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Filipino director takes new look at Bataan Death March

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If you people are interested in learning about Death March, try to read Death March by WikiPedia. You can select to read in Tagalog, Japanese and of cause English. Bataan is different now so, Studio made Movie is reasonable. If it is marketed in USA, it will hit well.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"with many of the prisoners stabbed or decapitated by their Japanese captors if they so much as stopped to drink water or collapsed to the ground"

What kind of human being does this to another human being?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

mikiH,

Boy oh boy, talk about being the poster child for a J-"history education"!!!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

This is where you and most others that believe in this notion are in denial even though there are many, like ãŠã˜ã•ã‚“。 had posted, that testified otherwise.

@ SamuraiBlue: The good thing about Wiki is that it gives a summary of information, which can be wrong I admit, but I like to look at the ends or articles to find some source material, and the hunt is on from there.

It has been estimated that between 19,500 and 50,000 Japanese military personnel surrendered The number of Japanese soldiers, sailors and airmen who surrendered was limited by the Japanese military indoctrinating its personnel to fight to the death, Allied personnel often being unwilling to take prisoners,[ and many Japanese soldiers believing that those who surrendered were often killed anyway.

The Japanese military's attitude towards surrender was institutionalised in the 1941 "Code of Battlefield Conduct" (Senjinkun), which was issued to all Japanese soldiers. This document sought to establish standards of behavior for Japanese troops and improve discipline and morale within the Army, and included a prohibition against being taken prisoner. In 1942 the Army amended its criminal code to specify that officers who surrendered soldiers under their command faced at least six months imprisonment, regardless of the circumstances in which the surrender took place. Japanese attitudes towards surrender contributed to the harsh treatment which was inflicted on the Allied personnel they captured.

Whaterve the case, the movie seems interesting and I hope it will be available soon.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

5 days of no food and water....but then the Japanese military had asked them to surrender peacefully but the US forces with their slaves Filipinos decided to fight to the death and inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese army. When they ran out of ammo, they decided to surrender. In return, the Japanese army decided to have their revenge by having them march for 5 days without food and water.

This is war. And its a good thing they were not massacred

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

There are many voice actors and actresses who narrate foreign language movies in English. I am sure this movie will have screen narattion but beside that, if distributor companies use voice actors, this will be hit in USA. Ditto in Japan. Movies can teach history realistically than books.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Black and White! Realistic, I'd bet. It seems that they use current movie technologies in background with B & W instead of going to shoot elsewhere. Hope Sony Enterprise will distribute in USA. Color is OK but artistic aspect is usually replaced by actions of scenes. Very brilliant movement!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Survivors told stories of atrocities, with many of the prisoners stabbed or decapitated by their Japanese captors if they so much as stopped to drink water or collapsed to the ground. Thousands died from illness or exhaustion.Boy oh boy! The Japanese army is lucky they did not pull this crap on Mexicans! (but most likely a few Mexican Americans were also dragged along in this march, but Hollywood never got around to tell that story)

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@mikihouse

I've never seen a comment get so many negs as your -33 shows.

Anyway the despicable actions in Bataan even made some of the things the Germans did look tame in WWII.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Alphaape

Not many Japanese chose to surrender

This is where you and most others that believe in this notion are in denial even though there are many, like ãŠã˜ã•ã‚“。 had posted, that testified otherwise.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Read this... http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=15183

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If you dont beleive me then perhaps you'll choose to beleive the International Red Cross.

I saw the information you presented, and you do need to mention that the Red Cross also stated that many of the German POWs just left and went home on their own. Also, after the war there was widespread famine and hunger in Europe and many people both POW's and civilians died. But not by the harsh conditions found in the prison camps in the jungles and in Japan.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

As I said before Japan and the occupied territories were basically littered with them.

I believe that those were Japanese POW camps run by the Japanese and not by the US. Not many Japanese chose to surrender compared to the Allied forces captured by the Japanese. There were no large scale surrenders done by the Japanese like the British did in Singapore and Hong Kong and other areas, or on the scale as the Afrika Korps did in North Africa to the Americans.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Alphaape

Not true. I earlier mentioned an article in my hometown newspaper about German POWs who were kept in Arkansas during WW2.

Your basically in denial, I did a research a couple of years ago on how many POW camps were in Japan and the US. As I said before Japan and the occupied territories were basically littered with them. On the other hand the ones I found in the US was very sparse not finding one in the west coast. I also found that Japanese POWs were sent to camps as far as Mississippi where they were placed with the Germans.

Basically the number of POW would probably had been the same, even if half of the Japanese POW committed suicide there still be enough POWs for hundred camps since in Japan and the occupied territory there were thousands of them. What Lindbergh wrote in his memoirs were not isolated incidents but a common occurrence within the whole Pacific theater.

The ones who were lucky taken as POW within the mainland US were as you wrote treated fairly but they were the rare lucky ones.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

As I stated clearly earlier, my comments are in NO WAY intended to condone the actions of either the German or Japanese army. Pointing out that the germans and japanese did the same things is rather pointless, I am not denying that they commited atrocities. I am simply trying to point out that no one is innocent in war, not even America. Please dont try to hold yourselves morally above others when the evidence and proof is there that no one acts differently.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

If you dont beleive me then perhaps you'll choose to beleive the International Red Cross.

During World War II, the United States, Britain and Germany generally complied with the international regulations on the treatment of prisoners of war, as required by the Geneva accord of 1929. But at the end of the fighting in Europe, the US and British authorities scrapped the Geneva convention. In violation of solemn international obligations and Red Cross rules, the American and British authorities stripped millions of captured German soldiers of their status, and their rights, as prisoners of war by reclassifying them as so-called “Disarmed Enemy Forces” or “Surrendered Enemy Personnel.” / 10

Accordingly, British and American authorities denied access by International Red Cross representatives to camps holding German prisoners of war. Moreover, any attempt by German civilians to feed the prisoners was punishable by death. / 11 Many thousands of German PoWs died in American custody, most infamously in the so-called “Rhine meadow camps,” where prisoners were held under appalling conditions, with no shelter and very little food. / 12

In April 1946, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) protested that the United States, Britain and France, nearly a year after the end of fighting, were violating International Red Cross agreements they had solemnly pledged to uphold. The Red Cross pointed out, for example, that the American transfer of German prisoners of war to French and British authorities for forced labor was contrary to International Red Cross statutes. / 13

Another report by the International Committee of the Red Cross in August 1946 stated that the US government, through its military branch in the US zone of occupation in Germany, was exacting forced labor from 284,000 captives, of whom 140,000 were in the US occupation zone, 100,000 in France, 30,000 in Italy, and 14,000 in Belgium . Holdings of German prisoners or slave laborers by other countries, the Red Cross reported, included 80,000 in Yugoslavia, and 45,000 in Czechoslovakia. / 14

Both during and after the war, the Allies tortured German prisoners. In one British center in England, called “the London Cage,” German prisoners were subjected to systematic ill-treatment, including starvation and beatings. The brutality continued for several years after the end of the war. Treatment of German prisoners by the British was even more harsh in the British occupation zone of Germany. / 15 At the US internment center at Schwäbisch Hall in southwest Germany, prisoners awaiting trial by American military courts were subjected to severe and systematic torture, including long stretches in solitary confinement, extremes of heat and cold, deprivation of sleep and food, and severe beatings, including kicks to the groin. / 16

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Also, I appreciate that you see your soldiers as hero's but I cannot see how anyone can say that the mass bombing raids on countless cities that murdered millions of women and children are not war crimes.

This was done also by Japan and Germany during WW2.

The documentation of the US Army starving approximately 1,000,000 german soldiers to death in POW camps in 1946 is reasonably well documented and proven.

Not true. I earlier mentioned an article in my hometown newspaper about German POWs who were kept in Arkansas during WW2. One incident that is well documented was when the Black actress/singer Lena Horne was there to entertain, the white Germans were sitting in the front rows and the Black Americans who were there as guards were sitting in segregated areas in the back. Lena Horne marched off the stage and performed in the back rows and vowed never to perform at a USO show again unless Black soldiers were given better treatment (she did, she was a big enough star to force some changes). The point is, that doesn't sound like a country that will supposedly mass starve 1,000,000 German POWs if they give them better treatment than Black US Soldiers. Also, German POWs earned .80 cents a day working farming and other jobs, and were able to use the money to buy extra amenities like cigarettes and other items, whereas those who survived the Death March were in forced labor camps and were either beaten or starved to death by the Japanese.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

DogMay. 15, 2013 - 07:38AM JST It's a good job the Allies didn't behave in the same way to the Japanese, after September 15th 1945.

American GIs had to be bribed with ice-cream not to kill surrending Japanese soldiers. This is plain, hard fact. The number of Japanese POWs killed isn't recored... because the Japanese weren't paying the historians or writing the history books at that time, in fact it is hard to find any facts at all about the number of Japanese POWs killed, but numerous diaries and journals by U.S. soldiers, Aussie soldiers and British soldiers, and independent observers from all three countries independently confirm that the U.S. and Aussie troops had an unofficial policy of killing POWs that was supported by the officers.

War is hell, and anyone claiming that atrocities against POWs were limited to the Japanese is a brainwashed fool.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

There seems to be a lot of brainwashed people in this discussion. Well, brainwashed may be too strong a word, lets use "one-eyed" instead. To those stating that the US is morally correct and has no documented incidence of war crimes, sadly you are not correct. The documentation of the US Army starving approximately 1,000,000 german soldiers to death in POW camps in 1946 is reasonably well documented and proven. Also, I appreciate that you see your soldiers as hero's but I cannot see how anyone can say that the mass bombing raids on countless cities that murdered millions of women and children are not war crimes. Hopefully there is no one here who will try to say those raids were "targeted at industry and transport". My own father was a witness to how air-raid bunkers occupied by civilians were targeted by bombers and how civilians were targeted by straffing fighter planes. Of course, this is in no way to condone or exonerate the war crimes performed by the Germans or Japanese. I'm simply trying to point out that in war, no one is innocent and that I sincerely wish that people could lose the urge to kill other people. We could do so much more if we worked together.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

There are some people who try to be more Japanese that the Japanese themselves. One of these days they will find out for themselves.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

mikihouse:

Quit yapping with your righteousness hypocrites. US is not better when it comes to war. Japan just happened to lost the war. History is written by the victor.

Replace the word 'Japan' with 'Germany'. Then find out how many Germans would agree with that sentiment. Very few, my friend.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Mikihouse, in this case the victor also happens to the morally right party. Japan started the war, behaved horribly towards both prisoners and civilians, and brought about its own destruction.

I have lived here for 18 of the last 23 years and have learned to appreciate the suffering of civilians and the various shades of grey that come with war, but on this I have never varied: Japan started the war and committed crimes worthy of war crimes trials. This is another example of know-nothing's trying to conveniently sweep away the past and I find it personally offensive. I am glad to see that I am not the only one.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

... History is written by the victor.

well japan as the loser has been trying to rewrite history for years so again your argument is nonsense

8 ( +9 / -0 )

should America lost the war, they will be forevered as the worst murderer in the world so there is no morality of US troops either during WWII. Their willingness to obliterate hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians, women, children, babies, unborn children not once but twice just to display their power is nothing short of the devil himself. Quit yapping with your righteousness hypocrites. US is not better when it comes to war. Japan just happened to lost the war. History is written by the victor.

-12 ( +0 / -13 )

Jackie Woo doesn't sound like a particularly Japanese name, does it? Ah, his real name is Yoshiyuki Oohira... so why adopt a Chinese nom de plume?

Sadly, few Japanese will see a movie like this.

Neither would I... it sounds like a pretentious load of nonsense, subject matter aside.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Sadly, few Japanese will see a movie like this.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

AUusersince_1998, good comment.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The door swings both ways. Can you actually quantify the actual amount IJA soldiers took their own life from the ones that were forced to go back and die fighting by allies troops?

@ SamuraiBlue: I suggest you find the film "The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On." It was done back in 1973 by a famous Japanese producer who looks at a man who did survive the war fighting for the IJA in New Guinea. He confronts a former Sgt who had forced them to eat the remains of both enemy soldiers and their own dead to survive and he goes on to tell about the treatment the IJA pretty much did to those soldiers instead of letting them surrender honorably. It's a pretty good film which has been discussed in this forum from time to time.

The Kamikaze attacks did not kick in until Oct. 20th,1944 when General Onishi gave those orders.

I'm currently reading a book about Japanese fighter pilots from WW2 from some of the last survivors, and their story is pretty much the same. By the time of 1944 rolled around, they knew what they were up against, and knew that they were not going to win. Yet they went to war for their country some being patriotic, and some because they were told they had no choice, bringing up the Bushido code. They were not taught to surrender, nor to really feel that those who did so were honorable, so that would lead one to surmize that those POWs taken at the beginning of the war when Japan was winning were really in a bad position.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

AU_user_since_1998, hope you get killed painfully.....

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

The death match was executed by the IJA because they did not please the emperor, gen Tojo and Gen Yamashita. Everywhere in Asia, Japanese attack could crumple enemy divisions and regiments in just one month. Bataan surrendered after more than 3 months of bitter fighting. There was a lot of pressure from the Emperor and Gen. Tojo regarding Bataan Siege.

The Japanese thought that out of 80,000 USAFFE (Filipinos and US Soldiers), they had wiped-out 50% or more because of modern tanks and thousands of Zero bombers and ground-attack plane.

When the USAFFE surrendered, the Japanese were caught surprise that there were still 75,000 troops well alive and kicking.

Their ego was so hurt and they later found out that US Scout and 8,000 Philippine scout was the main reason of the many casualties on the Japanese side. So all known US and Philippine scout were bayoneted and tortured while marching. Whenever they say US and Philippine scout fell down on the road, they immediately killed them.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@mikihouse...your comment on the Bataan death march are horrendous...the Japanese military considered all their enemies as 'sub-human' and treated prisoners cruelly and immorally...you might do some reading on what really went down.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

@mikihouse ...but the Japanese had asked them to surrender peacefully... Were we to admit your logic, we should say the US should not have stopped at the two a-bombs at Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but should have simply wiped out the entire island because of Japan's refusal to surrender in a war she started out of expansionist design... Perhaps then we wouldn't have to read such as you've written. DYING IN A WAR IS ONE THING, SADDISM IS ANOTHER! Truly, what a shame you bring to peace-loving people of this island and to many others who lost many family members and are suffering from the wounds of that shameful war, all because of some like you. Your refusal to acknowledge there could be a shameful past and find in that a reason to ask for forgiveness and be forgiven is, unfortunately, a cancer eating away at your own peace, the peace that you can experience even today. I pray you one day take that path.

5 ( +4 / -0 )

For a minute there, I thought we were still in the twentieth century. Silly me!

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Alphaape

This is true to a point, but you are leaving out that the Japanese ordinary soldier was told never to surrender. It was considered a shame on themselves and their families and the emperor. Japanese soldiers would literally fight to the death before surrendering. If anything, it would be considered an intelligence coup to get a live prisoner. Take a look at what the IJA told the Japanese residents of Saipan, who leapt to their deaths rather than be taken captive. Or the accounts of how the residents of Okinawa were treated with kindness when the Americans landed and the battle was over rather than what the IJA had told them that they would be raped and pillaged by the Americans and many decided to kill themselves.

The door swings both ways. Can you actually quantify the actual amount IJA soldiers took their own life from the ones that were forced to go back and die fighting by allies troops?

The Kamikaze attacks did not kick in until Oct. 20th,1944 when General Onishi gave those orders. Japanese foot soldiers were conscripts which probably went through three months in boot camp before actually going into the battle field, and No, most were definitely not suicidal.

No that is much a propaganda as most propaganda creating the fog of war.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

@ mikihouse: As I stated you are entitled to your opinion, but not your own facts. The fact is that Japan committed some horrid war crimes during WW2.

As Charles Lindbergh wrote in his memoirs, the allied forces executed "Take no prisoners" quite literally so there were not many Japanese POW to begin with. This can be verified by the extremely small number of POW camps on the allied side while Japan and occupied territories were littered with them.

This is true to a point, but you are leaving out that the Japanese ordinary soldier was told never to surrender. It was considered a shame on themselves and their families and the emperor. Japanese soldiers would literally fight to the death before surrendering. If anything, it would be considered an intelligence coup to get a live prisoner. Take a look at what the IJA told the Japanese residents of Saipan, who leapt to their deaths rather than be taken captive. Or the accounts of how the residents of Okinawa were treated with kindness when the Americans landed and the battle was over rather than what the IJA had told them that they would be raped and pillaged by the Americans and many decided to kill themselves.

Did individual units try not to take prisoners. Yes they did since they knew none of the Japanese would have surrendered willingly or they would have booby trapped themselves. Try reading some of the narratives of the Japanese prisoners who did survive and the treatment they received. Better yet, there was an article in my hometown newspaper in the states on how German POWs were free to move about and had much better food and shelter as POWs than when they were in the German army. Even with the interment of Japanese citizens in camps in America, it was still better to be a POW of the Americans than either the Germans or Japanese during WW2.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

**5 days of no food and water....but then the Japanese military had asked them to surrender peacefully but the US forces with their slaves Filipinos decided to fight to the death and inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese army. When they ran out of ammo, they decided to surrender. In return, the Japanese army decided to have their revenge by having them march for 5 days without food and water.

This is war. And its a good thing they were not massacred.**

Okay, so let's replace a few things and see how you feel about it after reading.

The American military had asked them to surrender peacefully but the Japanese forces, who used sex slaves from China and Korea, decided to fight to the death and inflicted heavy casualties on the American army. When they still refused to surrender the Americans decided to have their revenge by dropping bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, enforcing Japan to surrender. Instead of taking revenge after the surrender, the Japanese propper up the government and invested in the country.

Now see, with the story, Japan doesn't get to play victim. You can't have it both ways.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

plasticmonkey

As Charles Lindbergh wrote in his memoirs, the allied forces executed "Take no prisoners" quite literally so there were not many Japanese POW to begin with. This can be verified by the extremely small number of POW camps on the allied side while Japan and occupied territories were littered with them.

The Bataan march which was a tragedy but never the less could not have been avoided with 20,000 POWs surrendering at a single moment, there was no means of transportation except on foot, the guards escorting the prisoners were out numbered by 10 to 1 and the guards carried only their own food. What do you expect?

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

The Koreans in the Imperial Japanese Army were the worst in terms of brutality towards allied POWs. Many of them were convicted as Class B war criminals at the Tokyo Trials.

-5 ( +3 / -7 )

..War is Sad.. people always say there's no winner at all in it... and all is just fallen victims.. Though we couldn't deny the fact that War wouldn't have occured at all if only those who has the Power in that time did not use it to satisfy their selfish evil stupid dids and ways... some say "WORLD is enough for Mans need ..but never for Mans GREED".. JPs current people can ask forgiveness till eternity.. but the memories always remains.. and the scars of history is there to stay.. Most Filipinos are not that 'play victim' type of people.. they learnt to FORGIVE and FORGET .. JPs are all well welcomed in PH the same way hundreds of thousands Pinoys are working and living in JP now... well just don't twist the facts that conquerors could have been merciful if their POWs surrendered peacefully, as if that ever existed in their screwed mind.. either way they would not have started counquering other pips living peacefully in the first place..

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Assuming that mikihouse is Japanese or a staunchly pro-Japan gaijin, his/her comment doesn't surprise me anymore. Especially in light of this week's vulgar and profoundly offensive comments from the Osaka mayor and the former Tokyo mayor: among two of Japan's most popular politicians.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

"The number of Japanese POWs who died in British and American camps is negligible (well under 1%)." -- plasticmonkey

Source?

Truth is the first casualty of war.

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

@ mikihouse: I guess you are entitled to your world view. Japan is a free country, but it really wasn't back in the 40's during the war. But I imagine with the attitude you posted, you would have done well. So by your logic, then you don't feel bad about the US dropping atomic bombs on Japan, since according to your logic the US had asked Japan to surrender, and the Japanese government refused and was still fighting in various theaters. So according to you, the US was justified in dropping the A-bombs.

This is war. And its a good thing they were not massacred.

There are stil many Filipino's who still harbor deep resentment against Japan. Also remember that during the Battle fo Manila in 1945, the Japanese Admiral (Iwabachi) knew it was hopeless in defending the city but decided to stay and fight it out with the Americans in order to redeem himself for having his ship sunk from under him, as a result instead of declaring the city an "Open City" as MacArthur done so in 1942, he didn't and the fighting done to get them out of Manila, even though MacArthur put restrictions on how the bombings and use of flame throwers could be used to protect the infrastructure of the city and save lives, the Japanese fought on and as a result an estimated 100,000 Filipinos were killed.

So I don't think the IJA had the best interests of the Filipinos in mind during the Death March in 1942, or even at the end of the war when they knew they were loosing. So I don't think it

7 ( +8 / -1 )

mikihouse: Ah, Japan! ever the victim even when they commit attrocities. Needless to say I doubt this film will garner much attention beyond denial in Japan. I'd be interested in seeing it, though. Well, okay, there is a Japanese actor in it so they'll praise him and ignore the content entirely.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

@mikihouse

33% of American POWs and 25% of British POWs held by the Japanese died in captivity. The number of Japanese POWs who died in British and American camps is negligible (well under 1%). If you want to play the moral equivalence game, then compare the IJA to the Soviets or Germans, who were equally barbaric. Does that comparison make you feel better?

This is war.

No, it's not. Civilized countries do not stoop this low.

11 ( +15 / -5 )

5 days of no food and water....but then the Japanese military had asked them to surrender peacefully but the US forces with their slaves Filipinos decided to fight to the death and inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese army. When they ran out of ammo, they decided to surrender. In return, the Japanese army decided to have their revenge by having them march for 5 days without food and water.

This is war. And its a good thing they were not massacred.

Hmm, the reason that the Americans and Filipinos did not "surrender peacefully" is that during their conquest of Asia, the Japanese took few prisoners, and those few prisoners became slaves, who in most cases were worked to death. Japan itself said clearly that "Nippon does not greatly admire those who surrender". And those few whom they did take alive in the heat of battle received no worse treatment than those who "surrendered peacefully".

My grandfather was in the Philippines, and was an adjutant to General Wainwright, who commanded Corregidor. He knew the Japanese quite well, as did the rest of the allies fighting in Asia. The Japanese starved, beat, and murdered without reservation or impunity, and performed such acts even against civilians, whom had done them no harm at all.

After the Japanese conquered, non-military industry and agriculture collapsed. People were paid for their work or goods in scrip which had no real value. Merchants and farmers who did not accept this so-called money simply had their wares stolen by the IJA. As a result, shops and factories stopped producing, farms stopped growing. The IJA brought in opium dens, addicting the people, and extorted from them anything of value. A wonderful occupier Japan was. The story was the same throughout the lands they conquered.

And of course, besides the millions killed outright, we can't forget the hundreds of thousands who died as slave laborers, many of them being prisoners of war.

11 ( +13 / -2 )

mikihouse, youare hiliarious. The idea that the "benevolent imperial army" wanted them to surrender peacefully and in turn, treat them humanely as POW's is laughable. All across the pacific they slaughtered without remorse, POW's and slaves at a whim, slaves that were brought to the islands of the pacific to work in labor camps. They were not even prisoners of war, and yet the japanese slaughtered them and threw them in open air pits when the work on airfields, logistical sites and camps were done. The rational that if you were not japanese, you were not human. Tinian, Saipan, Guadalcanal, Guam, the list goes on and on.

7 ( +10 / -3 )

Mikihouse, where to begin?.....

First of all, you assume that their treatment would have been more humane had they surrendered. Where is your evidence to support this supposition? Nanjing perhaps?

Secondly, one might note that no lage-scale war crimes-worthy behavior was documented by other victorious powers upon their defeated for, so what does that say about the imperial army?

Finally, your premise that this was punishment for fighting too hard is an admission that japan violated the laws of war to which Japan was a signatory.

You are defending the indefensible. And please spare us the tired moral-equivalence argument. You can see how well that has worked for Hashimoto.

16 ( +20 / -4 )

mikihouseMay. 15, 2013 - 07:21AM JST

the Japanese military had asked them to surrender peacefully but the US forces with their slaves Filipinos decided to fight to the death and inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese army. When they ran out of ammo, they decided to surrender. In return, the Japanese army decided to have their revenge by having them march for 5 days without food and water.

It's a good job the Allies didn't behave in the same way to the Japanese, after September 15th 1945.

I can't believe someone has given this opinion a plus mark.

14 ( +17 / -4 )

5 days of no food and water....but then the Japanese military had asked them to surrender peacefully but the US forces with their slaves Filipinos decided to fight to the death and inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese army. When they ran out of ammo, they decided to surrender. In return, the Japanese army decided to have their revenge by having them march for 5 days without food and water.

This is war. And its a good thing they were not massacred.

-44 ( +5 / -47 )

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