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Japanese Vengeance After the Doolittle Raid

Interesting. In keeping with the Japanese mindset at the time.

Brutal little f*$#ers
 
Whoah. I've heard some of the Japanese treatment of the Chinese, but not this particular story.

And, imagine, the death toll could've been enormously higher. Just after the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, the US had already dispatched an invasion force to land on Japan. And the Russians were barreling in from the mainland. With the way that the Japanese didn't like to surrender, the death toll would've been insane. Thank goodness they surrendered.
 
The Chinese hate the Japanese for what happened in WWII. I went to China a few years ago and Japanese travelers were pulled out of lines at airports an patted down, shoved and generally harassed. This did not happen to western travelers. Our guide told us that it was some small form of payback. He also told us that he wished that the U.S. had dropped more than two nuclear bombs on Japan. That is a lot of hate.
 
Don't forget :

The Rape of Nanking
Korean "comfort women"
POW atrocities with regularity(The German stalags were the Ritz Carlton compared to Japanese POW camps. I think I read something like 3-4 % of US POWS died in German camps, but about 35-40% died in Japanese camps.
 
This book, "Target Toyko" is on order at my public library. I may have to pick this up.

I've also just about decided that the imperial Japs were worse than the Nazis, if that's possible.
 
Well, they though they were a superior race , too.

Utterly amazing how different the world was 75 years ago.

Countries that today are respected and praised as models of stability and respecters of human rights were literally wantonly killing millions of innocents to further greedy territorial ambitions, fueled by a belief that they were superior and it was their right to do so.
This post was edited on 4/17 1:52 PM by gollumcat
 
Just do a google search if you want more info about Japanese atrocities during WWII. However, they still deny any of it to this day and blame the US for starting the war. My uncle was in the Pacific during WWII as was a former Marine I worked with. Wouldn't say too much about what the Japanese did to POW's but you could tell they hated anything related to Japan.
 
I just finished reading "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand. A true story about Louis Zamperini, a former Olympian track star that was captured by the Japanese and tortured immensely.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but the book is great.
 
I started reading The Rape of Nanking on pdf last night. The Japanese in WWII did some things to the Chinese that should get them bombed in to near oblivion every 3-4 years for eternity. The Nanking story comes across so vividly by the writer. Really a great work in what I have read so far(not sure great work is a the right description though).
 
There is a reason that the Japs are so deferential now......they have up a lot to answer for.....
 
I have read many books about the Japanese and the second world war and they were very vicious.
 
The Marines and the Japs both hated each other. Every island was a fight to the death. The Japs would not surrender and the Marines would not take prisoners, anyway. That was one reason the fighting was so vicious.If you want to read about the real island war, read "With The Old Breed" The battles for Pelilui,and Okinawa, by Eugene Sledge.
 
I've read that book and am now reading "The Pacific". It wasn't just the Marines that hated the Japs. My uncle fought with the 96th Infantry Division and some of the documented history of combat against the Japanese was horrific. My uncle would not talk about it unless it was very late at night and no one else was around. He told me once about going out on patrol and finding what was left of another GI that had been captured. The body was barely recognizable, mutilated and showed signs of torture for several days. No wonder they were hated with a passion.
 
Originally posted by gollumcat:
There is a reason that the Japs are so deferential now......they have up a lot to answer for.....
Not anyone under 80-85 years old. What the hell did they do?
 
My Dad attended UK in the late 1940s, right after the war. His fraternity was filled with guys as old as 25, grizzled old veterans from every branch of the services. Dad was Navy. Anyway, he told me a story once that a Marine veteran once told him about his time during the island hopping campaign. Tinian, Pelelieu, Tarawa, Guadacanal, etc...were the scene of some of the most horrific combat ever seen, in any war. The Marines had just cleared out one of the islands after a month of hand to hand combat. They were standing in a chow line and a starving Jap soldier came out of the jungle and got in line. The Marines let him go down the line and get a plate of food. Before he could eat it, they shot him in the head. They all laughed hysterically. Dad never forgot that story.
 
Not anyone under 80-85 years old. What the hell did they do?
I'll tell you what they did. They continue to deny the existence of any Japanese atrocities to this day. None of their aggression during that period is even mentioned in textbooks in Japan, however, they're quick to blame initiation of the war on the United States. Guess you didn't see the guy in Japan that was outraged a couple of weeks ago over the release of "Unbroken". Yet another one of the Japanese that denies these things ever happened.
 
I've been to the War Shrine in Tokyo. They pretty much blame the whole war on the US. Probably the closest I've been to being stabbed.
 
Older Japanese still believe they are "better" than the rest of the Asian community.

Their sense of "entitlement" rivals that of northeastern liberals.
 
My Dad attended UK in the late 1940s, right after the war. His fraternity was filled with guys as old as 25, grizzled old veterans from every branch of the services. Dad was Navy. Anyway, he told me a story once that a Marine veteran once told him about his time during the island hopping campaign. Tinian, Pelelieu, Tarawa, Guadacanal, etc...were the scene of some of the most horrific combat ever seen, in any war. The Marines had just cleared out one of the islands after a month of hand to hand combat. They were standing in a chow line and a starving Jap soldier came out of the jungle and got in line. The Marines let him go down the line and get a plate of food. Before he could eat it, they shot him in the head. They all laughed hysterically. Dad never forgot that story.


Okinawa was the worst, over 100k Japs killed, over 50k Okinawans killed, 12,500 americans killed.
 
My uncle told me that the only time he wore his gas mask during the entire war was while going into Naha, on Okinawa. So many dead bodies were lining the road that the gas from decomposition would make one pass out.
 
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