If this was some kind of cultural trait, then why didn’t the Japanese mistreat the Russian POWs they seized at Port Arthur in 1904 or the Germans at Tsingtao in 1914? What little information I’ve seen about the 80,000 Russian POWs from 1904 is that they were held in camps in Japan, were adequately fed, clothed and housed, had access to reasonable medical care, corresponded with family, had religious services and recreation, and those that worked were paid for it. This was all before the Geneva Convention. After World War 2 Japan became a nation I would not suspect of mistreating POWs.
I still think there was something far more virulent and malignant at work in Japan during this generation.
Japanese soldiers fared no better than POW’s much of the time. They were emulating what happened and was happening to them.
I'm interested in our learned friend's thoughts, but would offer my two cents. My understanding was that the Meiji Restoration through WWI was a time of fast modernization and industrialization where the Japanese sought to develop along European lines. The Army was modeled on European armies and behaved along those lines.
But extreme nationalist sentiments were building, beginning when after winning the Russo-Japanese War, European powers and American pressured Japan into giving back some of her gains. The 1920's were a turbulent time when civilian government was losing credibility to extreme nationalists, who had an increasingly racist view of non-Japanese. By 1930 an Army dominated by extreme nationalists was operating practically without any civilian governmental control.
There was also great resentment of America in Japan. Teddy Roosevelt had pressured them over the Russian peace. The Exclusion Act was greatly resented. The militarists were offended by the Washington Naval Treaty ratios. So, there were not very friendly feelings toward us to check the militarists attitude.
The bottom line is I agree with you that there was something virulent and malignant going on during the interwar years in Japan.
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