# Why was it WWII Japanese policy to murder POWs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 23, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160 "2003-08-23T15:19:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/41 "2003-08-26T15:59:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Susanann \* > Just how long after ww2 did the United States “prohibit” Japan from once again having a large army with aircraft carriers, bombs, fighters, bombers, battleships, etc? Did our government trust and allow that country and its people to rearm and rebuild its military the very next day after V-J day? If not the next day, then exactly when did our government place complete trust in the Japanese “people” and allowed them to rearm? About the time they figured that communism was THE big threat. At that point a lot of social changes that had been enforced under McArthur were undone, like the breaking up of industrial power houses. That would have been what?, 1948? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/42 "2003-08-26T17:20:26Z")
> [@](#): > > How long should someone be held accountable for the atrocities that they commit? That is up to each individual to decide for themselves. So it is up to the individual to forgive, but you are willing to condemn millions for their place of birth? A Japanese kid who, in 1945, got into the Army or Navy at 16, (who was certainly too young to have helped start the war), would be a 74 year old retiree, today. Anyone old enough to have committed an atrocity would probably be closer to 80 and anyone old enough to have actually helped formulate a policy to engage in the war would probably be over 90. How many of those nonagenarians do you believe are actually running car companies? Your policy of “if you want to forgive them” implies that it is acceptable to choose to withhold “forgiveness” from people who had nothing to do with prosecuting the war and were, in most cases, not born or were young children when it _ended_. In 1955, or even 1975, your position had some glimmer of rationalization. In 2003, it is simply perpetuating mindless hatred. You are not withholding forgiveness, you are holding a grudge. ---
**Author:** ![Publius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@Publius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Publius)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/43 "2003-08-26T19:52:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Susanann \* > \*\*How long should someone be held accountable for the atrocities that they commit? \*\* How long should someone be held accountable for atrocities that they did **not** commit? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/44 "2003-08-26T20:58:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zsofia \* > Are you as willing to support _that_ analogy, or is any black person calling themselves a friend of mine a traitor? Why do you people keep on making up strawmen? ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/45 "2003-08-26T23:07:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Ryan \* > \*\*You guys seem to feel that no one should ever have any irrational feelings towards any group. \*\* and they should act irrational because…? > [@](#): > > Everyone should be evalutated on an individual basis, even if they belong to a group that, acting as group, attacked one’s own group. Your forgetting the attack was 58 years ago. 58 years ago. My _mom_ wasn’t even alive then, neither were most of the Japanese alive now. Why keep hating? Do you get off on the hate? Is your life so empty you need to hate something to justify your existance? > [@](#): > > I find this attitude very insensitive, and I doubt you would so harsh if Susanann were not white (assuming she is). I don’t give a fuck what color she is. I find your blanket condemnation of the grandchildren of people who hurt your and my grandparents insensitive and insulting to you, them, and me, someone in “your group.” You need to grow up, son, or come up with a rational explination why 3 year old Michiko deserves your hate. Haven’t you noticed the cirlce of violence crap that plagues certain parts of the world? And now you’re defending it here? > [@](#): > > If someone who grew up being terrorized by the KKK as a child now has trouble trusting white people, and avoids patronizing white establishments, would you be so harsh? \*\* please show where **Susanann** was terrorised in a Japanese POW camp. And, no, since they lived through the actual hating, not heard it second hand based on 60 year old stories. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/46 "2003-08-27T00:35:55Z")
> [@](#): > > ## quote: > > ## Originally posted by Zsofia Are you as willing to support that analogy, or is any black person calling themselves a friend of mine a traitor? > > Why do you people keep on making up strawmen? Not my straw man. The analogy originally drawn was that buying cars (or otherwise forgiving the Japanese people for actions comitted in the second world war) is like black people getting all lovey dovey with the KKK. When clearly neither the workers nor probably the executives at Toyota had anything to _do_ with the war. Therefore, this is all just an excuse to hate people for the sins of their fathers (or their _former government_, even better), which is as silly as despising me for what my slaveholding ancestors did. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/47 "2003-08-27T08:03:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Alan Owes Bess \* > \*\*Whether a country was a signatory to the Geneva Convention or not, also has a bearing on the matter. > > In WWII the German Army treated POWs from all allied countries, except the USSR, in accordance with the Geneva Convention, as far as it could, because those countries were signatories to the Convention. > > The USSR’s Joe Stalin refused to sign the treaty (most of the signatories signed well before the outbreak of WWII, incidentally). As a result, neither side was bound by the constraints of the Geneva Convention and the context of war on the Eastern front ended up as being no holds barred and POWs were badly treated by both sides, to put it mildly.\*\* I have read further commentary in this thread on this issue, so my apologies if it appears that I’m jumping on this, but Hitler used the USSR’s non-signatory status of the Geneva Convention as a justification for the Commissar Order and the general horrific treatment of Soviet prisoners to those who had qualms about it. As a purely legal matter, this idea is a complete wash. Article 82 of the Convention states: > [@](#): > > ARTICLE 82. > The provisions of the present Convention must be respected by the High Contracting Parties under all circumstances. > In case, in time of war, one of the belligerents is not a party to the Convention, its provisions shall nevertheless remain in force as between the belligerents who are parties thereto. Link is [here](http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/lawofwar/geneva02.htm). Germany was a signatory and bound to treat Soviet prisoners accordingly, whether the USSR had signed the convention itself or not. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/48 "2003-08-27T12:26:54Z")
> [@](#): > > FYI, during the “Rape of Nanking”, even German SS troops complained about the horrors of the Japanese troops. You can just imagine how bad it must have been for even German SS troops to compain about the mistreatment of captives. True Story. Apparently, the Germans simply declared a large part of the city off limits to the japs and told them to stay off or they’d be embarrassed before their governement. Whenever the Japs went a-prowling, the German officers would drive around and tell them to leave. The germans of WWII are a fascinating study in contradictions and politics. Strange people, from all sorts of political stripes. > [@](#): > > Germany was a signatory and bound to treat Soviet prisoners accordingly, whether the USSR had signed the convention itself or not. I think that technically goes out the window _if_ the non-signatory violates the Geneva Convention’s rules. But I don’t have the coument in front of me. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/49 "2003-08-27T12:51:57Z")
I have been horrified by reading what happened in the Rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March and the many, many other atrocities committed by Japanese troops during and just prior to WWII. Those Japanese WERE japs, gooks, slopes … subhuman creatures because they behaved in a subhuman manner. I’m not at all sorry about Hiroshima, Nagasaki or the fire-bombing of Tokyo. They brought it on themselves, and any amount of suffering inflicted on the Japanese was well and truly deserved (I’m completely cool with the fire-bombing of Dresden for similar reasons.) I think Japan has changed greatly in the last 58 years, but still, I don’t completely TRUST those changes and always look for signs that the old attitudes might be returning … I feel the same way about Germany. I think you’d have to be pretty stupid not to. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/50 "2003-08-27T18:51:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Evil Captor \* > \*\*I think Japan has changed greatly in the last 58 years, but still, I don’t completely TRUST those changes and always look for signs that the old attitudes might be returning … I feel the same way about Germany. > > I think you’d have to be pretty stupid not to. \*\* I hope you look at every country in the world when looking for those attitudes, because it wasn’t because of some defective German/Japanese gene, they are just like you and me. They are human, and can easily become the horror that is humanity. You could easily be in that place yourself, and you’d be a fool to think it couldn’t happen to you. You’d be surprised what people, even yourself, do when they become desperate or scared. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/51 "2003-08-27T19:16:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by smiling bandit \* > \*\*I think that technically goes out the window _if_ the non-signatory violates the Geneva Convention’s rules. But I don’t have the coument in front of me. \*\* Nope, Article 82 is pretty clear in its wording that the convention “must be respected by the High Contracting Parties under **all** circumstances.” The link I provided earlier is to the complete text of the Geneva Convention relating to Prisoners of War. The only way a nation can bow out of being bound by the convention is laid out in Article 96, concerning the right to denounce the treaty. If done in peacetime, the party is bound to respect the convention for 1 year following the denunciation. If done in wartime, the party is bound to follow the convention until the conclusion of peace in the current war, 1 year following the denunciation, or until the reparation of prisoners is concluded, whichever occurs _last_. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/52 "2003-08-27T19:46:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tars Tarkas \* > \*\*I hope you look at every country in the world when looking for those attitudes, because it wasn’t because of some defective German/Japanese gene, they are just like you and me. They are human, and can easily become the horror that is humanity. You could easily be in that place yourself, and you’d be a fool to think it couldn’t happen to you. You’d be surprised what people, even yourself, do when they become desperate or scared. \*\* Sure, it CAN happen here, in fact it HAS happened here in the U.S. – the Trail of Tears wesn’t a picnic, after all. The mass extermination of a lot of Indian tribes rightfully makes others view us with suspicion. I would expect no less. Still, I think some cultures are a lot more prone to violence than others. I’m not so worried about the present-day Japanese and the Germans, but when I hear about neo-Nazi movements in Germany or militants in Japan, my ears prick up. I look for more violence from Islamic cultures generally than from cultures dominated by Buddhism. Of the Islamists, I expect more shit from the Wahhabists than from the Shiites generally. It’s just a matter of paying attention. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/53 "2003-08-28T00:39:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tars Tarkas \* > \*\*I hope you look at every country in the world when looking for those attitudes, because it wasn’t because of some defective German/Japanese gene, they are just like you and me. They are human, and can easily become the horror that is humanity. You could easily be in that place yourself, and you’d be a fool to think it couldn’t happen to you. You’d be surprised what people, even yourself, do when they become desperate or scared. \*\* Sure, it CAN happen here, in fact it HAS happened here in the U.S. – the Trail of Tears wesn’t a picnic, after all. The mass extermination of a lot of Indian tribes rightfully makes others view us with suspicion. I would expect no less. Still, I think some cultures are a lot more prone to violence than others. I’m not so worried about the present-day Japanese and the Germans, but when I hear about neo-Nazi movements in Germany or militants in Japan, my ears prick up. I look for more violence from Islamic cultures generally than from cultures dominated by Buddhism. Of the Islamists, I expect more shit from the Wahhabists than from the Shiites generally. It’s just a matter of paying attention. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/54 "2003-08-28T13:50:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tars Tarkas \* > \*\*I hope you look at every country in the world when looking for those attitudes, because it wasn’t because of some defective German/Japanese gene, they are just like you and me. They are human, and can easily become the horror that is humanity. You could easily be in that place yourself, and you’d be a fool to think it couldn’t happen to you. You’d be surprised what people, even yourself, do when they become desperate or scared. \*\* Nope!!! I TOTALLY disagree. They may be like YOU!!, but they are not like me or any American born soldier that I know of, or that I am related to. American attitudes WERE different than the germans and the japanse. The american people, did not, and would not elect a leader like Hitler or that Japanese emporer. The american people also would not keep someone in power who was like them. Our american soldiers and officers did not treat Japanese and german prisoners like they treated us, in fact, our boys were horrified to find out what the Japanese and Nazis did. I dont know any american born doctor who would take out all the organs of a heathy prisoner and then let him die, just for the fun of it or to show others how to take out organs. I dont know of any american born soldier, enlisted or officer, who would torture prisoners of war like the japanese did, or who would participate in running the gas chambers and slave labor camps in europe like the Nazis did just to steal the gold teeth of dead prisoners. If you think the japanese soldiers and Nazi soldiers were just as “humane” as our American boys, you dont know what you are talking about, and you never talked to anyone who was a prisoner, and you never talked to any american soldier who freed the people from the german concentration camps. Furthermore, I think your statement insults our American born boys in our armed forces. The only one who would be “surpised” is YOU, when you realize that most American born citizens are not monsters, and would not do dishonorable or tortuous things to other people no matter how desparate or scared they are. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/55 "2003-08-28T14:35:05Z")
Susanann, you need to read up on your U.S. history. Specifically, some of the things that were done to the Indians, and some of the things that were done in bloody Kansas prior to the Civil War. Also, a little place called My Lai in Vietnam. I agree with you that Americans operated on a moral plane that was far superior to the Germans and the Japanese during WWII. but history shows we’re capable of doing some fairly awful things at times. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/56 "2003-08-28T14:57:36Z")
My Lai was famous because it was a single rare incident. Lt Calley was dishonorably discharged and also went to prison for it. FYI, My Lai was not the common practice of American soldiers who served in Vietnam. I find your comment extremely degrading/demeaning/insulting to all of our American born boys who served in Vietnam. ---
**Author:** ![MMI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@MMI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MMI)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/57 "2003-08-28T15:44:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Susanann \* > \*\* > The american people, did not, and would not elect a leader like Hitler or that Japanese emporer. > > The american people also would not keep someone in power who was like them. > > Our american soldiers and officers did not treat Japanese and german prisoners like they treated us, in fact, our boys were horrified to find out what the Japanese and Nazis did. > \*\* It should be noted that neither Hitler nor Hirohito were elected. Hitler came to power/high office through a behind the scenes deal - the Nazis had only a plurality (I don’t think they even had a majority when in coalition with Nationalists - it took the acquiescence of the Catholic Center and the purging of the Communists to “legally” give the Nazis power). This does not change German popular complicity in the Holocaust and other Nazi atrocities. The Imperial Government of the WWII period was the result of a militarist semi-coup over the late twenties and through the thirties, making true civil government (and pro-peace policies) very dangerous for its advocates. Furthermore, it should be noted that early in the war American soliders were reluctant (as a result of propoganda both true and false) to take Japanese prisoners. I am pretty sure that one Marine battalion had as its motto “Takes no prisoners” and there are other anecdotal reports of prisoners being killed out of hand - only a minimum necessary for intelligence were capture. Legendary sub captain Mush Morton was known for machine-gunning survivors of ships he sank (the truth as to whether or not they were in fact reaching for their rifles to fire at his sub went down with him) I certainly agree that the scale and official tolerance/sanction of this certainly did not reach that of the Japanese. But to say thay we would NEVER do something like this is not accurate either. [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wwii/guadc/GC-13.htm](http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wwii/guadc/GC-13.htm) [http://www.hilltoptimes.com/story.asp?edition=82&storyid=2190](http://www.hilltoptimes.com/story.asp?edition=82&storyid=2190) As an aside, the following book goes into the racial aspects of the Asian/Pacific portion of WWII. Read it a while ago, pretty good. If I get a chance this weekend (and the thread is still active Tuesday) I may try and verify some of the above: [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/039450030X/qid=1062084797/sr=8-2/ref=sr\_8\_2/102-3936909-1664136?v=glance&s=books&n=507846](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/039450030X/qid=1062084797/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/102-3936909-1664136?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) ---
**Author:** ![MMI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@MMI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MMI)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/58 "2003-08-28T16:05:16Z")
From [http://www-cgsc.army.mil/milrev/english/MarApr01/rielly.asp](http://www-cgsc.army.mil/milrev/english/MarApr01/rielly.asp) (A site on the relationship between tight small unit cohesion and the potential development of norms divergent from the army and society it represents) > [@](#): > > Ideally, all soldiers entering the Army will internalize Army Values and accept them as their own. Likewise, the values, beliefs, attitudes and norms existing in our small units should match our organization’s accepted values, beliefs, attitudes and norms. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. US soldiers have committed brutal and criminal acts. For example, during World War II, 13 percent of a sample of infantrymen from Europe observed atrocities committed by other soldiers. Some soldiers stated they found it difficult not to kill their enemies in the heat of the moment. In addition, soldiers stated not all captured Germans made it into the prisoner-of-war handling channels and some rifle companies developed reputations for taking few prisoners.24 US Army Field Manual (FM) 22-100, Army Leadership, has a vignette about character and prisoners that ends with a soldier stating, "Hey, we’re from America: we don’t shoot our prisoners."25 Very noble but, sadly, not always true. Speaking of Okinawa, Pelileu, etc > [@](#): > > Combat on both sides sometimes degenerated into a savage world of torture, mutilation, no surrender and taking no prisoners. Of course as I quote these works seated in my air conditioned office in 2003 it is easy for me to condemn such acts as inhuman and unAmerican. My perspective would no doubt be different if I were stuck in the jungle with too many buddies dying around me and too much war between me and home. If I saw another member of my unit kill enemies trying to surrender I honestly don’t know if I’d report them. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/59 "2003-08-28T21:38:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Susanann \* > \*\*Nope!!! > > I TOTALLY disagree. > > They may be like YOU!!, but they are not like me or any American born soldier that I know of, or that I am related to. > > American attitudes WERE different than the germans and the japanse. > > Our american soldiers and officers did not treat Japanese and german prisoners like they treated us, in fact, our boys were horrified to find out what the Japanese and Nazis did. > > I dont know any american born doctor who would take out all the organs of a heathy prisoner and then let him die, just for the fun of it or to show others how to take out organs. > > I dont know of any american born soldier, enlisted or officer, who would torture prisoners of war like the japanese did, or who would participate in running the gas chambers and slave labor camps in europe like the Nazis did just to steal the gold teeth of dead prisoners. > > The only one who would be “surpised” is YOU, when you realize that most American born citizens are not monsters, and would not do dishonorable or tortuous things to other people no matter how desparate or scared they are. \*\* Quite untrue. Lest you imagine that anything I am writing is an attempt to impugn the honor of Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen, it is not. Japanese behavior during the war was inexcusably barbaric. However, the Pacific War was extremely brutal, and the conduct of Allied personal matched the environment they were in. From John W. Dower’s _War Without Mercy_: > [@](#): > > The popular American writer William Manchester, in _Goodbye, Darkness_, his 1980 memoir of fighting in the Pacific, recalled a young American soldier in Okinawa, crazed by the death of a revered commander, who “snatched up a submachine gun and unforgivably massacred a line of unarmed Japanese soldiers who had just surrendered.” The military historian Denis Warner, in a book about Japanese suicide units published in 1982, introduced in passing his own firsthand experience on Bougainville, where wounded Japanese attempting to surrender were ordered shot by the American commander. > … > In a thoughtful memoir published by Presidio Press in 1981, Professor E. B. Sledge, an American biologist, painfully recalls what it was like to be a young frontline Marine at two of the fiercest battles in the Pacific, Peleliu and Okinawa, where both sides professed “a brutish primitive hatred.” Sledge, deeply religious and patriotic, watched his comrades go over the edge: severing the hand of a dead Japanese as a battlefield trophy, “harvesting gold teeth” from the enemy dead, urinating in a corpse’s upturned mouth, shooting an old Okinawan woman and casually dismissing her as “just an old gook woman who wanted me to put her out of her misery.” The collection of gold teeth, bones and skulls of Japanese dead as trophies was fairly practice. One of the more brutal accounts from Sledge’s _With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa_ is of an American Marine slitting the cheeks of a still living Japanese soldier in order to remove gold teeth with the butt of his K-bar. Life Magazine ran an issue during the war with a photo of a family with the skull of a dead Japanese soldier that their son in the service had sent back to them. James J. Fahey’s [Pacific War Diary](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0395640229/qid=1062105327/sr=1-12/ref=sr_1_12/103-8051133-0087006?v=glance&s=books) tells how he kept a sliver of bone from a dead Japanese kamikaze pilot that had crashed into his ship to mail back to his sister. Russell Spurr’s [A Glorious Way to Die: The Kamikaze mission of the Battleship Yamato](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1557042489/qid=1062105068/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-8051133-0087006?v=glance&s=books) contains accounts of American planes strafing the life rafts and helpless survivors of sinking Japanese vessels – a common practice on both sides. In Admiral Samuel Elliot Morrison’s _History of US Naval Operations in World War II_, the semi-official history of the US Navy, he recounts the rescued commander of a sunken US warship after the Naval Battle Guadalcanal begging the gunner on a rescue vessel to stop firing at the heads of Japanese sailors bobbing in the water lest mistakes at identification be made. ---
**Author:** ![MMI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@MMI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MMI)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160/60 "2003-08-29T00:02:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MMI \* > \*\*As an aside, the following book goes into the racial aspects of the Asian/Pacific portion of WWII. Read it a while ago, pretty good. If I get a chance this weekend (and the thread is still active Tuesday) I may try and verify some of the above: > [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/039450030X/qid=1062084797/sr=8-2/ref=sr\_8\_2/102-3936909-1664136?v=glance&s=books&n=507846](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/039450030X/qid=1062084797/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/102-3936909-1664136?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) \*\* Never mind, Dissonance seems to have _ **War without Mercy** _ on hand. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-it-wwii-japanese-policy-to-murder-pows/197160.md?page=4)