Posted on 02/15/2015 4:26:23 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper
Survivors and descendants of the victims of the 1945 Battle of Manila are pressing Japan to apologize for atrocities committed by its forces that left tens of thousands dead.
Juan Jose Rocha, head of the Memorare-Manila 1945 Foundation, a group of survivors and descendants of noncombatant victims of the battle, said during a memorial ceremony Saturday that an apology by Japan “is long overdue.”
“The purpose of our group is not to recriminate, nor to seek compensation, but just to commemorate and request Japan to recognize what they did here,” Rocha said at the ceremony held in front of a monument erected by his group 20 years ago. The monument memorializes the approximately 100,000 civilians who died during the Battle of Manila, which lasted from Feb. 3 to March 3, 1945, toward the end of World War II.
According to Rocha, around 70,000 of the civilians who died were “victims of heinous crimes or massacres” perpetrated by Japanese forces.
(Excerpt) Read more at japantimes.co.jp ...
I was going to post but you said it better.
Agreed.
Re: ‘Fly Boys”
And then they should read the core chapters dealing with the Japanese atrocities committed against American and allied POWs. Which include cannibalism, such as hacking out livers from living POWs so that the livers could be roasted for consumption by Jap officers.
The author enjoys the generational remove from the actual events and overall takes the “to be fair we must present both sides” to the extreme such as his bent over posture invites yet another BOHICA event.
F-fairness. I had two friends whose fathers survived the Bataan Death March. Their witness paints the Japs as fore runners of ISIS, though ‘in all fairness’ I haven’t heard of ISIS resorting to cannibalism yet. At every other level the Japs match them while exceeding ISIS in wholesale volume, but the day is yet young.
Retrospective remorse by any Jap is worthless.
Yes, you are correct. But sometimes it is important to understand their mindset, even if its not logical. Research and understanding requires an objective view. That does not mean you accept their point of view, but when you are asking yourself, WTF?, it is important to understand what THEY were thinking.
It doesn’t equate to accepting their excuse.
And the Germans were pretty good at building missiles, jet engines, and that stuff.
And DC is beginning to appeal to the same type.
“we took no Jap prisoners.”
99% of the Japanese killed themselves rather than surrender. We didn’t have many prisoners to “take”.
Japanese leaders are returning to Yasukuni as a matter of course now and I have seen some really creepy and over-romanticized Japanese war movies come out.
Rearming is fine, as long as the Japanese know the truth about prior atrocities and face up to them.
My Dad fought in China-Burma-India. He had first hand experience, too. His best friend was killed on Tarawa.
Another of Dad’s buddies lost all the fingers on his right hand to the Japs in a POW/labor camp. They took an ax to his fingers because he cut the wood wrong.
I merely said there weren’t many prisoners to take, which was true.
Simply shooting them and using flame throwers, hand grenades and bull dozers solved the prisoner problem.
The attitude among the Japanese troops shifted dramatically over time, especially as they realized that they were, indeed, losing the war. By the time of the Philippine fighting there were a substantial number of captures, and a surprising number of actual surrenders.
That’s right. And they were amazed by how well the Americans treated them.
I just finished reading “Unbroken”-the story of Louie Zamperini. Highly recommended.
My old watchmaker friend (may he rest in peace) was a veteran of the 37th Division, and fought from Guadalcanal to the Philippines. He would talk about things that happened on Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Bougainville, and elsewhere on Luzon.
He only mentioned Manila once, and then was very vague about it. I can’t help wondering....
The Americans and British treated their prisoners well. Even Ghandi knew the British would react better to his non-violence than to violence.
After the surrender of the Argentines, they allowed the officers to keep their sidearms and stay in “charge” of their captured troops. Some of the Argentines were brutal against their own conscripts but the British would invite you to tea once you weren’t enemies any more. lol
The anime film “Grave of the Fireflies” should be mandatory viewing in schools, show them what war is like back on the home front and let them try to romanticize that.
The Americans and British treated their prisoners well. Even Ghandi knew the British would react better to his non-violence than to violence.
Yes, Ghandi used “Passive resistance” very effectively against the British.
Passive resistance never worked against the Soviets, Nazi or Chinese or Japanese.
You’re welcome.
It would have just been suicide against those people.
Yes.
The third reason being that Japan was allied to us during World War I.
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