After the Doolittle B-25 raid on Japan

[TimAPNY]

to get a idea of the Japanese mindset at the time, read these 2 books if nothing else,
The Rape of Nanking

Flyboys
http://www.amazon.com/Rape-Nanking-Forg ... 767&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Flyboys-Story-Cou ... 902&sr=1-1

I thought "Flyboys" did a great job in opening my mind to why and how such horrors can happen. I know the author took some flack on it but I thought it was a great intro to the book.

Tim

[airnutz]

Good thread, good to see the subject being discussed with adult temperment. Another Wiki link Dave..
Check the paragraphs, War Crimes Trials, Official Apologies, and Debate in Japan. One thing folks seem to get
confused is the Official history and the public discussion differ quite a bit. The internet has had a lot to with reeducating
the Japanese public away from the Official version as well...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes

[Dave Homewood]

This is indeed an interesting thread and I have learned a fair amount, thanks all. I'd never read up on the Japanese war trials before and had been told there were none, so another case of 'you can't believe everything you're told'.

[JDK]

Good thread, good to see the subject being discussed with adult temperment.

Absolutely.

And in response to a couple of asides made earlier; FWIW, I can't see the point of comparative atrocities - the 'they did that so this is OK', or 'this atrocity by them is worse that that atrocity by these others'. Falling to the level of barbarity of one's enemies is inexcusable; and a there are no prizes for depravity, or for coming 'second'.

Secondly, blaming modern generations for the misdemeanours of their forbears is also extremely unfair; there's no evidence of any barbarities committed by the modern Japanese, and the shortfall in Japan today relates to a lack of commitment to proper education of what really happened - a policy fault hotly debated, rather than individuals in denial, I'd suggest. (The recent historical failures of a recent Japanese PM (the attempted denial of Comfort Women's existence and the visits to the infamous Yasuki Shrine) are regarded as another illustration of his incompetence, rather than a 'national view'.) As is often demonstrated here, and even in this thread, we all have huge gaps in our knowledge, and our hunger for learning more is certainly biased towards the 'palatable' bits of our own histories, rather than the failures and transgressions of our own forefathers. Just a couple of thoughts.

And this just in, about a new film on the Rape of Nanking. I'd suggest it's read in conjunction with the newspaper article which touches on the dangers of over-simplifying modern reactions to the events, and the different attitudes in Japan particularly. The Japanese conservative-revisionists don't hold a majority view I understand.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8039832.stm

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ ... 810x1.html

[Dave Homewood]

I saw a brief clip of that film last week on TV. It looked quite good production quality, the little I saw. Sadly it was just an advert for something coming up on a later programme, which I missed so I didn't get to see much.

[Garth]

I also wonde why this isn't more well known as one of the worst attorcities ever committed. Was it a fact that was swept under the carpet when all the publicity and flag waving was being done about the succes of the raid? Or is it actually well known and I have just missed it all this time?

I remembered that I'd read about the slaughter somewhere in my readings about the Doolittle Raid.

Turns out it was in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, in the afterward/"After One Year" section:

As great a shock as it was to hear about the execution of some of our fellows and the probable torture of others, it was equally hard to take the eventual news from the Generalissimo that the Japanese had systematically slaughtered all Chinese who helped us after our crashes. We may never know how systematic they were; how many of those who actually helped us did, in fact, get caught ...

[ffuries]

An interesting site with lots of information on atrocities committed during WWII both in both the PTO and ETO. I've heard of a few of these, but a lot of them were new to me.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/massacres.html

Mike in Florida
USAF Aircrew Life Support (Retired)
"Your Life Is Our Business"