509th Bob
Posts: 40
Joined: 12/1/2004 Status: offline
|
I have heard the same (about US unwillingness to take Japanese prisoners from WWII vets) and (not the same family) their wives. The Marines were told that they would have to feed prisoners from their personal food rations, etc. (BTW, I'm not that old.) One interesting thing to note is that the US captured Bataan Death March films fairly early in the war. Like the Nazis, the Japanese were very fond of filming their atrocities. The US government could not decide whether to release the film footage or not, for fear it would demoralize the public. Finally, early in 1943, they showed the film to specially-targeted segments of the public, and discovered that it enraged the viewing public. Thereafter, it became mandatory viewing for US forces in the Pacific. While US losses from the planned Operation Olympic (Shokaku invasion) and Operation Coronet (Honshu invasion) would have been horrific, the result would have been the fulfillment of Admiral Halsey's statement that, at the end of the war, "The Japanese language will only be spoken in Hell." Everybody focuses on projected US casualties (dead AND wounded) for Olympic being over one million - nobody pays attention to the fact that projected Japanese casualties were "estimated" at 6 million-plus. Take a look at the Okinawa statistics - 10:1 ratio for Japanese casualties vs. US casualties. We had learned the hard way from Saipan and Iwo Jima. We (the US) weren't in a charitable mood. We knew the Japanese civilians were being trained to attack our tanks with explosives on bamboo sticks. The answer to that trick is simply to kill everybody. The Japanese are incredibly fortunate that they surrendered when they did. I have friends of Japanese ancestry, and they agree (privately). I have no animosity for Japanese who survived the war, but I wouldn't hesitate in the slightest to eradicate the Japanese race as might have been necessary under the circumstances of the time. The Japanese of the time were no different than the Nazis of the same era (the Japanese didn't have designated "extermination camps" like the Nazis, but Allied POW deaths under the Japanese were 50%, versus 5% (for non-Russians) under the Nazis). The atomic bomb was "designed" to be dropped on the Nazis - they just surrendered too soon. The Japanese weren't as lucky. I probably spent more than my two cents worth here.
_____________________________
"Casualties many. Percentage of dead not known. Combat efficiency - we are winning." -- Col. David M. Shoup, Tarawa, Nov. 21, 1943
|