Posted on 11/03/2007 6:56:30 PM PDT by Stoat
Well, since most of my male family members fought the Japs (and Krauts) in WWII and lived to tell about it, I’ll pass your concerns about hypocrisy along to them.
The shrine is Yazakuni [?], and among the war dead honored there are eight mahjor Japanese war criminals we hanged after WWII, including Hideki Tojo, and, Ibelieve, the General in charge during the Rape of Nanking. So worshipping at the shrine hardly constitutes cognizance of the actions of ther Japanese military during the war.
Our Hero Col. Tibbets - pilot of the first atomic strike on Japan - died this week. May he rest in peace. He did well.
The small pox blankets were not given to the Indians by the colonists. They were given to them by British General Sir Jeffrey Amherst.
The English, however, frequently spoke ill of the Spaniards for a variety of reasons. They accused them of exterminating the Indians. The Spaniards themselves spoke of the plagues ~ and some of their tales of the advance into the Inca Empire are truly horrifying ~ not because the Spaniards killed anyone at all, but because the people were dropping dead around them like flies.
Disease was killing the Indians but the Spaniards had little, if anything, to do with it. Just one of those things.
The Germ Theory of Disease is a child of the 19th Century.
Actually, there was a problem in getting their officers to be interested in the idea as well.
That must have stunned her teacher. good. It might help her to think about what really happened.
It's probably even faster in Russia and Poland.
Soon it's a blur and those of us who were but babes in arms watching our fathers fly off to war will be all that's left.
Works out much better that way.
Doesn't work that well anyway. You need up close and personal contact ~
‘Scuse me. In at least one instance, a U-boat that sunk a liner/freighter, with lots of civilians on it, took the wounded aboard, tied lines to all the lifeboats, rendered aid, including water and food; began towing them, and called [in clear] his position to the Brits in [I believe] South Africa, explaining the situation. For his trouble, the British attempted to bomb him. He released the tow ropes and submerged.
As a result, Doenitz issued orders that the U-boats were not to engage in similar acts again.
Skippers had a moral obligation to take their subs out and sink them thereby avoiding all these accusations that they snuck up on civilians and murdered them on the highseas.
I see no one on this thread is questioning the mass bombing of civilians, so here goes...
Consider the following scenario: In 1945 the Allies gain a foothold on mainland Japan. In the first city we capture, in revenge for Japanese military atrocities women and children are dragged from their homes and savagely dismembered in horrifying mass public executions. The Japanese government is informed that the wholesale killings of women and children will continue until Japan capitulates.
A typical response to such a scenario would be: “Whoa! That’s ridiculous. Americans wouldn’t do such a thing. That’s not how we fight a war. We aren’t savages. We don’t deliberately slaughter civilians. That’s what the OTHER side did... “
The question then is, was not the massive fire-bombing of Japanese cities and using atomic bombs deliberately targeting non-combatants?
The reason we do not directly target civilians is because of our Christian culture. Even those unfamiliar with Just War teaching instinctively understand it’s precepts, because they arise from basic Christian teachings about justice and protection of the innocent (as for the response “they were ALL guilty because they supported the war, that is the exact response of Islamic suicide bombers targeting innocent Israeli children, who add: “they’ll just grow up to be Israeli soldiers anyway.”)
Just war teaching says it is wrong to directly target non-combatants, and further says that the the “proportional use of force” must be employed. Observing these reasonable restraints will help keep us a nation that stands for doing what is right - not what is expedient, and prevent our descent in barbarity. Observing these restraints in Iraq has doubtlessly earned the respect of much of the population.
The counter-argument that “dropping the bomb saved countless Allied lives” in the impending invasion of Japan does not wash. Lining up and executing women and children might also have had the same effect, but it would have been both wrong and barbaric.
Understandably, with modern weaponry it is difficult to avoid civilian casualties, which are regrettable. However, if the intent is to attack enemy combatants, with reasonable precautions taken to prevent civilian casualties, then the attack can be justified even if civilian casualties occur.
This is not “pie in the sky, unrealistic, tying the hands of our military...” These are considerations that every commander and platoon leader in the United States military must take into account, and rightly so, if we are to be a force for good, and not evil; if we are not to be classed by future historians as barbaric, along with the Japanese during WWII, or Islamic terrorists of our day.
As for Japan in WWII, other solutions existed that might have prolonged the war somewhat, but would not have violated Just War. One possibility was a complete blockade of Japan combined with the relentless bombardment of any remaining military targets. Yes, civilians might have starved in the blockade, but the blame would have been placed squarely on their fanatical military leaders.
[full disclosure: I am a Protestant who recognizes the truth of Catholic teaching about how to conduct a Just War. Also, I fully support attacking adn defeating the enemy, whether Japan or militant Islam in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. with the full force of our weaponry - so long as we do not directly target non-combatants and observe the proportionate use of force.]
Flame on...
My mother is German (born a few years after the war). I do not remember a point in my life where I didn't know what vile things the Nazis did, both in learning from my mother and through popular culture. It's always been a part of me to feel that pain and that shame.
I had a boyfriend for awhile with a Japanese mother. He was aware of none of the atrocities committed by Japan during WWII. I did try to educate him somewhat, although I am not sure he took too kindly to it.
I don't have an anger against modern day Japan, although I have an annoyance and a concern that they don't come to terms with it.
“The perpetrators of some of the worst atrocities of the Second World
War remain alive and unpunished in Japan, according to a damning new book.”
Let there be no confusion who started the tit-for-tat in the brutality
of The Pacific Theater.
The Japanese lit this fire and never tried to turn down the heat
when it came to torture or murder of innocents and the unarmed.
And how RESTRAINED the Allies were in at least attempting to take
prisoners and treating well the few they could coax into surrrender.
To this day my 80 yr old mother will not buy a Japanese car.
I am ashamed to have done so.
“As upset as this stuff makes me: Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord”
And being as how the Lord had so much on his plate from 1937-1945, he called on the US, British, Austarlian and other free nation militaries to help him out.
God Bless Them All.
Actually, Doenitz issued orders not to render assistance to sinking victims because captains doing so endangered their ships and interfered with fulfilling their mission, which was sinking more ships. On at least one instance a U-Boot was sunk after rendering assistance, although cause and effect are not clear. Most of the time U-Boots approached on the surface (for purely tactical reasons) and victims had lots of time to radio their positions and plight, bringing in whatever destroyers or aircraft were in the area.
Stopping to render assistance may have been the exception, rather than the rule, but it was common enough that Donitz felt compelled to issue the order to refrain. American commanders in the Pacific felt no need to issue similar orders to U.S. submarines.
Ditto!!
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