Friday 20 November 2015

#WW2 War Against Japan - A Brutal War

A jap soldier executing an Allied prisoner, whereabouts unknown:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/columnists/article-482589/Beheaded-whim-worked-death-Japans-repugnant-treatment-Allied-PoWs.html


The war the Allies fought against Japan in Asia and the Pacific was long and bloody. One of the worst aspects of this was the Japanese treatment of prisoners. In their eyes, to be taken prisoner was a disgrace, dying in battle was more honourable. This mindset is why they mistreated and executed prisoners. After Singapore fell on 15th February 1942 more than 100,000 Allied soldiers were taken prisoner, the Japanese could not believe they had beaten an army this size with only 30,00 troops. There were no plans for prisoners of war, and Japan had not signed the Geneva Convention.

The infamous Bataan Death March in the Philippines resulted in over 7,000 soldiers killed. The building of a Burma railway killed over 13,000. The list is endless, nurses, hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians, other European civilians were murdered whenever the Japanese felt the urge (over 30,000 died in Jap POW camps https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/prisoners-of-war-of-the-japanese-1939-1945)
The most disgraceful act post war is a refusal of successive Japanese governments to apologise for these atrocities. How can we forgive them for this if they can't acknowledge their sins?

'Fit' Japanese pow's at Hellfire Pass, Burma railway, http://hellfire-pass.commemoration.gov.au/camps-of-f-force/shimo-songkurai.php

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