Unless given the chance to, maybe?
Uh, kind of hard to fight to the death when you’re a prisoner, isn’t it? :dubious:
Besides, that doesn’t have jack to do with soldiers holding out forty-years after the end of a war. Did you even read the cite I provided? Because I can find others, if you like.
What? You become a prisoner by not fighting to the death. You allow your enemy to take make you a POW by giving up. Ergo not fighting to the death.
Wait… what? Even if that number is accurate, it means that the Japanese took almost three times more prisoners just in the Battle of Singapore than we took during the entire war.
Even if you believe (as I do) that the Japanese will to fight to the death has been exaggerated, that number shows that they were very much not like everybody else.
By your logic, Hitler never ordered the murder of any Jews since some of them survived the Holocaust. Jews were just like any other ethnic group in WWII, right?
I’m going to need a cite. As far as I know, Bushido makes no allowance for “honorable surrender” (that’s an oxymoron). It doesn’t forbid the the execution and torture of non-combatants, either. And even if Bushido did forbid that and allow “honorable” surrender, the Japanese considered all non-Japanese people to be subhuman. Bushido certainly doesn’t have any rules regarding treating animals honorably and I’m sure it’d be considered twice as dishonorable to surrender to one.
I really doubt every single Japanese soldier bought into the concept wholeheartedly, though.
Aaand I thought this thread was only one page long. I hate it when I do that. >.<
This thread must be a gigantic whoosh. Otherwise its very premise is insane.
Japanese felt (or were made to feel through trough & tried methods) their enemies were subhuman and dealt with them as such, ergo, the Japanese are/were subhuman. :rolleyes:
Disclaimer: obviously a generalization. But a fair one at that.
Feck. Try “through” instead.
Yes, certainly the concept isn’t that their military behaved abhorrently and individuals committed morally reprehensible acts. No, the argument is that they are or were subhuman.
And, certainly, that’s not even a claim you’ve made up out of whole cloth. It really is something that anybody actually said. Indeed, many people have probably said something even vaguely alluding to the Japanese being “subhuman”.
Since it’s not an absurd fiction.
Nopers.
Everybody demonizes their enemies. That is why we fought slants, gooks, Japs and Krauts. All were inhuman and would torture and kill us with no thought about it. They weren’t people like us.
Of course they were told the round eyes would take no prisoners and would gleefully torture anyone they could. The Americans liked to torture Japanese soldiers. It is how wars are run
But people are people. Don’t buy into it so easily.
The only difference between the Amish and the Nazis is fashion sense.
More on this: Hundred man killing contest - Wikipedia
I read this book last year, and it was very interesting. The author felt ashamed that he had let down his people and his Emperor by surrendering, and - indoctrinated by Japanese propaganda - fully expected to be tortured or killed by the Americans. He was astonished but deeply grateful for the good treatment he got as POW, acknowledging that, if the roles were reversed, his own countrymen would have been far harsher.
That’s right, we’re discussing this because we want to bash the Japanese. Not because, you know, it actually happened.
Do you accuse people of bashing Germans when they talk about the Holocaust?
:rolleyes:
Why would I ? The Japanese were very nasty to their prisoners. But so were we. So were the Russians and the English. It was war, something we do way too often.
Time to pick up your eyes again.
When did I chastise anyone for saying the Japanese mistreated prisoners. They did. But so did everyone else. It is time we quit doing such horrible things to each other. the first step is realizing everybody does horrible things in war. Then stop doing them.
Because what we did was NOT ON THE SAME LEVEL AS THE JAPANESE OR THE NAZIS.
When the U.S. starts vivisection on POWs, including children and infants, then come back.
I must say, you’re the first crypto-Holocaust denier I’ve heard take this tack. “Well, anyone would have come up with Zyklon B given the chance, you know? War’s a horrible thing, why revisit the past? Can’t we all just get along?” Is this your own invention, or are the white supremacist boards promoting this as a tactic for a new generation?
Nothing gonzomax has ever posted has indicated a denial that the Nazis attempted to carry out their Final Solution.
(gonzo does have a habit of viewing various actions in U.S. history in the worst possible light, but he has never made any attempt to deny the evil of the Nazis. You are out of line.)
Given that, your odd wandering off topic comes across as either a direct personal insult or a hijack.
Knock it off.
[ /Moderating ]