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Why Were The Japanese So Cruel To Their Prisoners In World War Two?
I know that in a war situation no side is blameless. But how the Japanese, who seem such a calm, respectful people, were capable of such appalling actions seems incomprehensible.
Answers
(See my answer has, in part, been anticipated. My comment in full: Just naturally[i more cruel (a theory I've seen proposed one of AB's long-term moderators)? Or a different understandin
00:04 Sun 18th Feb 2018
If you believe that we were no better then the Japanese then I suggest you read "The knights of the Bushido: a history of Japanese war crimes". Just one example, did we ever place a starving rat below a prisoner and then place food under a bowl on the persons stomach? The rat literally chewed through the prisoner to get to the food.
Bainbridge....your knowledge of history is woeful.
Actually the Japanese DID start it. They used the Second World War as a way of continuing their expansionist plans. They marched into Manchuria in the early 1930's and didn't stop until they reached the border with India, killing and torturing millions of completely innocent people on the way. Nothing stopped them in their tracks, until America came into the war, and yes, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour before the Yanks had fired a single shot.
They behaved appallingly, as even a cursory study of the facts will show.
Of course they are a different nation now, and led by very different people, and I am more than happy to put the past to one side and move on.
But I am addressing the OP, and the central question. They behaved the way they did because they were cruel and heartless, and they thought that every other race on earth was, as Eddie has already answered, subhuman and/or animals.
Can I respectively suggest that you read up on history a little bit, before making any more daft comments.
Actually the Japanese DID start it. They used the Second World War as a way of continuing their expansionist plans. They marched into Manchuria in the early 1930's and didn't stop until they reached the border with India, killing and torturing millions of completely innocent people on the way. Nothing stopped them in their tracks, until America came into the war, and yes, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour before the Yanks had fired a single shot.
They behaved appallingly, as even a cursory study of the facts will show.
Of course they are a different nation now, and led by very different people, and I am more than happy to put the past to one side and move on.
But I am addressing the OP, and the central question. They behaved the way they did because they were cruel and heartless, and they thought that every other race on earth was, as Eddie has already answered, subhuman and/or animals.
Can I respectively suggest that you read up on history a little bit, before making any more daft comments.
The Japanese treated their prisoners ( and chinese ) terribly badly compared to the Germans treating the defeated or liberated nations ( English French Polish servicemen)
There was an awfull lot written about this in the sixties
The Knights of Bushido Hardcover – 1 Jan 1958
by Lord Russell of Liverpool (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars 1 customer review
is one.
The experiments on POWs in Harbin ( unit 731 ? ) is another episode guaranteed to nauseate.
Letters from Iwo Jima tells the Japanese side
the japanese defender was sent to Iwo Jima because they wanted him to die ( criticizing the war effort ) and he had insight into their little plan.He went
and yes Mikeys frenz father was correct
The US had sunk 98% of the Japanese well Navy and merchant vessels and the Japanese couldnt work out how. They were blocked on the idea of decoding JN25 - simply not feasible for the Allies to break Japanese codes. So they concluded that the POWs were communicating back home and decided that the answer was - annihilate them
Date set - - Sep 1945.
There was an awfull lot written about this in the sixties
The Knights of Bushido Hardcover – 1 Jan 1958
by Lord Russell of Liverpool (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars 1 customer review
is one.
The experiments on POWs in Harbin ( unit 731 ? ) is another episode guaranteed to nauseate.
Letters from Iwo Jima tells the Japanese side
the japanese defender was sent to Iwo Jima because they wanted him to die ( criticizing the war effort ) and he had insight into their little plan.He went
and yes Mikeys frenz father was correct
The US had sunk 98% of the Japanese well Navy and merchant vessels and the Japanese couldnt work out how. They were blocked on the idea of decoding JN25 - simply not feasible for the Allies to break Japanese codes. So they concluded that the POWs were communicating back home and decided that the answer was - annihilate them
Date set - - Sep 1945.
The Japanese started the war with China in 1937 over the Marco Polo Bridge Incident
It was faked.....
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour on the Day of Infamy and germany declared war as a result of a secret treaty, on the US. This relieved FDR of the necessity of getting a declaration of war on germany thro congress.
It was faked.....
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour on the Day of Infamy and germany declared war as a result of a secret treaty, on the US. This relieved FDR of the necessity of getting a declaration of war on germany thro congress.
Mikey, Mikey, stop with the insults! This is me you're talking to, pal!
Of course I know who started what and when - it was a not-very-obvious reference to Basil Fawlty and his 'Well you started it' line from Fawlty Towers. And having been reading history, conventional and unconventional, for over 50 years, my knowledge of history is as good as anyone's.
But please, consider this point: surely the question we should be exploring is HOW a civilised, cultured society such as the Japanese, or German, or indeed the Italian, could go from that to a state of vicious fascism? And how civilised, cultured societies such as ours, or our Allies, could do what they did (had to do? another question) to defeat the monsters in the 2nd World War. No, we weren't 'as bad' as the Japanese or the rest of our enemies, but questions, important moral questions, remain over many aspects of the allied war.
Only by a truthful examination will we be able to see our own country's present drift to the right in proper context - and maybe be able to do something to stop it! It couldn't happen here? Oh yeah?
Of course I know who started what and when - it was a not-very-obvious reference to Basil Fawlty and his 'Well you started it' line from Fawlty Towers. And having been reading history, conventional and unconventional, for over 50 years, my knowledge of history is as good as anyone's.
But please, consider this point: surely the question we should be exploring is HOW a civilised, cultured society such as the Japanese, or German, or indeed the Italian, could go from that to a state of vicious fascism? And how civilised, cultured societies such as ours, or our Allies, could do what they did (had to do? another question) to defeat the monsters in the 2nd World War. No, we weren't 'as bad' as the Japanese or the rest of our enemies, but questions, important moral questions, remain over many aspects of the allied war.
Only by a truthful examination will we be able to see our own country's present drift to the right in proper context - and maybe be able to do something to stop it! It couldn't happen here? Oh yeah?
Bainbridge....you appear to be changing your story here.
At 14:49 today, you posted this ::::::"ALL combatants behaved like animals, one way or another"
And now, at 16:55 you posted "No, we weren't 'as bad' as the Japanese or the rest of our enemies"
Let me make the point once more. Japan was in the wrong, and Japan is the nation at discussion here, not anybody else. The Allies fought tooth and nail to free the Far East from the Japs, and your contention that we were all the same is an insult to the 10,000's of Allied troops that were murdered and tortured and its the same to all the millions of otherwise innocent civilians that were effected by the Japanese race.
The Allies have nothing to be ashamed of, for what they did during WW2.
At 14:49 today, you posted this ::::::"ALL combatants behaved like animals, one way or another"
And now, at 16:55 you posted "No, we weren't 'as bad' as the Japanese or the rest of our enemies"
Let me make the point once more. Japan was in the wrong, and Japan is the nation at discussion here, not anybody else. The Allies fought tooth and nail to free the Far East from the Japs, and your contention that we were all the same is an insult to the 10,000's of Allied troops that were murdered and tortured and its the same to all the millions of otherwise innocent civilians that were effected by the Japanese race.
The Allies have nothing to be ashamed of, for what they did during WW2.
I think there is a genetic propensity towards what we regard as 'cruelty is the Japanese psyche.
Anyone remember 'Endurance', the Japanese game show introduced to the West by Clive James? We were all gobsmacked at the levels of sadism served up as entertainment for Japanese TV audiences, although we have moved several several steps closer to it with the execrable I'm A Cebebrity.
Similarlwy, their version or Candid Camera, or You've Been Framed for younger AB'ers was seriously cruel in its trickery, way beyond the simple buffoonery that we get, and into genuine horror movie territory.
As I said, I think the Japanese level of acceptable sadism is a bar set way lower that ours in the West.
Anyone remember 'Endurance', the Japanese game show introduced to the West by Clive James? We were all gobsmacked at the levels of sadism served up as entertainment for Japanese TV audiences, although we have moved several several steps closer to it with the execrable I'm A Cebebrity.
Similarlwy, their version or Candid Camera, or You've Been Framed for younger AB'ers was seriously cruel in its trickery, way beyond the simple buffoonery that we get, and into genuine horror movie territory.
As I said, I think the Japanese level of acceptable sadism is a bar set way lower that ours in the West.
Oh Mikey, your barrack-room lawyer pose really disappoints me. Do stop.
In a war as awful as the Second WW, fought for whatever reasons, i.e. imperialst or defensive, dreadful deeds were done. I’m offering no defence of the Japanese treatment of allied prisoners. It was criminal.
But no-one can defend the Allied fire-bombing of Dresden, Hamburg, or Tokyo, aimed almost without exception at the civilian population.
I repeat, we should NOT play the game of “who was worst”, but rather look to the future avoidance of such futile conflict.
In a war as awful as the Second WW, fought for whatever reasons, i.e. imperialst or defensive, dreadful deeds were done. I’m offering no defence of the Japanese treatment of allied prisoners. It was criminal.
But no-one can defend the Allied fire-bombing of Dresden, Hamburg, or Tokyo, aimed almost without exception at the civilian population.
I repeat, we should NOT play the game of “who was worst”, but rather look to the future avoidance of such futile conflict.
// Do you really think that any nations armies recognise or adhere to the Geneva convention on initial capture of pow’s? //
historically yeah the Germans did in the invasion of France and belgium. My Dad was sort of in it. - He gave his parole and was allowed to go into Brussels to try to get medical supplies. - The consulate was understanding and passed th e hat around but did little else. They were going to be repatriated under yup the Geneva Convention
There was a massacre at Wormhout
https:/
by the same folks that brought you the Massacre at Malmedy in 1945 and countless awful Saints and SInners films ( adolf hitler liebstandart regiment ) - but they successfully argued that everyone involved had died on the Eastern Front.
Malmedy they were acquitted on appeal because they successfully pleaded that the confessions had been beaten out them by their allied german speaking interrogators
historically yeah the Germans did in the invasion of France and belgium. My Dad was sort of in it. - He gave his parole and was allowed to go into Brussels to try to get medical supplies. - The consulate was understanding and passed th e hat around but did little else. They were going to be repatriated under yup the Geneva Convention
There was a massacre at Wormhout
https:/
by the same folks that brought you the Massacre at Malmedy in 1945 and countless awful Saints and SInners films ( adolf hitler liebstandart regiment ) - but they successfully argued that everyone involved had died on the Eastern Front.
Malmedy they were acquitted on appeal because they successfully pleaded that the confessions had been beaten out them by their allied german speaking interrogators
BB...I have no problem with giving support to Britain in its bombing of Dresden. While that was going on, the Nazis were happily shoveling Jews in gas ovens all over Germany and its allied countries.
While the USAF were carpet bombing Tokyo, the Japanese were busy murdering allied prisoners.
Let me make myself clear, if I haven't done so already, Germany, Italy and Japan were in the wrong and the Allies were in the right, and they did what it took to end WW2.
While the USAF were carpet bombing Tokyo, the Japanese were busy murdering allied prisoners.
Let me make myself clear, if I haven't done so already, Germany, Italy and Japan were in the wrong and the Allies were in the right, and they did what it took to end WW2.
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