17-10-12 Garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

American helmet, grenade rifle & flag taken by a Japanese photographer, April 1942



Bataan Death March



The Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war from Saysain Point, Bagac, Bataan and Mariveles to Camp O'Donnell, Capas, Tarlac, via San Fernando, Pampanga, where the prisoners were loaded onto trains. The transfer began on April 9, 1942, after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II. The total distance marched from Mariveles to San Fernando and from the Capas Train Station to Camp O'Donnell is variously reported by differing sources as between 60 and 69.6 miles (96.6 and 112.0 km). Differing sources also report widely differing prisoner of war casualties prior to reaching Camp O'Donnell: from 5,000 to 18,000 Filipino deaths and 500 to 650 American deaths during the march. The march was characterized by severe physical abuse and wanton killings, and was later judged by an Allied military commission to be a Japanese war crime.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[CINDERS]

A S/C from my library I have read it pretty horrific what happened to them you marched or you died in one part an officer remonstrated with a Japanese officer about the way they were being treated the officer drew his samurai sword and cut the officers head off where he stood in front of the prisoners just brutal reading.............

[Flying10uk]

It's easy to understand why Japanese soldiers were hated by allied soldiers and why so few Japs got taken as prisoners of war.

[Paul S.]

Mate, I've known old blokes who survived everything the Japanese did to them from the fall of Singapore to VJ day. Many of them wouldn't own or ride in a Japanese car. None of them had a polite (much less kind) word for any Japanese or Korean.

[rcathey]

...and why so few Japs got taken as prisoners of war.

A lot of the biographies from the Pacific theater talk about this as self preservation. Some say it with a twinge of personal distaste for the enemy as a whole but for the most part it's more of a "I know what kind of crap they try to pull when 'surrendering' so they're not getting the chance!"
Blowing up grenades once they get close to their captors, etc.

[Flying10uk]

"I know what kind of crap they try to pull when 'surrendering' so they're not getting the chance!"
Blowing up grenades once they get close to their captors, etc.

Yes, my father worked with someone, years ago, who had served in the Far East during WW2 and he said that "if you saw a Jap soldier you shot first and asked questions later".

[daboone]

My missionary grandparents and 2 aunties spent the war in a Japanese concentration camp in China. My Grandmother and aunties survived and moved to Hawaii after Mao took over. They shared only a few of the horrors stories they endured. They had no problems at all with making friend with the local Hawaiian Japanese. As a kid all my Japanese friends dads served with the Go For Broke 442nd.

[RazorBurn]

I had a great uncle who served in the Pacific from 1942 to 1947 (including the occupation of Japan). He wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything of Asian decent up to the day he died.

[Flying10uk]

It would help greatly if Japan was to give a full and wholesome apology for it's conduct during WW2, and before WW2 in China, in the same manner that Germany has done since WW2, on many occasions. I fail to understand why Japan finds this so hard to do.

[Eaglelord17]

It would help greatly if Japan was to give a full and wholesome apology for it's conduct during WW2, and before WW2 in China, in the same manner that Germany has done since WW2, on many occasions. I fail to understand why Japan finds this so hard to do.

Is the UK going to do this for all the horrors inflicted upon native populaces in the name of Empire? Is the US going to do the same? I could keep going and listing nations but the reality is you will basically list every country that ever existed at any point in time.

A apology now would mean nothing, as the people apologizing had nothing to do with the events, and the people receiving the apology have nothing to do with the events.