If a group of people tries to kill you for a few years, sooner or later you’re going to start to dislike them.
Considering how viscious the Japanese were during WWII, I can’t say I blame them. It was probably a reaction to that.
What? This sounds extremely made up. That was common?
The thing about the 1914 Exmas truce… the Tommies in the trenches had a lot more in common with Jerry in the trenches on the other side of the wire than with their generals, who were nowhere near the trenches, sleeping in feather beds with clean sheets, and dining off of fine china being served by a batman who also provided them with a freshly cleaned, pressed, and dry uniform to wear every day.
Any war crimes the Americans might have committed against the Japanese would be a drop in the bucket compared to the atrocities the Japanese committed against their prisoners and conquered people. As Alessan correctly points out, one has to wonder at what point racism stops being irrational and becomes the informed conclusion of empirical observation.
But to get back to the OP, it was a total crap shoot. The Eastern European front was notoriously bloody. A man about to be captured might be better off eating a bullet. The Western Front was somewhat better. There were notorious massacres, but some POWs reported being treated well. During the pre-invasion air war over Europe, aviators in particular were treated quite well (although this had as much to do with strategic interrogation as it did chivalry).
It is also hard to provide an answer without specifying the year. Pre-invasion West front Europe had more resources and time to cope with POWs. Post-invasion, not so much.
In other conflicts or theaters of operation, it was more common to leave enemy corpses around that had been decapitated with the heads left on the chest and the severed penis and testicles placed in the mouth. This sort of thing happened in Northern Africa during WWI, WWII, and the french Algeria thing.
The Japanese brutality against enemy soldiers and civilians is well documented, as well as cases of booby trapping their own dead and wounded. There was little loved lost for them.
The Japanese vivisected captured US airmen; I don’t think its possible to get worse than that. For those unaware, vivisection is the dissection of a living, un-anesthetized subject.
An incident which I’ve seen described in an extract from Enemy at the Gates describes a tank being hit by an anti-tank round which went straight through the turret without exploding. Moments later, a crewman baled out (understandably) and found himself under the guns of a German rifleman. But the rifleman apparently thought “My God, if you’ve just been that lucky, who am I to shoot you now?” and let the crewman run away.
[bolding mine]
Just to add that there numerous documented incidents of bailed-out Allied fliers being strung up by lynch mobs who wanted to punish perpetrators of terrorangrif, like the Rüsselsheim massacre where American crewmen were beaten to death by German civilians.
On the Japanese; they sank to depths of depravity even the Nazis would have balked at - using prisoners as meat on the hoof. The incidents were kept quiet as it was thought too upsetting for families to know that their loved ones had been eaten.
Justified or not, hatred can be an effective survival mechanism.
As I mentioned above, in any war it is a crap shoot to try and surrender. You are asking the guy you were trying to kill a minute ago to treat you nicely. But the fact remains that Japanese surrenders were relatively rare. They were ordered to fight to the death. The propaganda about the western barbarians and how they would be treated was much worse and more effective than the western propaganda.
One almost forgotten war hero from WWII was Guy Gabaldon. He was a Mexican-American from East LA who was partially raised by a Japanese family. He joined the Marines and later used his knowledge of the language to convince Japanese soldiers to surrender. On Saipan he would usually go out alone and convince soldiers they would be treated well. He was known as the Pied Piper of Saipan. Between Saipan and Tinian he was credited with bringing in 1,500 POWs. He was recommended for the Medal of Honor but received the Navy Cross for his actions.
The earlier link to the Rüsselsheim massacre reminded me John McCain. He bailed out of his plane over N Viet Nam and was badly beaten by villagers.
I can imagine civilian’s pent up anger at enemy air crews. Especially bombings in towns that caused innocent deaths. Bailing out of a plane into a hostile crowd wouldn’t be very safe. I’m surprised more air crew killings weren’t reported.
I misread this as:
He bailed out of his plane over N Viet Nam and was badly eaten by villagers.
The zombie wars will never seem the same to me.
See also: Hell to Eternity - Wikipedia
I think a lot depends on how close to the action the captured enemy soldier is. Minutes after(or during) the heat of battle then soldiers were often killed by the enemy even if captured. The further captured soldiers got passed behind the front line then the greater their chance of not being summarily shot.
And a Brit soldier did not kill Hitler during WWI
According to my elderly relatives who fought with the Partisans in what was then Yugoslavia, there were Partisan companies, particularly in Montenegro that if time permitted would offer confession, last rites, and even conversion to captured enemy soldiers before executing them. I have always considered that somehow honorable.
Common enough;) to be quoted by veterans as a reason for their hate of the Japanese. I’ve read accounts of this happening from multiple sources. I’ve also read that Japanese soldiers would cut off a dead American soldier’s penis and stick it in their mouths. Also numerous accounts of Americans finding dead American soldiers at Japanese camps that had been striped of their skin, internal organs like the liver missing. The Japanese were a brutal enemy and while payback by American soldiers doesn’t make it right, it’s certainly understandable.
And while I haven’t bookmarked cites, if you wish to verify my claims it shouldn’t be too difficult to do.