure they'll go down a treat!

Quote: Original post by janta
How many Jews were killed during the Hollocaust? (6M)
How many Japanese were killed during the bombing in Hiroshima (80k)

Do you think they're acceptable question for a broad audience? Politically incorrect questions? Shocking questions?

Not really, at least in this context. Asking such questions over the course of a family board game and a few beers trivialises the horrors of these historical events to some extent I think.

I'm no big fan of PC (people today are way too sensitive to such issues) but I think in this case there's something iffy about it. And why not ask other questions instead? Have we not ammassed enough trivial knowledge over the history of man to avoid such questions in the first place?

Quote: Original post by owl
Reading those two questions thogeter could be read like: "It was okay to kill 80 thousand Japanese because their allies killed 6 millon jews".

Some people could find such interpretation disgusting.

I understand everyone's opinion here. Though I have to say by no means were these questions associated together in any way, it's just that the matter of P.C. came up on both.

I'm not trying to argue in favor of either point of view, in fact i'm interested in knowing what "most" people think.

Obviously these figures are estimates, but they are at least concensual among most historians. You have to rely on something at some point or you can't talk about anything.

Yeh, those questions seemed to be designed to get a response, plus as stated earlier, those figures are estimated.

How about:

What was the name of the pilot who was ordered to drop the bomb on Hiroshima? Paul Tibbets

Where was the first concentration camp located? Dachau

(I'm not too sure the above answers are correct)

On one hand, they are historical facts. Tiptoeing around them does not undo the fact that they happened.

OTOH bringing up any death toll in a trivia game will almost certainly cause unease. Forget the hyper-sensitivity around the holocaust, and imagine the question in another context, i.e.

How many people died in the Spanish Flu outbreak in the 1920s?
How many people did Caesar kill in his conquest of gaul?

How do those questions make you feel?

edit: Context is also important. If it was a WW2 history quiz, as opposed to a general knowledge trivia quiz, those questions will probably seem less "offensive".

How many people died in the Holocaust?

Jews were the primary victims of the Holocaust but not the only victims. Holocaust Some scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the Nazis' systematic murder of millions of people in other groups, including ethnic Poles, Romani, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other political and religious opponents.[4] By this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims would be between 11 million and 17 million people.[5]

If you only ask how many Jews died, you're making a judgment about history. That is, you're forgetting the millions of others who also died.

How many people died in the bombing of Hiroshima?

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki,[4] with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day. ... According to most estimates, the immediate effects of the blast killed approximately 70,000 people in Hiroshima.[37] Estimates of total deaths by the end of 1945 from burns, radiation and related disease, the effects of which were aggravated by lack of medical resources, range from 90,000 to 140,000.[4][38] Some estimates state up to 200,000 had died by 1950, due to cancer and other long-term effects.[1][7][39] Another study states that from 1950 to 1990, roughly 9% of the cancer and leukemia deaths among bomb survivors was due to radiation from the bombs, the statistical excess being estimated to 89 leukemia and 339 solid cancers.[40] At least eleven known prisoners of war died from the bombing.[41] ... Casualty estimates for immediate deaths range from 40,000 to 75,000.[58][59][60] Total deaths by the end of 1945 may have reached 80,000.[4] At least eight known POWs died from the bombing and as many as 13 POWs may have died:

Again, non-Japanese died in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If you really want to make your trivia game difficult, ask how many Americans died in either bombing.

At any rate, I think it's important to get the facts correct before worrying about political correctness.