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Posted on 04/07/2015 12:14:43 PM PDT by drewh
A Japanese university has opened a museum acknowledging that its staff dissected downed American airmen while they were still alive during World War Two. The move is a striking step in a society where war crimes are still taboo and rarely discussed, although the incident has been extensively documented in books and by US officials.
A gruesome display at the newly-opened museum at Kyushu University explains how eight US POWs were taken to the centre’s medical school in Fukuoka after their plane was shot down over the skies of Japan in May 1945. There, they were subjected to horrific medical experiments - as doctors dissected one soldier’s brain to see if epilepsy could be controlled by surgery, and removed parts of the livers of other prisoners as part of tests to see if they would survive.
Another soldier was injected with seawater, in an experiment to see if it could be used instead of sterile saline solution to help dehydration. All of the soldiers died from their ordeal. The horrific episode has been described in previous books, one by a Japanese doctor who took part in the experiments, but the museum represents an official acknowledgement of the atrocity
After the prisoners were killed, Japanese doctors preserved their remains in formaldehyde until the end of the war. Evidence of the experiments was heard at an Allied War Crimes tribunal in 1948 against 30 doctors and university staff, by which time the body parts had been destroyed. In total 23 people were found guilty of vivisection – dissecting and performing surgery on a living thing – and five were sentenced to death. General Douglas MacArthur later commuted all death sentences when he was military governor of Japan.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
If I’m not mistaken, the medical school included the live dissections of our POWs as part of an exhibit listing its many “accomplishments.”
Much of World War II has been completely airbrushed from modern Japanese history. They concentrate on two days in August 1945, with no mention of Japan’s actions that caused the war and ultimately led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
One more reason the Japanese are hated to this day in much of Asia, particularly by those who lived through World War II. When I was stationed in Korea, you could find a number of older Koreans who chastised Americans for not celebrating the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan.
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“My late Dad was a WWII Navy veteran and would not buy or ride in a jap (as he called them until his death) automobile.”
My Dad was the same way. He was at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Hated the Japanese and anything associated with them till the day he died.
“When I read stories like this, and of the Bataan Death March, I think of the firebombing of Tokyo and the use of atomic weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and say: “Good.””
Agreed, but not Dresden. It was far TOO much.
For the record, I’m being facetious, but many here agree with the recent headlines and media-prescribed knowledge about Dresden.
Whether their death sentences were commuted by MacArthur or not, the evil ones are dead now, and in hell for all eternity. The punishments there are more just than anything MacArthur could have doled out.
My uncle is 92. He fought on Okinawa. To this day he still despises Japanese. He went to Hawaii for his 25th anniversary with his wife and said he’d never go back again because there were “too damn many Japs.”
Google Unit 731.
This has been widely known within military history circles for quite a number of years. MacArthur brought a very quick end to the war crimes in Japan because we were concerned about the Soviet and Chinese threat in the Far East and we wanted to rehabilitated Japan quickly so that we had them as a strong ally.
Since there were very few public war crimes trials and even fewer ended with an execution, the Japanese Public never understood what their government did during World War II. For the most part, they are still in denial.
My dad flew in a B-29 over Japan during all of 1945. Bet he probably knew the eight guys the Japs decided to carve up, and I know he lost many close friends - not from being shot down which many survived, but from the POW camps which most did not.
He taught us kids to be suspicious of the Japs and never trust them. I adhere to this advice to this very day and it has served me well. They may be cooing at Hello Kitty today but they are perfectly capable of re-engaging their deadly Bushido death culture again if they think it will serve their purposes.
I will say, this doesn’t mean the men were released.
They may have been, I’m not aware of it, but if they remained in prison for the rest of their lives, I could accept it.
They deserved to die IMO.
You are correct. Their history books still downplay or conceal many of their activities.
I wasn’t born until the war had been over for about nine months but I still don’t have much good to say about, or any trust in, the Japanese. I do drive a Toyota Tundra, but it was designed and built in Indiana by Americans.
The Japs did hideous to their POWs.
Hardly.
Oh, and I don’t think much Gen. MacArthur, either. I did a college paper on the Bonus Army back in the 70s. He was a glory-seeking bastard if you ask me.
I’m born in 1959. Grew up reading WW II stories and knew that stuff like this went on.
That’s one reason I try to avoid Japanese brands even today.
Yes I’m probably weird that way.
But I would rather have a union guy for Ford in Kansas City build my car; rather than someone else even in the US doing for a Japanese company.
7 Another good account is The Knights of Bushido: A Short History of Japanese War Crimes by Lord Russell of Liverpool.
8 General Douglas MacArthur later commuted all death sentences when he was military governor of Japan.” Wait. So we spent the last seventy years hunting down Nazis but, the Japs were commuted? Great...
11 In total 23 people were found guilty of vivisection – dissecting and performing surgery on a living thing – and five were sentenced to death. General Douglas MacArthur later commuted all death sentences when he was military governor of Japan.
We hanged National Socialists. We should have hanged these bastards, too.
13 I think the commutation of sentences was one of those silent deals upon which much diplomacy is based. We agreed quietly under the table to allow the Emperor to keep the ceremonial throne and not aggressively pursue war crimes trials. In exchange, the Japanese “Unconditionally surrendered.”
15 MacArthur saw that the executions of many Japanese war criminals were expedited.
26 “When I read stories like this, and of the Bataan Death March, I think of the firebombing of Tokyo and the use of atomic weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and say: “Good.””
Agreed, but not Dresden. It was far TOO much. For the record, I’m being facetious, but many here agree with the recent headlines and media-prescribed knowledge about Dresden.
by James Bradley, 2003
Mr. Bradley's father was 1 of the 6 marines/corpsmen who raised the 2nd flag on Iwo Jima.
I was surprized to learn in his book that 900+ Japanese war criminals were executed after tribunals in the years after WWII. Apparently many of these tribunals were not under the authority of Gen. MacArthur and the executions were conducted by our allies.
Bradley delved into the U.S. fire bombings of Germany and Japan. He made an interesting case that they were not necessary, as well as the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. My extended family lost a relative in the Bataan Death March. War is hell.
Nuke em again....just to be sure.
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