You mean they'd be like this guy:
Posted on 09/30/2017 4:19:11 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
I used to work for a guy who was on Okinawa. He said towards the end of the war Americans began to pity the Japanese, and for the most part felt sorry for them. The last ditchers who would feign surrender (or death or injury) in order to have an opportunity to kill Americans complicated the situation.
Another factor was that U.S forces were physically and emotionally exhausted by long hard fighting, and hac very little tolerance for or patience with misunderstandings caused by language barriers. It is really a lot easier to shoot a prisoner than search him, and escort him to the rear.
“What it takes is the resolve and will to use a level of brutality and violence that your generations can’t stomach.”
Agree completely, with one Caveat; our Leftist American enemy is indeed willing to use those levels of brutality and violence. Only problem is that their “enemy” is us.
Well said. Since WWII we have entered every conflict with the goal of removing their means to wage war. That does not work. Unless you remove their will to wage war they will keep coming back. Their spirit must be broken, and to to that often many people must suffer and die.
That is the way it is.
I thought it an interesting film, though I didn’t agree with its conclusion.
My uncle was a Soldier on Okinawa. To this day he despises the Japanese and never talks about his experience other than to say “bad things happen in war. The best you can do is to get over them and move on.”
After I served in Iraq I wish he would talk about before he passes. But I completely understand why he doesn’t and I respect his wishes.
Sure, there were indeed Japanese who wanted to surrender.
Those that wanted to surrender were often killed against their will by their own side. I read of a raft full of men who wanted to surrender, except for one. While the sailors looked on, the officer shot the men who were imploring to surrender, then shot himself. The men just looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and said, “Well, that’s what the Japs do. Let’s get back to work.”
And that was extremely common. It was so common that ship’s crews would lean on their mops watching this.
What happened in Saipan and Okinawa was much harder...they brainwashed the civilians there (both the Chamorro’s and the Okinawan’s who where considered third class citizens) into believing they were not only third class scum, but that the Americans were going to torture, mutliate, and rape them. Whole families were terrified of this Japanese propaganda that they did themselves in. Children killed their parents and then their younger siblings. Families jumped off cliffs in Saipan. But even worse were those the Japanese used against their will. I think it was on Okinawa they tied a large group of old men and women with young children together with det cord and satchel charges. As they approached the American lines, prodded on by the Japanese soldiers, the Americans were puzzled and didn’t understand what was going on until they blew up.
And the ones who didn’t want to surrender made like they did, only to kill their captors with grenades, that is, if they didn’t just hole up and keep on fighting until the tunnels were caved in on them to entomb them.
In Guadalcanal, there was a whole unit of men murdered when they went to investigate a white flag of truce/surrender and were all shot dead. In retrospect, it is now thought that it wasn’t a white flag, but a regular Japanese flag (not the war flag with the rays of red) and the “meatball” was hidden because there was no wind). Bottom line, nobody was interested in investigating surrenders after that.
This kind of behavior was only seen extremely rarely in the European theater. It is no wonder in the Pacific that our troops weren’t all that interested in being humanitarian and taking Japanese captives. It was hard enough staying alive fighting the bastards, never mind allowing them to get close to you on purpose.
The Pacific war, by the end was a no-holds barred, no quarter, no queensbury rules conflict. There was a reason we dropped nuclear weapons on them, damn good reasons.
Personally, they started it and perpetuated it. I lived in the Philippines, and knew all about the Bataan Death March because of it. At the age of 10 I read a comprehensive book about the experience of being a prisoner of the Japanese, and I remembered being horribly fascinated, not really understanding how someone could have a garden hose forced down their throat until they bloat, full of water, just so a sadistic Japanese guard could stomp on him for the fun of it.
When they captured our downed Naval Aviators at the Battle of Midway, they chained them together and threw them off the side of the ship while the crew cheered.
And people wonder why we firebombed their cities to ash and dropped nuclear weapons on them.
Well into the war, we were waist deep in it too.
I lived in Japan for several years, and I could never reconcile how those lovely, sensitive people waged war as they did. I found (and still do) something extremely disturbing in that paradox.
Knights of Bushido?
German and Jap men both sit to piss. Never figured that one out.
They considered the medic armband a target.
I petted a tiger once. It was a baby, not much larger than a housecat.
One missile squadron of mine had a tiger on the unit patch. Once per year, during a monthly Commander's Call, a gentleman would come on base with his adult tiger and we would all get to pet the animal and then have our unit photo taken with the big cat. I still have those photos.
It’s a hard concept but you should always treat you captured enemy with respect and dignity. That way others will be encourage to surrender. Another tick is to pamper a few and let them escape back to tell others how great it is.
You mean they'd be like this guy:
To paraphrase Gen Curtis LeMay: “If you kill enough of them the enemy will surrender.”
The Japs were told to strip before they came out of the caves. That is why most look naked in the films.
Those guys didn’t talk. My dad was a medic in the South Pacific. Went ashore w the Marines. That is the sum total of everything he ever said about it in all my years growing up from 1948 to 1969, 17 yrs old when he enlisted.
I've seen it argued that another reason to treat POWs decently is that the enemy,in return,will treat *your* guys well.
Yes, that is also true.
Soviet POWs went straight to the Gulags after they were liberated, or killed. See “Operation Keelhaul”
My late BIL's father and my SIL's late father were both WII vets...one in Europe and the other in the Pacific.The report I got about both said that the father's didn't talk about their experiences to the family at all.In fact,I've read many,many times that that was typical of WWII vets.
However,it's not difficult for me to imagine these guys talking to their buddies in the VFW halls.
I wonder if their refusal to talk at home was meant to protect their loved ones from the horrors they witnessed...or were even forced to take part in.
This was just another barbaric act perpetrated by Stalin.
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