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Originally Posted by WilhelmSchulz.
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Originally Posted by Sailor Steve
Good point. Admiral Husband Kimmel, who took the fall for the Pearl Harbor attack, had a son in the submarine service. His boat was damaged and they surfaced and surrendered. They were in a Japanese prison camp when a nearby area was bombed. In retaliation Commander Kimmel and other officers were burned alive by their captors.
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What the *******!? Thats sick!  |
If you want to see really sick then read the book
Flyboys by James Bradley (the author of
Flags of Our Fathers as well) which documents what happened to the US aviators that were captured and held on Chichi Jimi. Additionally as part of the background for what occured there Bradley also goes into details about the Japanese orders forbidding their troops on New Guinea from eating their
own dead, yeah you read that right. Cannabalism was a big enough issue that the Japanese had to issue orders about it specifically...
With that in mind, along with the Japanese record on human rights in China, on Wake after it was captured, in the Phillipines after the fall, in the Solomons, etc. especially combined with the widespread evidence about the treatment given to the remains of Allied KIAs that were recovered from Japanese held territory, and the treatment testified to by liberated POWs then the prevailing attitude of the US troops towards the Japanese is a little bit more understandable.
Wars are always ugly things, but some wars are even uglier for a variety of reasons, and WWII in the PTO was one of the ugliest ever. I don't condone a lot of the actions taken by both sides in the PTO, but I also understand that those were different times and you can't solely judge historical events with modern values. I daresay if any troops today, from any of the countries of any of our forum members were being eaten by the enemy that it would make you feel a little bit differently about that enemy than otherwise would be the case. Barbarism doesn't necessarilly have to be met with barbarism back, but I can understand the pure rage that barbaric acts being perpetrated on your comrades would bring out in an American serviceman in the PTO in WWII, and how a kill 'em all attitude could (and often did) come into place.
Also the Japanese often didn't take kindly to being taken prisoner anyhow. Taking Japanese prisoners was often a very dangerous proposition because they'd rather blow themselves up with a grenade (and take you with them) than suffer the humiliation of being taken as a POW. That also had to factor into any Allied commander's judgement when the issue of whether or not to attempt it came up.