Death March Horrors to the Fore

Washington Post ^ | 05/26/2002 | Steve Vogel

[JCG]

If the Japanese Empire can be replaced by a peaceful, constitutional republic, the Islamic theocracies can also--and they should be.

But only after they're made peaceful by a sufficient number of nukes -- as were the Japs.

America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)

[Hacksaw]

And if this isn't enough to justify the bombings of Japan, read up on the Rape of Nanking. Apparently Japanese notions of "civilization" differ drastically from our own.

Yes. The Japs referred to their Chinese test subjects as "logs". They would fatten them up to make sure they were healthy, and then do their medical experiments on them - such as infecting them with anthrax, or wounding them and infecting the wounds. Then they would literally dissect the prisoners while alive.

Japan has been given a free pass for WW2.

[csvset]

Ghost Soldiers: By Hampton Sides.

It's an excellent book. I happened to catch Brian Lamb's interview of the author on C-Span's Booknotes Program.

RE:It's not a Bing and Bob musical, singing songs around the tent....

I saw a program about the survivors of the Burma Railroad death camps.

The interviewers asked about the portrayal of the railroad workers in "The Bridge Over The River Kwai". "Pure Hollywood" The guys broke down in tears, they said there weren't any whistling troops, marching to and from work. Every day was misery, disease, beatings and death.

[FreedomPoster]

If the Japanese Empire can be replaced by a peaceful, constitutional republic, the Islamic theocracies can also--and they should be.

Excellent point. The only way this was able to be carried out was utter, overwhelming defeat of the entire society (not just their military), followed by iron-fisted rule by a military proconsul (MacArthur, in the case of Japan; Maxwell Taylor et al in the case of Germany) until the society was reeducated and ready to undertake a democratic republic form of government.

As much as this is needed in the Islamic world, I don't see it happening, at least until we've lost millions due to WMD.

[Savage Beast]

It may come to that. I doubt that the American people will wait until they have lost millions due to weapons of mass destruction, however. Their goodness, generosity, and patience are not unlimited.

[glockmeister40]

In times of war, the far east is known for extreme savage viciousness.

I agree. I'm not downplaying Batann, but it was just a drop in the bucket compared to what the japs did in china and manchuria. And they invaded manchuria as far back as 1929.

[IronJack]

Japan has been given a free pass for WW2.

I don't know that I would go that far. After all, they did lose a quarter of a million civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, not to mention the firebombings in Tokyo and elsewhere.

But their utter barbarity certainly belies any lofty cultural pretensions. I would expect even less from the Koreans or the Chinese, were we ever to fight them.

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

You're correct. As much publicity the death march horrors get, conditions were worse in the Burma & SE Asia theater. White prisoners were treated bad, but not nearly as bad as the locals - whose survival rate was in the single digits.

[hillsborofox]

One day in August 1945, Rutter and his fellow prisoners found that their Japanese guards were gone. The Americans asked some Korean prisoners what had happened. "They said the war was over. Something had happened at Hiroshima."

There's a lesson there.

[FlyVet]

Every day was misery, disease, beatings and death.

No doubt. I saw a documentary on WW II a few years ago. One of the veterans interviewed said that when John Wayne visited them during a USO show, he was booed off the stage. It wasn't that they personally disliked him, it was that the steel-skinned superhero characters he portrayed were not realistic. Combat was agony, misery, fear, and survival.

[Hacksaw]

I don't know that I would go that far. After all, they did lose a quarter of a million civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, not to mention the firebombings in Tokyo and elsewhere.

The "free pass" I refer to is the lack of condemnation that they face, and their own unwillingless to admit what they did. Compare this with Germany and the death camps. Japan was just as brutal.

Another example - one of the pilots in Dolittle's raid crash landed in China. The villagers where he landed helped him escape.

The Japanese retaliated by killing everyone in the village.

[altair]

The "free pass" I refer to is the lack of condemnation that they face, and their own unwillingless to admit what they did.

Whatever gave you the idea there is a lack of condemnation of Japan? China and Korea were furious only a few months ago about a history text that didn't treat events of WWII properly. It made front page headlines.