Captain Shunsako Kudo of IKAZUCHI Destroyer during WW2

[kiwi_2005]

This is an re-enactment of the Captain of the Japanese navy during WWII who saved the lives of 442 crew of the British Royal Navy Destroyer ENCOUNTER. Rare in my books as we all know how the Japanese mistreated captured sailors. This Captain deserved a bloody medal for what he did.

Documentary is in Japanese with English subtitles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyKauVi4W3c&feature=related

This is a miraculous story in a naval battle happened in Surabaya, the Northeast of Java Sea in 1942, was summarized in a book by a Japanese Self-Defense Force official who had been impressed the story talked by Sir Samuel Falle. This story wasn't known by anyone unless Sir Falle visited Japan. "I visited Japan to say thanks to Japanese Captain Kudo face to face by all means before I die. I have never forgotten him even at my age now 87."

Lieutenant Samuel Falle was one of the 442 crew of the British Royal Navy Destroyer "ENCOUNTER" saved by Imperial Japanese Navy Destroyer "IKAZUCHI" commanded by Captain Shunsako Kudo, who never told anyone of his accomplishments.

Ikazuchi (meaning "thunder") was a destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy. During the first months of 1942, Ikazuchi participated in the East Indies campaign, including the invasion of Java and the battle of the Java Sea on March 1 in which the British cruiser EXETER, destroyer ENCOUNTER and U.S. destroyer POPE were sunk.

[LukeFF]

Black text doesn't work well on this forum...

[A Very Super Market]

Well, some of us don't use smartdark....

Me included.

You can just highlight it.

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by A Very Super Market

Well, some of us don't use smartdark....

Me included.

You can just highlight it.

Not changing the font color will result in the correct text color for the theme each user chooses to use. And not, I don't want to just highlight text to read something.

[jazzabilly]

One decent Japanese Officer doesn't change the record of the rest. 99.99999% were insufferable bastards who needed to be sat upon their swords.

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by LukeFF

Not changing the font color will result in the correct text color for the theme each user chooses to use. And not, I don't want to just highlight text to read something.

Fixed. Was on 2nd PC in house when i put this up, 2nd pc is so crappy that the monitor is super bright where text has to be set to dark to read something Unable to use main PC as son was in World of Warcraft and had a very very important Raid with his guild mates - that according to him his life depended on it.

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by jazzabilly

One decent Japanese Officer doesn't change the record of the rest. 99.99999% were insufferable bastards who needed to be sat upon their swords.

Yes but i suppose just one decent Japanese Officer is better than none.

[Diopos]

What would be really interesting to know is how the IJN reacted when he returned with the 400+ prisoners...

[virtualpender]

The ending of this story is that Sam Dealey, Captain of the HARDER, sank this destroyer in April 1944. This Japanese officer in this story rescued men from DD-225. HARDER was sunk August 1944 by that vessel's sister ship DD-224 (captured as a prize and in service with the IJN as PB-102).

Sad irony.

And as someone who took the oral history of several former POW's held by the Japanese during WWII, this one act of mercy, or a thousand like it, do nothing to erase or minimize the inhuman manner in which the Japanese treated their prisoners.

[Torplexed]

American soldiers who surrendered at Bataan recall being rather well treated by the ordinary front line soldiers. Things started getting ugly as they were marched toward the rear and watches and other personal items were stolen. There was no consistency in the actions of the Japanese. One truckload of troops would toss down water canteens to the prisoners, while the next savagely swung "liberated" golf clubs at their heads. The one thing that was consistent was that things grew worse as they marched up the Bataan peninsula. It didn't help that the Japanese only anticipated 25,000 able-bodied prisoners and were ill-tempered about having to care for 76,000 starving ones.

[A Very Super Market]

Generally speaking, the farther from the front lines, the more fervent the soldiers become.

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by A Very Super Market

Generally speaking, the farther from the front lines, the more fervent the soldiers become.

I think for unique nation like Japan it went a bit deeper. Bushido as an aristocratic warrior code with it's roots in Japan's middle ages originally prescribed correct and honorable behavior towards enemies as a reflection of one's own honor. During WW2 it increasingly mutated into a way of war than a way of life. The soldiers and sailors of Japan were excepted to show concern for nothing but their duty and mission. This ethic can be a recipe for trouble away from the front lines in any army but it's effect was exaggerated, as Japan's protracted involvement in China increased, by a sense of being hopelessly outnumbered in a land of hostile and unknowable enemies. The infamous Nanking Massacre was, in good part sparked by Japanese fear of "plainclothesmen". Chinese soldiers who shed their army uniforms to act as sniper and saboteurs.

Another factor that that instilled thuggery into Japanese soldiers was Japan's thin logistics thread. Troops were expected to supplement their meager rations by requisition and foraging. In primitive locales like rural China and the South Pacific this became the slippery slope for brutality in a subsistence economy. From using rifle butts on a stubborn peasant hoarding rice it was only a short step to teaching local women who their new masters were, and to destroying and torching anything that couldn't be carried away.