What? You mean the Japanese weren’t the only ones abusing POWs in the Pacific War [Ampontan]?
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This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on March 17, 2007 at 3:56 pm, filed under Asides, East and Central Asia, Japan. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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15 Comments
Can’t blame the British, they were the worst sufferers out of the allies, with their POW’s being abused and killed by the “Nip” army. How many Allies died in Japanese prison camps versus those few Japanese who died in allied camps?
Of course you can blame the British if its true, “Two wrongs don’t make a right”. However, it’s history now, and as far as I am aware unlike some other topics being hotly debated the British aren’t denying such event where they are true.
Well, more than “a few” Japanese died in English hands—9,000 is a lot. It’s especially bad considering they died AFTER the war had concluded.
Of course, you are right that the British—and Australians—had a very rough war with the Japanese, with 49% of POWs dying in Japanese camps. And as bad as British behavior might have been, 71,000 of the 80,000 still came home.
Robert, are there any written, confirmed, stamped, and signed documentation by the British government that those Japanese POW’s died of abuse or hunger that were caused by the British deliberately withholding food? How do we know that the British tried their best to feed the POW’s, but the stubborn Japanese refused to eat because they were so distraught that they lost the war and wanted to die?
Furthermore, who started the war?
“You mean the Japanese weren’t the only ones abusing POWs in the Pacific War?”
Who said that they were?
No, the Japanese weren’t the only ones. But they were, without competition, the absolute worst.
what baduk once said comes to mind. “The Japanese made suicide romantic”.
Have you seen Letters from Iwo Jima?
Not sure if they made suicide romantic, but the Emperor was god to them. Killing yourself was actually the prefered way to go and they were trained to believe it.
Crying murder over 9000/80000 dying in a labor camp versus what the Soviets did to the Germans?
Who started the war again?
Have you seen Empire of the Sun? Did the British do this to Japanese civilians? The Japanese definitely did something to English civilians in China.
Movies are lies? Both movies mentioned were based on autobiographies. Gasp ! Where’s the paper trail? Eyewitness accounts don’t count. Just look at the evidence we didn’t burn.
I credit Baduk and Kimsoft for enriching my mind as major influences in the 2000s decade.
misplaced my comment in the section for “sympathy for the devil”.
My point is, while the west goes out of its way to apologize to Japan for even seemingly understandable actions against Japan, Japanese govt prefers to put all the shame, blame, and onus on the ones who suffered, not the ones who caused it. Them. The Japanese Imperial govt. Their direct discendants by blood, family ties, and membership, being the LDP for 90% of the current Japanese Parliament since August 15, 1945.
Robert, are there any written, confirmed, stamped, and signed documentation by the British government that those Japanese POW’s died of abuse or hunger that were caused by the British deliberately withholding food?
CM, my thoughts exactly.
i find it difficult to feel much sympathy for the japanese soldiers. maybe it’s because i keep thinking about those poor chinese souls who had their guts cut open while still alive. maybe it’s because i can imagine myself being that person the japanese decided to boil alive just so they could see what would happen.
the japanese do not deserve an ounce of sympathy. let their emperor wipe away their tears. let the western apologist for japan shine their black hearts white. let their shrines to class a war criminals soothe their wounded sorrow.
lastly, i’d like to thank ampotan for bringing these books to our attention as they are a great service to the people of japan. japan can be proud to have you as one of it’s citizens. as always, i hope you have a good day.
石 鶴
Pawikirogi, of course you can not feel sympathy for the Japanese. I think this book is not suited to wrap a fish. The fact that we had a common enemy, and America freed Korea from their enslavers seems to be lost on the contemporary Korean conscience. The fact that America broke the cycle of tyranny on the peninsula is also ignored. The agenda of this book is ham-fisted. Your glee is probably misplaced.
I think it’s worth pointing out that books like the one above are not necessarily intended to change our opinions of who were the “good guys” and who were the “bad guys”, but instead can be viewed simply as research providing new information as to what happened during and after World War II. Since at least the 1970s, historians and others have re-examined events such as the bombing of Dresden, the treatment of Japanese prisoners under the Soviets, Churchill’s plans for the Nazi high command after surrender, and now the postwar treatment of Japanese POWs. The book discussed above is interesting on its own merits; the postwar treatment of Jap POWs is a new wrinkle I previously knew nothing about. Doesn’t change my viewpoint on the merits of defeating Japan.
‘your glee is mispalced.’ railway
your assumption that i feel glee is misplaced.
‘we had a comman enemy…’
we sure did. we had the japanese on one side and the germans on the other. now, we need to worry about iran and how to fix iraq. as americans, railwaycharm, i know we can do it!
btw, were you in ww2 or the korean war? my dad served in europe during ww2. how about your family?
Pawi wrote:
“my dad served in europe during ww2.”
Then you must be my 오빠.
pawikirogi
My family was in the process of emigrating during WW2. My family did support the war effort in Korea by building aircraft stateside. My family did assist with the Vietnam conflict.
I hope you are right about winning in the desert, many of our fellow Americans don’t get it!