My old man was in the Sea Bees in the pacific.
He said the Marines didn’t take prisoners until they started paying a $50 bounty.
I worked for a guy whose father was editor of the Frankfurt (am Main) Zeitung before the War, but had to leave to make room for an Aryan. He and his father arrived in the fruited plane just before the War, and he joined the Army at 18, despite his improbable Katzenjammer Kids accent. He served in the Pacific (cruel misnomer), where his job was demonstrating and training troops, Marines and Army, in the use of night vision equipment, including rifle scopes.
He said that towards the end, they began to feel sorry for the Japs, but initially Japs were very reluctant to surrender. Most “prisoners” taken early in the war were innocent Korean laborers. The War, the real War, not the one on television, was wearying and demoralizing. He saw a Marine try to use pantomime to induce a Japanese prisoner to undress. Whenever the Marine would unbutton his clothes, the Jap would, but when he buttoned up again, his prisoner would eagerly comply. After a few tries, the bone weary Marine shot the Jap, just to be done with him. No malice, just exhaustion.