My dad was a POW in Japan

[hauxwell 243]

The Japanese generations that turned Japan from civil to military control 1905-1931 had little regard for human life. They brainwashed their own soldiers (must die for the Emperor rather than surrender) and went on to plunder dozens of countries as well as starve and murder millions of civilians and POWs.

 

In my opinion the people that ordered and sanctioned this behavior were psychopaths & cowards with no conscience. Joe Stalin played a similar game !

 

Thankfully they are all gone and we have a new breed in Tokyo and Berlin.

 

yes I quite agree with you.

[biker 10]

Respectfully, re-consider what you say.

 

Atrocities were committed in war.

 

The taking of prisoners means the captured men were not killed.

 

However, not every soldier became a POW. Soldiers were murdered in cold blood when captured and such acts were committed by our own finest.

 

Reality check.

 

Read the book "The forgotten Highlander" .

[darra 10]

The Japanese generations that turned Japan from civil to military control 1905-1931 had little regard for human life. They brainwashed their own soldiers (must die for the Emperor rather than surrender) and went on to plunder dozens of countries as well as starve and murder millions of civilians and POWs.

 

In my opinion the people that ordered and sanctioned this behavior were psychopaths & cowards with no conscience. Joe Stalin played a similar game !

 

Thankfully they are all gone and we have a new breed in Tokyo and Berlin.

 

It has to be remembered that according to the Japaneses if you surrended you were the lowest of the low and almost sub human. Surrender was not an option and it was more acceptable to commit suicide rather than surrender. Remember those japanese soldiers who spent many many years living in the jungle rather than surrender,not knowing the war had finished many years ago. Thjs was mentioned by someone,didn't catch his name, on the BBC coverage The treatment of POW's was horrendous,but I once read an article, many years ago, in which they asked the Japanese who had lived through the war. They said that the POW's were being treated in the same way as the Japanese workers were treated on the plantations etc i.e being given a bowl of rice and little else,being made to work long hours, living in shacks. I don't know if this is correct and if it's a reason to treat POW's in a similar fashion is right. I suspect not.

To go off topic my mother was a refugee from Poland and told us of some of the atrocities she saw mostly done by the Russians. She also told us that towards the end of the war her family had everything they owned in the world which wasn't much taken off them by a group of American G.I's. Not on a par maybe but the point is no one came out of the war squeaky clean. |There is a saying that the best way to cover up atrocities in a war is to win it

Edited August 23, 2015 by darra

[biker 10]

It has to be remembered that according to the Japaneses if you surrended you were the lowest of the low and almost sub human. Surrender was not an option and it was more acceptable to commit suicide rather than surrender. Remember those japanese soldiers who spent many many years living in the jungle rather than surrender,not knowing the war had finished many years ago. Thjs was mentioned by someone,didn't catch his name, on the BBC coverage The treatment of POW's was horrendous,but I once read an article, many years ago, in which they asked the Japanese who had lived through the war. They said that the POW's were being treated in the same way as the Japanese workers were treated on the plantations etc i.e being given a bowl of rice and little else,being made to work long hours, living in shacks. I don't know if this is correct and if it's a reason to treat POW's in a similar fashion is right. I suspect not.

To go off topic my mother was a refugee from Poland and told us of some of the atrocities she saw mostly done by the Russians. She also told us that towards the end of the war her family had everything they owned in the world which wasn't much taken off them by a group of American G.I's. Not on a par maybe but the point is no one came out of the war squeaky clean. |There is a saying that the best way to cover up atrocities in a war is to win it

 

Read the book The Forgotten Highlander by Alistair Urquhart who spent years as a POW of the Japanese. Its unbelievable how badly they were treated.Far worse than any German treatment and that was horrendous.The Japanese surrended after the war.So much for their never surrender attitude.Every Japanese person should read that book as many deny any ill treatment.The Allies played it down as they didn't want Japan to become Communist

[May Blob 10]

After what I've heard down the years of the barbarism of the Japanese in WWII I have no sympathy over the use of the atom bombs.

 

---------- Post added 24-08-2015 at 00:36 ----------

 

The Japanese generations that turned Japan from civil to military control 1905-1931 had little regard for human life. They brainwashed their own soldiers (must die for the Emperor rather than surrender) and went on to plunder dozens of countries as well as starve and murder millions of civilians and POWs.

 

In my opinion the people that ordered and sanctioned this behavior were psychopaths & cowards with no conscience. Joe Stalin played a similar game !

 

Thankfully they are all gone and we have a new breed in Tokyo and Berlin.

Japan did not sign the Geneva convention regarding treatment of P.O.Ws so in my mind what they got in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified.

[biker 10]

After what I've heard down the years of the barbarism of the Japanese in WWII I have no sympathy over the use of the atom bombs.

 

---------- Post added 24-08-2015 at 00:36 ----------

 

Japan did not sign the Geneva convention regarding treatment of P.O.Ws so in my mind what they got in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified.

 

If the atom bomb had not been used Russia would have invaded Japan and there would have been a massive loss of life as Stalin didn't care about losses.The Allies would not have been involved as they didn't want massive losses which is why they left Berlin to the Russians.Japan would have been a part of Russia.

[TORONTONY 10]

If the atom bomb had not been used Russia would have invaded Japan and there would have been a massive loss of life as Stalin didn't care about losses.The Allies would not have been involved as they didn't want massive losses which is why they left Berlin to the Russians.Japan would have been a part of Russia.

 

Don't know where you got that from mate,. The Russians had very little to do with the war in the Pacific. If the Allies were not going to get involved, how come they spent 4 years crossing the Pacific to get on Japan's doorstep. The truth is the Bombs were dropped to save massive American casualties which an invasion would have have cost them. It had nothing to do with Stalin, who incidentally got only half of Berlin.

[sharrovian 10]

I knew a chap for quite a few years who was a POW under the Japs, many tried to get him to relate his experiences but he never did and he would never buy anything that was Japanese made.

[May Blob 10]

Don't know where you got that from mate,. The Russians had very little to do with the war in the Pacific. If the Allies were not going to get involved, how come they spent 4 years crossing the Pacific to get on Japan's doorstep. The truth is the Bombs were dropped to save massive American casualties which an invasion would have have cost them. It had nothing to do with Stalin, who incidentally got only half of Berlin.

Russia finally declared war on Japan and were in the process of preparing an invasion fleet to attack the northern island, had the atom bombs not been used Japan would have become a divided country like Korea.

[glennpickard 10]

The downside of the 2 nuclear bombs was that they killed approx. 140,000 people, mainly civilians. I have seen one estimate of 90% civilians. Few if any fatalities were the political class who started the war, nor senior military people. But bombing examples had to made to try to avoid the home islands invasion and US casualties, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were selected on a list of secondary targets. Rightly or wrongly, Tokyo was not selected to avoid the Royal Palace, Emperor Hirohito and the Japanese parliament,

 

The Russians attacked Japan one week before Japan surrendered Aug 15 1945, and overran them in China & Manchuria, fighting until the last week in August. A big contribution of the Russians was to hold about 18 divisions in the east, which convinced the Japanese for 2 years that they were about to be attacked, thereby locking up many Japanese infantry divisions on the Chinese/Mongolian border

[May Blob 10]

The downside of the 2 nuclear bombs was that they killed approx. 140,000 people, mainly civilians. I have seen one estimate of 90% civilians. Few if any fatalities were the political class who started the war, nor senior military people. But bombing examples had to made to try to avoid the home islands invasion and US casualties, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were selected on a list of secondary targets. Rightly or wrongly, Tokyo was not selected to avoid the Royal Palace, Emperor Hirohito and the Japanese parliament,

 

The Russians attacked Japan one week before Japan surrendered Aug 15 1945, and overran them in China & Manchuria, fighting until the last week in August. A big contribution of the Russians was to hold about 18 divisions in the east, which convinced the Japanese for 2 years that they were about to be attacked, thereby locking up many Japanese infantry divisions on the Chinese/Mongolian border

 

When the Johnny Come Lately Russians entered the war in the final weeks it was to face a depleted, ill equipped, nil supplied, overseas army. The Russians plan on entering the war was to annexe the north island of the Japanese homeland.

 

The downside of not using the atom bombs would be the far greater casualties caused to the allied cause during a land invasion, therefore the bombs were fully justified.

Edited August 25, 2015 by May Blob

[glennpickard 10]

Given the military situation at the time, I agree that the atomic bombs were an option that appeared to be the quickest way to get Japan to surrender. It would also cause the least allied casualties.

The Japanese Military government were extremely obstinate, and many civilians (not so much the military) were starving. Other than the immediate casualties the bombs would cause, the rest of the population would get to food assistance quicker if the war could be shortened