Why History Overlooks How Much the Japanese Actually Feared the Americans in WW2

You probably know, especially if you're from an English-speaking country, how the Western Allies felt about the Japanese. But what about the other way around? What did Japanese soldiers think about Allied soldiers? What about their opinions on Americans, in particular, given that the Japanese launched the attack that pulled the US into the war?
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0:00 Nuanced as hell
1:10 The Meiji era
2:09 The 1930s
3:44 A Rising Sun
5:47 Western demons
9:20 Western cowardice
11:29 Perspectives

[@davidkinsey8657]

Many American soldiers and Marines were hesitant to accept the surrender of Japanese soldiers because it wasn't uncommon for them to feign surrender and then open fire or throw grenades at any troops foolish enough to leave cover to accept their surrender.

[@aaronlaughter6471]

My great grandad told me stories of how him and his squad would kill any that did surrendered, due to how many times they experienced fake surrenders, they didn't want to take that risk.

[@imperiumgrim4717]

fun fact: it's illegal to do a fake surrender in the Geneva convention

[@theawesomeman9821]

@@aaronlaughter6471 that's technically still a war crime according to the Geneva Convention.

[@23tovarm5]

@@imperiumgrim4717 unfortunately the Japanese ignored the Geneva Convention, all the way from their pow treatment to them specifically targeting medics with the red cross

[@bradthackston2323]

@@23tovarm5 this is harsh but only western civilized world goes by it but the opposition never does we will get in trouble and they get praised but how can you have rules in war.

[@firemarshal2629]

You left out the part about the US not taking prisoners because of the amount of prisoners that killed soldiers after acting like they were giving up.

[@Justthatguy1998]

It’s funny how omitting key evidence changes the outcome

[@antdok9573]

This video is mainly a look at Japan's perspective, not the rest of the world's.

[@Tekisasubakani]

@@antdok9573 It's still entirely relevant, as the video specifically talks about the Japanese not being taken prisoner by the Americans, and just leaves it there as if US troops randomly decided to take no prisoners from day one...instead of it being DIRECTLY in reaction to the Japanese soldiers dishonorable conduct.

[@matthewsaari6577]

I've actually seen some historians suggest this was actually more of a self fulfilling issue. The apparent unwillingness to surrender wasn't that high early. Then a few Japanese false surrenders happen, this leads to stories among USA soldiers, this makes them less likely to take captives, this leads to Japanese seeing surrender get them killed anyway, and so on. Eventually the story on the American side is they never surrender so don't trust a surrender, while the Japanese story is that Americans don't take prisoners so they don't surrender.

[@GooseAlarm]

I need a video about that.

[@sonnyburnett8725]

My instructor in 1970 was Philippino and he said Japanese tourists were not welcome in the Philippines because of how badly they treated the people. The Japanese knew not to walk alone at night but in groups. War really screws people up.

[@edwardadams9358]

Knowing the way the Japanese treated the citizens of every country they invaded demonstrates the absurdity of their complaints about the treatment of those same citizens by European colonizers.

[@keonecl]

*Filipino*. But yeah the Filipino curriculum does not talk much about Japanese atrocities.

[@BobThomas123]

My AP teacher did and ESP​@@keonecl

[@glitchvlogs6597]

Hate that comes from the past eventually leads to more war, which creates history, which creates hate that comes from it. A cycle that can be created by a single war.

[@ontheroadwithtex7991]

I have met Filipinos, natives of Guam, and Chinese Americans who grew up in both mainland China and Taiwan. The Filipinos and Guamanians were veterans of WW2, and their only regret was that we ended WW2 too soon, as they wanted all Japanese killed. The Chinese Americans I've worked with were children and grandchildren of Chinese who suffered the horrors of Japanese occupation; they said their history lessons left it clear that the survivors of Japanese occupation felt the same way as the Filipinos and Guamanians. Based on the Japan we know today, it's hard to imagine what the Japan of the 1930s and 1940s was like.

[@sandranatali1260]

I'm not so sure if the Japanese of today would be any different than their ancestors. It's just a thought because of their history, and we aren't at war. Probably never will be considering our history. And, the fact the Japanese no longer has a military capable of wagering war.

[@Dornana]

And in contrast, in the 1900'a the Japanese won a commendation of the Red Cross for their treatment of Ruasian PoWs in the sino-russian war

[@dynomitejec]

That's insane "ended ww2 too soon..." damn. Never mess with the Philippines or Guam, got it.

[@Gb23213]

When you turn a countries cities into glass it straightens them out a bit

[@michaelmancini5773]

I'm a retired Recon Marine, and I will tell you that Admiral Yamamoto told the emperor NOT to attack Pearl Harbor, because he had lived and been educated in America, and knew the Americans were indeed brave, and would fight back with a vengeance , he said after the attack " I fear we have woken a sleeping giant, and left him with a terrible resolve", He was right.

[@kaijuslayer3334]

He didn’t fear them because resolve, he feared them because of the sleeping industrial might it had. The Japanese could challenge America’s tenacity, the difference is America could just overwhelm them with industrial might as the war goes on. Hence why the point of Pearl Harbor was to cripple the navy and resolve so badly that it would force submission.

[@stefanlaskowski6660]

That's probably anecdotal, but true nonetheless.

[@DailyDoseofGod.]

Something interesting In a declassified memo, now held at the Franklin D.Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in upstate New York , there is hard evidence that President Roosevelt knew of the impending pearl harbor attack at least 3 days in advance. No , America is not a sleeping giant. We've basically always been just a giant , in a perpetual state of war since our inception. Also retired marine. Semper fi

[@ryanspinoza6586]

There were also generals who agreed to this. It’s not that they wanted to invade US, they’re smart enough to know it’s impossible to begin with but it was because US and Japan was already in a state of cold war both countries knew a war was gonna happen between them and US wanted Japan to hit first. For Japan, there was no way they could further expand in east asia without the west or the colonists there making it harder for them especially when US at the time had Philippines colonised with military bases ready to be a direct threat to mainland Japan. So their reasoning was, we strike first and cripple them as hard as possible then we continue our expansion further southeast asia. It worked as it definitely slowed down US navy reaction but not enough as US is still an industrial giant that can rebuild whatever it lost on that attack.

[@johnwallis1309]

@@ryanspinoza6586 come on now, ww2 was all about Japan and Germany getting an empires .japan needed oil ,and America blocked it ,so pearl harbour was a war start advantage to take out the American pacific fleet in the hope of a quick war Yamamoto knew that once at war ,america could mass-produce war products faster than any country ,Japan's saw surrendering soldiers as without honer and shame full ,hence many of the autoricitys,all soldiers who fought were brave and fearfull no difference that any when rherebacks are against the wall

[@aaronlaughter6471]

My great granddad told me that his squad stopped taking prisoners after a couple of fake surrenders by the Japanese killed some of his friends, and really can you blame them.

[@bandit6272]

That sort of thing was more common than people think. I can't blame them at all, and would've done the same if that had happened when I was in Iraq. THAT'S why faking a surrender is a war crime, not to protect the side taking the bait, but to protect all the soldiers in the future who would try and surrender in good faith, and get shot down because accepting surrender had led to treacherous attacks. Fake surrenders must therefore be brutally discouraged, or there won't be any more surrenders, and the body count and suffering goes waaaay up for everyone.

[@platano_mamahuevo]

did they actually said tenno heika banzai in a war?? since your grandad was in there??

[@tsubadaikhan6332]

Fake Japanese 'Surrenders' were occurring in Papua New Guinea before Americans were even in the War, and they would have learned that from Australians, but it's unlikely American Soldiers would have known what was happening in POW camps. That said, 600,000 German troops Surrendered at Stalingrad, and only about 5,000 made it to the end of the War. And despite not knowing what was happening to them, German Soldiers seemed to know Surrendering to Russians wasn't a wise option. - Of course the Soviets believed the Germans had Raped and Pillaged their way across Eastern Europe to get to Moscow's doorstep, and perhaps that wasn't an inaccurate belief.

[@kp-legacy-5477]

@@platano_mamahuevo assuming his grandpa is alive, assuming his grandpa would talk about it,

[@platano_mamahuevo]

@@kp-legacy-5477 :O

[@Christus-Veritas]

*Most countries signed the 1929 Geneva Convention....even Germany. That Japan refused to sign indicates they had nothing but contempt for anyone who opposed them long before WW2 even began.*

[@BlossomField91]

In fairness, at least they weren't being hypocrites.

[@rcrinsea]

I think it had to do with the Japanese concept of surrendering. Not wanting to torture those who opposed them.

[@jacqueslefave4296]

One of the conditions of the peace with Japan after the War was to sign the Geneva Convention-and they were warned that they would be required to strictly observe it.

[@JackieSchofueld]

@@BlossomField91lmao ahh yes the babby stabbing women raping could’ve been worse they could’ve been hypocrites

[@warringtonfaust1088]

I don't think we were ever fooled by the Japanese. We began "War Plan Orange", proposed combat with Japan, shortly after WWI.

[@cvent8454]

My father was a US Marine during WW II. He fought in the Phillipines and at Okinawa. He said they never took Japanese prisoners bc of what they did to captured Marines. He never spoke another word about his experiences. He was only 18 and would have been 20 years old the day the first wave was to hit Japan. I am eternally grateful to President Truman for dropping the bomb and ending the War. The WWII generation IS the Greatest Generation. My father was my hero my whole life. Even in death he remains my hero. Love you dad ❤

[@cwavt8849]

About a year ago, I spoke with a woman in customer service for a company that I can't remember. She introduced herself as Enola Gay❤. I commended her on her name and asked if her parents were history buffs as she didn't sound old enough to be the daughter of a WWII vet. But, indeed she was! I told her to please thank her father for me. Given the Japanese history of torture and experimental, I shudder to think what would have become of us had they beaten us to the bomb which they were working so hard to bring to implementation.

[@lmaoasian2518]

Im a filipino and im very thankful to your father for fighting the freedom of my country, May The Lord grant him eternal rest and God bless to all veterans who fought bravely during ww2

[@johnwoods5548]

God bless him

[@harlenburke8535]

My father was also on Okinawa with the 6th div 22nd reg, wounded taking the Shuri line, was 18 years old...he to was staged to go front line in to the home islands and as he said "we all knew we weren't comin back".. sorry about the bomb but they brought it on themselves..

[@jackattack2608]

A similar story with my father. He was drafted into the 6th Marine Division, but the war ended before he was inducted. Still, he was sent first to the Philippines, which he described as being all blown apart everywhere he went, and then onto China for Occupation duties. Had the bomb not dropped, he certainly would have been part of the Invasion of Japan, and probably a casualty. I, too, am grateful tor Truman's decision. The thing he hated most was being in a troop transport ship, as he spent much of his time at sea going to the different places he was assigned. He decided not to join the reserves and instead married and had a family. He was never called up for Korea, where many of his friends from the Marines perished. He didn't mind the duty, but hated the boats.

[@simontide6780]

Japanese Imperial Army is perfect example of "It's okay when we do it, but not okay when you do it to us"

[@abelesperanz4196]

how russia is right now when they're the one getting bombed lol

[@Yeetinator-dx9uz]

We made them the land of the rising suns (plural)

[@roddmatsui3554]

Can you imagine all the relatively younger people, born years or decades after the conflict being discussed, as they become aware that their name race or genetic history is mentally associated with the actions of previous governments, long since turned to dust? What a great price in receiving hate must be paid, by those innocents made to suffer needlessly.

[@bocawilliams9200]

Yeah screw them people, I wish we'd dropped more nukes on em

[@DebasedAnon]

​@@abelesperanz4196How the entire western world is right now when trying to pretend Russia is doing something unheard of to spite the fact they've done significantly worse.

[@steventuck1524]

My father was sent to the Philippines in November 1941...stationed at Clark field, the Japanese attacked the day after pearl harbor, he was in constant combat from that day until his capture on bataan in May 1942...he was in the bataan death march and spent 3 and a half years being beaten...tortured...starved...slave labor...while waiting to go work in the lead mine on August 6, 1945, he witnessed the atomic blast of the bomb that was dropped on hiroshima which was only 80 miles away...a couple of weeks later the Japanese guards at the camp fled and the next day American C47 transport planes flew low over the camp and dropped containers full of fresh baked bread with butter and lots of other good food, the first real food my father had in 3 and a half years...when American troops liberated the camp he weighed about 90 pounds...his testimony at the war crimes trials in Tokyo in1946 was instrumental in sending several Japanese guards to prison for 20 years hard labor...my beloved father, Ronald Vance Tuck...god rest your soul, dad!😔

[@IamJet]

I Salute to your dad.... You know I may not have a WW2 War hero in my Family bloodline but I do have some WW2 survivors in my Family bloodline and one of them is My Grandfather on my Dad's side. I remember before my Grandfather died he told me that when he was a kid he survived the last day of WW2 by just hiding behind the plants including trees, bushes and etc.... While my Grandfather is hiding behind the plants he heard a lot of sounds of Explosives, Gunfire and Japanese and also American Soldiers Screaming.

[@steventuck1524]

@@IamJet I'm sure your grandfather was very brave...god bless you and God rest your grandfather's soul!

[@thomasmitchell4128]

I could punch your father up into the air like a kite.

[@kenseisato1989]

Quite the chapter in his life. Thank you for sharing🙏

[@NNOutBurger_Gaming]

That's crazy because I'm currently stationed on the USS Bataan, crazy to think me and your dad ate in the same mess decks, probably walk down the saw P-ways

[@mitchellvillareal1708]

My great grandfather fought in WW2 for the Philippines as a radio tech, and was unfortunately captured in combat by the Japanese. Never heard anything more about him after he was captured, most likely tortured for information and then killed

[@commonsense571]

🌹never forgotten 🌹

[@RRaquello]

I used to work with a Filipino guy and his mother grew up in Manila during the Japanese occupation and she used to say she was only sorry that the war ended before we could drop more atom bombs on the Japanese. That was how their fellow Asians felt about the Japanese after having to live under their rule.

[@johnschuh8616]

The 14th Army that soundly defeated the Japanese army that invaded India in 1944 was largely Indians, It was more than 1 million men strong and was composed mainly of Volunteers, They fought as well as any army during World War 2 and then took Burma back from the Japanese, Many had no love of Britain, but they knew how the Japanese had treated other Asians.

[@robcohen7678]

The firebombing of cities was way worse than the atom bombs. If you read the details of how the bombs worked it's really shocking and horrible. Not very justifiable, but at the time pretty much anything could be justified if it could just maybe bring the war to an end.

[@ammantophori]

​@@robcohen7678well young lady you're entitled to your opinion

[@seeingeyegod]

@@ammantophori young lady?

[@blooddoc3203]

My father was a surgeon stationed on Kiska in the Aleutian’s. When Japanese soldiers infiltrated the hospital one night and bayoneted the American wounded, the taking of prisoners became a rare occurrence.

[@Drak976]

Of course this guys extensive research doesn't cover that sry to spam so much. I know bla bla both sides bla bla but this is beyond the pale and it's only going to get worse. Makes me think back to Red Dawn the original one where they stop at a historical marker and the soldiers ask their commander what it is and he says this is great battle sight where 10,000 yankee cossacks killed 20,000 natives. That is 100% what our history is becoming with things like the 1619 project and Cleopatra.

[@nikolaigogleo7507]

Eddie Gallagher alongside fellow Navy seals practiced emergency medical procedure on a militant with no anesthesia. They just kept practicing different techniques and learned how to operate on a live struggling person while the person watched. Itd be like being wheeled into a hospital and having multiple surgeons performing various operations on you while you slowly bleed out and watch them kill you. This was during the war against ISIS, and a trial was brought but he was acquitted. Even after openly admitting that his intention was to kill him, he was not found guilty of murder. But yea those japanese guys from 60 years ago were terrible.

[@stuartstuart866]

@@nikolaigogleo7507 Well…. I would much rather practice medical procedures on the enemy than my own people. I also think state of mind is important, the gleeful, needless killing or torture for joy is different than practicality or anger killing.

[@darkwolf860]

​@@nikolaigogleo7507this is a completely falsified account of what happened and is absolute propaganda.

[@ExtraordinaryBoris]

​​@@Drak9761.America didnt have cossacks. 2.the natives were just a brutal if not more during war than americans.

[@jonwolff8222]

My father-in-law was a young boy in Singapore when it fell to the Japanese. He's told me of seeing heads decapitated by the Japanese strung up on light poles. The Japanese were especially brutal to the European, Eurasian, and Chinese citizens. Being Chinese, his own father was put into a prison camp. He escaped and found refuge for the rest of the war among the Malays, who the Japanese left alone.

[@thatguy22441]

Conquering China was to be the first step in Japanese domination of the world. The Japanese fully intended to de-populate much of China and move in. That was the same thing Hitler intended to do in Russia. The Nazis called it "Lebensraum", "Living Space."

[@jonwolff8222]

@@thatguy22441 I spent a year in China. The Chinese have never forgotten what the Japanese did to them. There are museums dedicated to Japanese atrocities committed in China. I saw truly horrific stuff I've not seen elsewhere.

[@andreilukyanov4286]

The Japanese in WWII were worse than Nazis. After the WWII it was important for U.S. that Japan goes into the Capitalist camp, so their atrocities were silenced and some of the worst Japanese war criminals were granted immunity.

[@myhonorwasloyalty]

@@andreilukyanov4286 but the communist were worst than jappanese

[@myhonorwasloyalty]

@@andreilukyanov4286 you dont know the atrocities that reds did to others.

[@Thor-Orion]

6:45 this couldn’t have anything to do with the Japanese tactic of faking a surrender to draw the enemy into an ambush, could it?

[@TheToby121]

Dehumanizing enemy combatants is clearly an extremely common coping mechanism, throughout all history. Whether it be by bolstering them as monsters, or demeaning them as animals.

[@povang]

As a war vet myself, the dehumanization of the enemy was a very common trope among my peers. It was a coping mechanism to the harsh reality of war. You dont want to kill another human being, you want to kill an animal/worm/insect. Our motto in my unit was "grape, pillage, kurder, and unalive babees"(super censored version because of YT), we used it as a coping mechanism to the brutality of war and the atrocities we have to both endure and inflict.

[@skipintroux4098]

Wonder if that has anything to do with how vilified white people are today by the Epstein-type owned media in the USA?

[@salanzaldi4551]

According to the British historian Basel Liddell Heart, if you were captured by the Germans you stood a 55% chance of surviving. If you were captured by the Japanese, you stood a 5% chance of surviving.

[@BakingBadOBX]

I figured the german percentage would be more like 85%

[@loismylane]

@@BakingBadOBX Germans could barely feed themselves in 1944-45 im sure POWs got the worst of it. Also heard being a German POW under Eisenhauer wasnt the best chance of survivial

[@brettmitchell6431]

There were 8,000 Australian POWs taken by the Germans in WW2. 285 died in captivity.

[@nossonosso3747]

@@BakingBadOBX If you're not Slav, Jew, Roma, Black, gay, mental or anything they deemded unwanted.

[@jordanhicks5131]

Yeah I'd say the german stats are more like 75% to 85% chance of survival, unless you were a russian.

[@polaris30000]

My grandfather fought them through the entire South Asian campaign. According to my father he described them as "The most contemptable cowards and bullies. They kill and main anyone they see as beneath them and call it honour, but when they are caught they beg, cry, scream, and thrash like anyone else."

[@isaacwhite9706]

@@Bithe_Get yup but I also acknowledge their humanity, mostly brainwashed into thinking that they’d be executed if they surrendered which did end up happened because they couldn’t be trusted, War is hell.

[@boomerisadog3899]

@@Bithe_Get It's easy enough to fall on your sword, much more difficult to be at the mercy of men who kbow how you brutalized others.

[@MadclintMusic]

​@@Bithe_Get nah good people have honor. Trash is trash

[@simonshiels1]

Thankyou.......murderous but victims when they wanted to be

[@rifleshooterchannel208]

The Japanese were the worst the Axis had to offer.

[@40MileDesertRat]

To survive a war, one of the things to keep in mind is that if your enemies code of conduct is, no surrender, then than it what it is. So the act of surrender, must be viewed as an act of potential aggression. Which historically it was in far too many cases.

[@phyrhfbr1819]

very well said... you are not wrong...

[@shanebolender851]

One of my great grandfathers served WW1. I rarely heard him say a word. I was told it changed him. After studying WW2 I can understand what they meant. My farther server at the very end of the Korean war. The stuff he told me was unbelievable. The brutality of war and even post war was horrifying. I salute and say thank you to all that serve.

[@mathewmcdonald3657]

My grandfather just turned 101 and was in the First Marines division at Guadalcanal. Got stranded when the Navy ships had to retreat, caught malaria and still fought. The only thing he would ever say is that the Japanese would not take prisoners therefore they didn’t either. That’s hardcore. He’s a very spiritual religious man and really an exceptional person. He built my dad’s house when he was 80, him and two other guys, and it’s a big house. I have trouble changing the light in the laundry room. I exaggerate a little about myself but I am not in this man’s league and I don’t know anyone who is. I’m sure they exist and I am in awe of his humility and kind generous caring nature.

[@ryanrents126]

I hear you man, I reflect a lot on my grandfather and his peers. They're all gone now. They led very full lives and were able to do so much but still stay grounded. I try to be like them but can't compare. But when my friends ask me how I'm able to get as much done in a day as I do, I tell them I don't sleep past 8 hours, I don't watch sports and I don't play video games. Saves hundreds of hours a year! Haha

[@adas5698]

My gf's grandfather was also in Guadalcanal, First Marines!

[@theforce5191]

I hope you have good stories documented and what not. Awesome to know someone who's lived for a century!

[@Maxmillion77]

Technological advancement and modernisation makes life a lot more comfortable for the average person. 75-100 years ago people were tougher and more hardy simply because they had to be. You still see that kind of toughness in very rural areas seemingly untouched by modern life.

[@lockedinstreetracing6005]

Tell him thank you for his service from one devil dog to another.

[@paramaraba]

There was one occasion when an American officer asked a captured Japanese soldier why they killed POWs the way they did, he replied that the officers forced them to do it, quoting the Japanese officer: "Now, if they capture you, they will treat you the same way, so surrendering is not an option".

[@Revanchist2]

"Oh no, it was not me it was my officer's orders" bs

[@ventaga7478]

@@Revanchist2 u didnt get what he was trying to say lol

[@TheKenji2221]

@@Revanchist2 Seems like we've found the ret-ard

[@dashlivingston5975]

@@Revanchist2 you missed the bigger picture. It was a way the officers could incentivize the soldiers to not surrender bc they had already killed POWs. So basically there was no turning back in the officer’s eyes

[@paramaraba]

I highly recommend Dan Carlin's Hardcore history podcast series "Super Nova in the East"

[@Skiskiski]

Even then Japan was playing a victim.

[@187blackblade]

Yea, war is hell. My grandpa was part of a group in the Philippines nicknamed "The bloody marauders of the Luzon". The story goes they would raid and "butcher" Japanese camps, often hand to hand combat occurred, saw off their heads and gave the heads to the local headhunting tribes such as the Bontoc in exchange for intel and supplies. What a lot of people misunderstand is American soldiers heard and saw what the Japanese did to the Philippine people, the cruelty especially to the women and even little babies, and it pissed them off.

[@bonnieprincecharlie6248]

The reason Americans didn’t take Japanese POW’s is because very few Japanese would ever actually willingly surrender alive, so the Americans believed when Japanese soldiers were trying to surrender it was always a trap. At the beginning of the war American soldiers were led into ambushes by the Japanese trying to take them as POWS.

[@warthunder9155]

Thank you.

[@isbee56]

I mean just look at Iwo Jima, 22,000 Japanese soldiers and naval personnel and 216 prisoners total.

[@patmccall1818]

The Japanese in WW2 were a historical outlier. Very little throughout history had there been examples of fighting truly to the last man as the Japanese seemed to repeatedly do. Dan Carlins "Supernova in the East" is a good watch or listen if you have the time.

[@leonsphinx9652]

@SakaBaka Their stating known facts not excuses and American soldiers didnt hide those facts. I'd like to see you reason with someone who believes they will be raped and eaten if captured.

[@martinhubinette2254]

@SakaBaka It's basically the prisoners dilemma. Faking a surrender is considered a war crime, killing surrendering soldiers/POWs is a war crime. If both don't do any war crimes they both gain. Less US soldiers die, US POW camps are probably not great but the Japanese soldiers get to live and be productive members of Japan post war. If 1 side war crimes they win (at least short term). More enemies killed and no POWs you need to take care of. If both do War crimes both it will intensify the resentment and brutality in the war, meaning a net loss for both. I think it's not to far from the prisoners dilemma at least.

[@kgb3559]

Judging by how the Japanese treated the Chinese and Western soldiers/civilians , it’s not surprising the Americans treated Japanese belligerents in a similar matter. Not much difference from the way the Nazis and Soviets treated each other.

[@Bearthedancingman]

All wars seem to do this to some extent

[@The_New_IKB]

@@Bearthedancingman that is because there is only one law in war, do what ever you have to to win!

[@get-memed]

@@The_New_IKB as long as you win the actions you committed don't seem to be that bad anymore

[@Mcree114]

Yet people often get hung up on the barbarity of Red Army troops while conveniently leaving out the years of Nazi genocide and slaughter in occupied territory against Soviet and Polish citizens/POWs that caused such vengeful bloodlust. What the Soviets did to German POWs and civilians in Germany was bad, of course, but we should be wary of people who try to pretend they behaved that way for absolutely no reason while leaving out Nazi Germany's previous atrocities as a subtle way of trying to paint them as the "good guys" of the Eastern Front. Germany was the aggressor and the one to set the atmosphere of brutal treatment to POWs/civilians and a trend of bloody fights to the last man because of that, not the other way around. You can't attempt a genocide of Slavic people and then expect them to be above and beyond merciful when things turn around. Edit: Wow. So many people misunderstanding this comment and saying that I'm justifying the Red Army's war crimes in Germany against its POWs and civilians even though I acknowledged that and that they are in the wrong. Proving my point with all the knee jerk whataboutism to defend Nazi Germany. I freaking know the USSR was a brutal dictatorship that committed a plethora of atrocities, including signing a deal with the devil to carve up and annex Poland and later letting them be slaughtered by the Nazis to make installing a puppet government easier after they "liberated" them. My point still stands that there's a trend going on to whitewash and downplay Nazi Germany, painting them as the lesser of two evils, that we need to be aware of. Germany launched a war with genocidal intentions in mind. The Soviets, for all their many many failings and inhumane crimes, didn't. Many Ukrainians were even happy to see Germany as liberators from Stalin until the Nazis revealed their plans for the Slavic people, then they settled for the lesser of two evils. The ones killing them via terrible agricultural policy rather than intentionally to implement ethnic replacement. (Ironically what Putin is doing today)

[@LoganLS0]

​@@Mcree114 the problem with your comment is the Soviets did the same thing to the Poles.

[@jackmoorehead2036]

If you think about it, very few Japanese Soliders and Officers ever had a chance to tell anyone about what it was like to fight Americans. Most died on the Islands and never got to communicate what they felt.

[@robertortiz-wilson1588]

It's unsurprising US troops increasingly disregarded treatment towards supposedly surrendering Japanese groups at various times as the war progressed. Not simply because of instances where surrenders turned out to be hidden last ditch suicide attacks, but also because stories of brutality against American prisoners were constantly being reported.

[@Nate-mq4rh]

The reason why you didn't hear about the Pacific front until the mid 2000s (and even that) is because like Vietnam, it was a front that the US was trying to forget. Both sides absolutely hated each other, and it was a conflict that was racially motivated and had spurred on a hatred that had not been felt since the Indian wars in the previous century for the US. It was brutal and dark, and got worse and worse from Pearl Harbor, to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[@28Decimo]

@@Nate-mq4rh not necessarily. It resulted in severe amounts of racial animosity and hatred but the root was rather completely set in the timeline of pre and post Pearl Harbor. Prior the US, while not liking Japan, essentially relegated it to being a lesser concern and the American public wasn’t thinking about the Japanese in any way. There was animosity and distrust due to actions in China, which was escalating as Japanese occupation of China and Korea was beyond what most would even think about, but this was not a racial war at the start. Even at the end the distrust remained but the level of hate dissipated following breaking down imperial Japan.

[@Nate-mq4rh]

@@28Decimo They thought they were savage yellow monkeys because of what they were doing in China... and Pearl Harbor only helped to prove it in their minds, while also igniting a nation wide rage and hatred. Sure, there wasn't much thought about the Japanese prior to Pearl, but all of this would accumulate to a very dark and hate filled campaign, from the individual soldier, to the highly ranked officials. There was zero reguard for human life on both sides of this conflict, especially towards then end.

[@dallasarnold8615]

@@Nate-mq4rh I have no idea where you got the idea that people did not hear about the Pacific front until the mid 2000's. I have heard about it as far back as I can remember, which is at least 1959. I grew up mimicking combat against the Japanese from reading about the battles, and a number of movies. I heard more stories about fighting the Japanese than I did about the Germans. So, I am wondering what world you are living on. Must not be in the U.S. These stories are part of why I joined the Marine Corps instead of the Army in 1973.

[@Nate-mq4rh]

@@dallasarnold8615 I'm talking about western media and Hollywood you old fart

[@MrJeffcoley1]

My dad was a Marine stationed in Okinawa in the early 1960’s. On a field exercise in a remote area some of the older people seemed frightened of the Americans. Finally one got up the courage and asked him if it was still true that a Marine was required to kill his own mother to join the Corps

[@zuzusflower9503]

That seems to be a recurring theme. I served in Desert Storm in the USMC. Apparently Iraqi soldiers believed the same thing. Pretty good lie to dehumanize the enemy.

[@MrJeffcoley1]

@@zuzusflower9503 I for one and perfectly content to let them keep believing that.

[@apo911]

@@zuzusflower9503 I wouldn't complain since war crimes and dehumanization are common weapons the US uses

[@shinjaokinawa5122]

It's been a while since I heard that one.

[@mickm5097]

According to Q Anon, the Democrats made the USMC do away with the matricide component of Marine training.

[@OvGraphics]

This video has garnered a ton of comments and I'm heartened that there are still people around who can appreciate the sacrifice made by the men of the era. My father served aboard a DE (DE-357 Look it up) and in an interview I conducted with him in the 80's he explained that our American's hands were not all lily white. That was my first taste of that awful truth. Later, I came into possession of several books which outlined atrocities up to and including cannibalism by the Japanese. The conclusion I reached was this. Yes, some Americans committed acts far beyond what was lawful or reasonable. The difference in what Americans did and what Japanese did was this: Americans who committed atrocities did so illegally by every measure. Japanese who committed atrocities were simply following orders and written protocol. A vast vast difference, and one that must not be overlooked. Your piece made it look like there was equivocation. The barbarities were not equal at all. Roosevelt never authorized American troops to rape Nanking. Etc.

[@toms6841]

I totally agree with your observations and conclusions. There are still enough boomers around to lend proper perspective to decisions and actions that were taken in a horrific time in world history. If Japanese atrocities were truly retaliatory, then explain (as you summarized at the end) the inhuman, barbaric acts of the Japanese military in the invasion of China.

[@777jaris]

That's completely wrong. The soldiers were not following orders on the most grusome things people have ever done to other people. They were told they could do as they pleased with the women, children and elderly. No orders. One other thing. These soldiers/scum who committed those atrocities have children that are still alive. How is the Japanese culture now considered they all know what their fathers, brothers did to those women, children and elderly? Are they celebrated like a war hero who died for their country? I really want to know this.

[@OvGraphics]

@@777jaris We're not that far apart. Frankly, I can't speak to actual individual orders delivered to go rape, kill, and eat their victims if they so chose. But as you said, it was OK, nevertheless. A very very fine point that in the end means zip to the victims. By contrast, when Americans did anything remotely similar somewhere up the chain of command they risked their liberty. Or should have by the rules Americans were tasked to follow.

[@jimjam51075]

​@@777jarisThe Japanese soldiers aren't considered heroes for their atrocities. The culture simply covers it all up to this day.

[@BlossomField91]

@@777jaris From what I understand, though it may be outdated (especially with more recent geopolitical developments like the rise of China etc), a lot of Japanese are quite pacifistic. Not because they're ashamed of their actions in WW2 (unlike the Germans), that's simply something they don't discuss and the government covers it up, but because the atomic bombings have scarred their psyche. In the 1960s etc a lot of Japanese were into peace and nuclear disarmament stuff (Yoko Ono, the widow of John Lennon, is probably the most famous example, but she was no means the only one) The Metal Gear Solid video games were made by a Japanese man who's anti-nuclear weapons and those games reward you for being non-lethal against enemy soldiers. I'll take pacifistic Japanese over cruel warmonger Japs any day.

[@obcane3072]

Allied prisoners liberated from Japanese POW camps looked like those liberated from Auschwitz. At the end of the wars Japanese soldiers at prisoner of war camps were told to behead, stab or shoot the 100,000 or so remaining Allied prisoners the moment an invasion began. The Japanese were very brutal to their prisoners of war. Prisoners of war endured gruesome tortures with rats and ate grasshoppers for nourishment. Some were used for medical experiments and target practice. About 50,000 Allied prisoners of war died, many from brutal treatment.Americans were shocked by a photograph run in American newspapers showing a Japanese soldiers raising his sword to behead an Allied prisoner of war, bound and tied and bent over on his knees. Captured airmen shot down over Japan were "beaten to death, beheaded, buried alive, cut into pieces for medical experiments and in a few cases eaten by vengeful Japanese." Some POWs were publically displayed naked in 4-x-5-foot cages. Captured B-29 bombardier Raymond "Hap" Halloran shrunk from 215 to 122 pounds and was displayed naked in a cage at the Tokyo Zoo, where people cursed and threw things at him.

[@thomas5585]

Japanese civilians at the University of Kyushu learned human anatomy with live vivisections of American POWs. The nurses then cooked and ate them.

[@the98themperoroftheholybri33]

My great grandfather was a medic within the RAF stationed in Burma, he saw some of the worst things imaginable done by the Japanese, not just to allied soldiers but to the locals who lived there

[@shepherdteel537]

Probably not worse than a genocide of 200000 civilians

[@MichaelSmith-zf1kh]

No soul, only “ancestor worship “. Truly a nation who slaughtered their enemies without mercy, only unimaginable cruelty. The Yanks needed to use mass genecide, and were fully justified in reprisals. A just end to the war would have been mass nuclear strikes to end the reign of an animalistic race with minimal humanity. It’s just sad that American weakling sentiment stopped the obliteration of the Japanese race.

[@pulse3732]

Sadly Burma is still at war today, amazing people that don't deserve a constant fight.

[@TheMusicalKnokcers]

My grandpa had an uncle in french indochina (today's vietnam) , held in an iron cage not tall enough to stand up neither to lay in a confortable maner, fed a bowl of rice a day for over a year. He didn't last long after release.

[@yumuddah8735]

which is exactly why the Japanese were treated as they were. he doesnt mention burma, or the bataan death march. barely touches on their feudal belief system. omits how we treated the nazis much better, because they didnt kill our men who had surrendered. a pretty biased piece of work here.

[@ericduan19]

When John Ford went to Midway to shoot his documentary in 1942, he encountered a Japanese air strike as he was filming in a USMC firing position. He quickly picked up his camera & a couple of marines dragged him into a foxhole nearby, just seconds before the bomb demolished the position. As the dust settled, one of the marine beside him joked: "well, that was close." When John Ford returned to the US, he told reporters: those marines are around 18-22 years old, but they were the most fearless men I've ever seen, this is why I believe we will win the war.

[@pheddupp]

The film that John Ford made about the battle for Midway is incredible considering he was already a very famous movie director when he and his film crew found themselves in the middle of one of the most important battles of WWII in the pacific warzone. He was acting as a camera operator during the battle, amazing.

[@pandahsykes602]

Imagine, those men of that generation were saving people like Ford at such young ages and now our generations are afraid to talk to women … I wonder what conspiracy happened or if this sissification truly happens to all “civilized” cultures .

[@ER-me1ii]

My father was on a USN hospital ship that took American POW’s on at the end of the war. A whole ward of Americans paralyzed from Japanese medical experiments.

[@lordblarg]

Sharing these stories without context is like saying a man murdered another man in his house, but leaving out the fact that the murdered man was trespassing and shot at him first. And also leaving out the ten men that man let loose the previous week. For example, the Japanese only mass surrendered in one place until the end of the war and that was Okinawa. Why? Because that was the first place people really surrendered and, when they did, they found they were treated amazingly well, and so told their comrades about it. This led to a mass surrender of the remainder of the garrison. A testimony to the morality of the majority of American soldiers, despite fighting men who behaved in the worst and most (ironically) dishonorable ways possible.

[@jimcameron9848]

My friend's father was a little boy in Manilla and was brutally tortured by the Japanese leaving him with a permanent limp. He became a successful doctor in Canada and saved and improved many lives.

[@Lonekoka]

No one talks about Manila. In the battle of Manila at LEAST 100,000 Filipinos were murdered. That should be enough reason to talk about it right there.

[@jimghee6021]

My Marine father was stationed in Japan and Okinawa for a time while serving during the Korean War. He said he once was with another Marine and some Japanese girls when he mentioned to the Marine that he was sending dishes home to his mother. One of the girls was surprised and asked him how that was possible? Confused he asked what she meant. She said that they'd been told in order for a man to become a Marine he had to kill his mother and his father. My father explained that wasn't true but the woman refused to believe him. I think it unintentionally showed a fear of the Marines.

[@user-nv1gm2zj7y]

its not fear. they beng "racist"

[@baumholderh8425]

@@user-nv1gm2zj7yhmm yes the race of marines. But jocking aside maybe possible racism against Americans, but I don’t think racist is the right word if it’s only a subset of Americans not defined by race.

[@kearingoodwin4856]

Probably got the idea from all the raping that US soldiers stationed there do

[@smokedbeefandcheese4144]

@@user-nv1gm2zj7y you must have eaten a lot of crayons if you think that the Marine Corps is a race😂

[@user-nv1gm2zj7y]

@@baumholderh8425 yes thats why the quotation marks. its being racist vs americans and finding the worst things to say about the enemy cause they think them lower than them so its really part of racism back then. muricans say the same about japs.

[@robertalpy]

Our Marines are our shock troops. They are trained to be bloodthirsty and to to strike with speed and fury. The Army is measured and holds all ground it takes. The marines are a small force and usually don't concern themselves with holding anything, taking being their main objective.

[@f.wallace8969]

That’s marine bullshit. They aren’t shock troops. They’re just guys on a boat that need to get off occasionally. Marines are not rangers. Marines are not even paratroopers. Marines are land squids.

[@user-se8ds5ev5k]

You're exactly right. The Marines win battles. After that, the army moves in and mop up and hold the territory. We've seen it happen many times in the pacific theater.

[@mopenshaw]

You totally ignore the ridiculous amount of barbarism the Japanese practice against the Chinese. Their war crime in Nanking alone matched the worst of Nazi Germany. SO, yeah; there was some bad treatment and incidents by Americans; but it was FAR from standard policy and officially encouraged like it was for the Japanese.

[@cadennorris960]

Not just China but also Koreans and Filipinos aswell. They committed those same atrocities against US service members.

[@johnwalsh4857]

Im not surprised the Americans sometimes did not take Japanese prisoners they were probably outraged that the Japanese committed atrocities on POWs and civilians, and rarely took prisoners, So I find it crazy that the Japanese thought the Americans are dishonorable when they themselves were even more dishonorable and brutal as hell.

[@averagetrole1369]

Add to the fact that the Japanese commits false surrender a lot and there you have it. Recipe on how NOT to be taken prisoner.

[@myhonorwasloyalty]

Americans didnt even take prisoners in Europe

[@iexist.imnotjoking5700]

Only because the other side commits war crimes doesn't mean you get to. Or else the whole thing about being more humane than the Japanese is worthless.

[@RandyrheBlackKnight]

@@iexist.imnotjoking5700 Actually, for the most part. That's exactly how it works, the Geneva and Hague conventions only protect those that Actually adhere to them. Once you do something, you no longer have that specific protection. Let's take POWs for example, false surrenders were pretty common with Japanese and SS units. What this means is that the Allies had absolutely no more legal obligation to accept a surrender. That's the stick that keeps everyone on the same page, because breaking those rules means the other guy also gets to ignore them, and only you are going to get tried at the end of the day.

[@iexist.imnotjoking5700]

@@RandyrheBlackKnight I was actually talking about Americans pretending to be more humane than the Japanese, branding themselves liberators, etc. And how that doesn't make much sense if you're also going to commit war crimes without feeling even the slightest bit of regret. Secondly, I'm sure that the Geneva convention doesn't apply to a unit that feigns a surrender, but I don't think that that means the whole armed forces of the enemy has lost its protection and you can pretty much do whatever you want. Don't think that's how that works.

[@beauzer36]

Sledges book is HARD CORE. So many shocking things that he surprisingly detailed where other authors shy away from. Those island conflicts were sheer Hell. Buried bodies in the sand filled with maggots getting hit with shells, corpses discovered with their genitals stuffed in their mouths, relentless coconut land crabs, people saving body parts and teeth and soldiers losing their minds and having to be killed to keep from giving their position away at night and more.

[@youngsantana5905]

American perspective?

[@mcbrians.8508]

and his vivid descriptions of the latest Japanese weapons on Okinawa while he endured them all... From the Japanese version of the 88mm flak, 320mm spigot mortars, 150mm howitzers, 90mm mortars, 47mm high velocity guns, 75mm regimental field guns, puffing knee mortars, big-ass aerial bomb turned into a landmine, bluish-white machine gun tracers (US forces used red), amazing fire discipline of the Japanese machine gunners, and to the 2 types of footwear the Japanese soldiers used (Tabi or split-toed boots meant Regular Infantry and the Cavalry Leather Hob-nailed shoes meant Veteran Japanese infantry with lots of experience from early japanese victories in Asia)

[@DaveP326]

Eugene Sledge sufferred terribly from PTSD after the war and writing that book was a cathartic for him. You must face your demons to overcome them. That's how a lot of us survived our own wars mentally. All honor to the Marines who assaulted those islands held by an enemy whose death culture was completely alien to us

[@miamijules2149]

@@DaveP326 Ab-so-fuckin-lutely. Anyone who reads Sledge or Leckie or Giangreco knows what a god damned bloodbath the whole affair was. As for the use of atomic bombs, my response is simple: ‘it’s easy to say it was wrong when you’re not the one who would have stormed those beached on the main islands.’

[@mcbrians.8508]

one of the best part of sledge’s account was the part where an english speaking ivy league educated Japanese officer surrendered to them while a japanese sniper from a far tried to kill him for surrendering.

[@jimmyalfonda3536]

Japan really dug its grave with that war. Everything they did was basically begging for america to show absolutely zero mercy to their soldiers or their country. Must have been a major shock to the system when the allegedly racially superior japanese got absolutely neutered with two nuclear strikes. Your enemy sure as hell isnt inferior if they got the power of the sun in their hands and you dont.

[@markdominguez8435]

My grandfather fought in WW2 against the Japanese in the Philippines. The Japanese knew they committed savage atrocious terrible crimes against men women and children. My grandpa was s witness along with his company of what the Japanese did. My grandpa was so full of wrath in his mind he took no prisoners even when the Japanese surrendered until higher command said he had to take prisoners for intelligence gathering of the Japanese occupation.

[@MDR-hn2yz]

I’m a former US Marine and combat veteran of Iraq. I’m proud of the fear my forefathers instilled in the enemy. I’ve met some WW2 Marines and their reputation as being tough as nails is well deserved. I don’t condone scrapping gold teeth or cutting off ears, that seems rather undisciplined to me, but you have to fight to win. Our guys knew what treatment they could expect from the Japanese. They responded accordingly. War is hell. The Pacific Theater of WW2 was no different. 🇺🇸

[@apubakeralpuffdaddy392]

Thank you for your service.

[@daddyofcallie]

I can't cite my source right now, but I have read that US Marines and Soldiers did not take "trophies" until they had experienced the battlefield behavior of the Japanese.

[@H0mework]

The Japanese didn't engage in air combat the same either. They shot the men as they parachuted. Europeans didn't shoot fleeing pilots. So the Americans started shooting down Japanese pilots that parachuted too.

[@gregorygirard5290]

@@H0mework I always thought that most Japanese pilots burned up in their unarmored unprotected aircraft.

[@H0mework]

@@gregorygirard5290 it depends on the portion of the war. The zero went from undefeatable terror to pilot guided missile during the war, the best American aces were removed from combat to train new pilots. The Japanese aces were used as often as possible, so their useful expertise was often ended by the fireball you mention.

[@TheRetirednavy92]

One of my uncles who survived was on the Canal, he said after he saw what they did to our guys they never took a Japanese prisoner for the rest of the war.

[@richardcostello360]

So he was a murderous Americunt war criminal too 😳

[@AYVYN]

I can’t even imagine the anger they felt. Thank you to your uncle for his bravery.

[@farmboy8270]

My dad was there it pure hell for the Jap they had a big wake up there when so few killed so many amen God is the reason I'm here and my Dad! Came home

[@farmboy8270]

That was a standing order they skin the man and hang of the ground until they died it was a awful way to died in that heat and are men couldn't save them

[@Bilangumus]

Well you enter enemy territory trying to prevent you destroying their homes, what did you expect ?

[@SamscrewuGaming]

My least favorite story is on how Japanese commanders would often eat the flesh of American soldiers who they believed to have "died an honorable death" in hopes that the heroism would live on in them. Not to mention the baton death march, the starving Americans, removing skin of captured Americans and hanging their barely living bodies on display. But yeah, Americans were overwhelmingly more brutal because we're the big ole scary wild west.

[@kingsman8475]

My great-uncle(U.S. Marine) fought at the Battle of Tarawa. He said the Germans were shrewed, but the Japanese were ruthless. He and his brothers and cousins survived many fierce battles. They came home. My great-uncle never was the same when he came home. He eventually took his life. Semper Fi

[@michelerico3874]

May he be resting in peace🙏

[@gabrielmarroquin8670]

Sorry for your loss

[@steventuck1524]

PTSD wasn't understood back then...may God rest your great uncle's soul!😔

[@theoeguia3302]

🤔 Source: Trust me Bro...

[@sonyascott6114]

My uncle also took his life in Aug of 46.He landed on Normandy on the 7 the of June,and captured.He was a demolition expert.He was sent to dresden and worked there in slaughterhouse 5 until Russian forces liberated them.He saw to much death and destruction.

[@gregc7579]

"The Rape of Nanking" and "Unit 731" will give everyone a better look at the inside perspective the Japanese had of themselves and how they viewed others. I highly recommend Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. Something like an 8 part series on Japan from the late 1800's through the end of WWII. Fascinating.

[@ShevaiAsan]

Thank you for bringing up Unit 731; it is HIGHLY ignored in history classes today, to the point that Japan is often viewed as the victim of WW2 due to us dropping the bombs on them; but the utter filth they perpetuated upon others is almost unfathomable. I don't judge those today for the sins of the past; but at that time, Japan and the Germans got exactly what was earned, and they reaped what they had sown.

[@sahirdamani1264]

Unit 731 made me hate Japan

[@G59forlife.]

The band in my pfp made a song about unit 731 I think

[@gregc7579]

@@G59forlife. I actually didn't know that and I've been listening to Slayer for 20 years. Thanks for pointing it out.

[@Im-fq1mn]

Curiously, the events described in Iris Chan's Nanjin novel are exactly the same as those that occurred during the CCP's invasion of Tibet and Tongzhou Incident ( victims were Japanese and Koreans.) Also, a Japanese researcher who read her book pointed out the lies in Chan's claims, but she never replied. Is there a reason why she cannot reply?

[@tinytortoise1296]

The thing is, when the japanese "surrendered" they kinda suicide bombed

[@playitinthebackground5984]

Excellent video. Very informative!

[@ThePumpkinRot]

The reason why marines rarely took prisoners is the Japanese were known for false surrender.

[@muskymerkin3722]

truth. same in the middle east.

[@obitwokenobi9808]

Anakin

[@AnthonyBlamthony]

@@muskymerkin3722 The Middle East was a little different. Most of the brave Taliban fighters died in the early 2000s. The ones who were left were mostly cowards who’d pop a couple shots at you from hundreds of meters away then run like hell at a gust of wind.

[@aaroncarley8962]

The “atrocities” Americans committed in this theatre of operations pales in comparison to the almost nonstop rape and murder committed by the AVERAGE Japanese soldier. It was a horrible conflict and everyone involved suffered beyond what people in the developed world today can imagine

[@alex-vr2ll]

why are you getting defensive over which country committed more war crimes 💀

[@davet7509]

Plenty of really, really bad behavior from the Nazis and the red army, too. I'm pretty sure the US military was one of the most gentlemanly of the belligerents. Not quite as reserved as the British, but way more well behaved that the Japanese, German or Russian armies.

[@enzocignetti6359]

@@alex-vr2ll because history is important

[@spacewargamer4181]

@@alex-vr2ll Because this in the only war were they loosed at that

[@nickames3808]

That's CORRECT. AND....A lot of Japanese War Criminals GOT A PASS in the goal of Reforming Japan and bringing them in to the Family Of Nations. A repeat of Mistakes after WW1 was to be avoided

[@pantarkan7]

There's a fair bit of evidence about how the opposing forces felt regarding their enemies; simply from looking at what happened to POWs. Laying individual atrocities aside, because those are always going on; things like Bataan and Palawan were far more organizational, than individual. Of course, you could also look at what happened when hostilities ceased.

[@cantonllc]

I have no sympathy for these Japanese of that time; they were brutal and allied soldiers reacted to their brutality with vengeance.

[@indianajones4321]

Japan in WW2: Commits mass atrocities and has a war crime count off the chart Also Japan in WW2: These US Marines are scary

[@michaelandreipalon359]

And then there's their idea that they are the superior people... more reason to think that an Axis victory would lead to them fighting each other afterwards.

[@mau19keone56]

Funny but true. And the fact that they call themselves the "liberators" of Asia from the Westerners is ironic, considering their own actions towards their own kind.

[@JA-lr5ix]

@@mau19keone56 thats how facists work- everyone who isn’t us is inferior. Everyone who doesn’t act exactly as I say is also inferior. Being nice to the inferior, you guessed it! Makes you inferior.

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

@@michaelandreipalon359 I don't know about that. Their leaders both respected each other's people and culture, they were pretty far away from each other, and the German "obsession" with blonde, blue eyed people is mostly a myth. All you have to do is look at the senior leadership of the NSDAP. There weren't a whole lot of "superior aryans" there. It was an ideal, but not nearly to the extent that we're taught in school

[@skeleex]

@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252 Did you just forget about Vietnam Nanking and Indonesia not to mention the Philippines?

[@timothyhines7845]

My Grandfather fought was in the Philippines when the Japanese attacked. He manned his battery until they ran out of munitions then destroyed the breaches of the guns and swam to the "Main island". There he fought the Japanese with the Filipino resistance until "Dugout Doug" returned. He saw the Japanese troops kill Filipino women and children and how they treated troops in one of the P.O.W. camps. He HATED the Japanese to the day he died. He wouldn't buy ANYTHING from Japan. I myself have read extensively on Japanese atrocities during WW2. They earned the treatment given them by American GI's and honestly a great deal more.

[@Calebe428]

And I feel like people in the west almost give them a pass because they got nuked by us when they did wayyyy worse

[@nuzuk]

Ahh so did he refer to them as “Tojo” heard that a lot.

[@timothyhines7845]

@@nuzuk he DIDN'T refer to them.

[@PERIDOTPIMP]

@@timothyhines7845 cold lmao you know the resentment runs deep when they don't even like to mention them

[@larrystenger1247]

Humanity has a major defect, we have been at war with each other for many thousands of years in different places at different times. Now our brains have been able to build weapons of mass destruction but we still can' t control our emotions so the next war, and it will come, will destroy billions. Will we ever learn?

[@Peter-ui6ey]

Stuff like this is why I am fr thinking about getting a degree in military history. Keep up the good work

[@bruanlokisson8615]

Those poor peaceful Japanese who were gentle as kittens, horribly and brutally attacked in their sleep by the demonic Marines, and our Narrator The Front , explains how evil America and the Marines were to the harmless Japanese missionaries who only sought to help other Asians, like when they selflessly cleaned up Shanghai when they liberated it for the British, the people of Shanghai love Japan to this day because of their untold kindness to them.

[@MelanieAF]

Lol. Good thing most of us-because some don’t-recognize clever sarcasm:)

[@markstrickland8736]

My stepfather fought at Luzon. My uncle fought at Guadalcanal and Luzon. They both said that prisoners were not taken. They both said that if you captured a Japanese, it wasn't a question of would he try to kill you, but when he would try to kill you. They told stories of the Japanese torturing captured Americans at night so our soldiers could hear their screams all night long. There would be little pity or remorse after that.

[@yohannbiimu]

Turnabout is fair play.

[@markstrickland8736]

@@yohannbiimu That's the way the Americans thought about it. The war in Germany and Italy were quite different. If you want to read something really horrific, read how the Japanese treated the Chinese.

[@yohannbiimu]

@@markstrickland8736 I've read Iris Chang's book, so I'm rather familiar with it. I'm very familiar with pretty much ALL of the atrocities committed by both the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese forces.

[@veramae4098]

“The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

[@markstrickland8736]

@@veramae4098 Roger that.

[@julianhermanubis6800]

The Japanese military killed 10 million civilians in Asia. I've talked to people in the Philippines who lived through World War 2 or whose family members did. As bad as the American invasion of the Philippines had been during the Spanish-American War, the general consensus was that the Japanese invasion and occupation was much worse. The Japanese took military actions against civilians in particularly brutal ways and, at war's end in the country, deliberately bombed and shot civilians as a last-ditch effort. Estimates of the number of Filipinos killed by the Japanese vary, but there are credible estimates of 1 million total. There were prison camps set up, organized rape of Filipinas was used as a terror method, and destruction of cultural treasures and national infrastructure was done deliberately and with no discretion. Thousands of Filipinos hid out in the jungles and mountains to avoid Japanese brutality and there was a large, well organized guerilla movement. From what I've seen in China, what the Japanese did there was even worse and even more brutal. And, whatever arguments can be made for the Philippines being an American colony that "needed" liberating, must utterly fail for China. Basically, the Japanese military was savagely brutal and its actions led to the genocide of other Asians. So, frankly, whatever the American military dished out to Japanese combatants, they likely had it coming.

[@dcoing1907]

Very well said

[@nastybastardatlive]

America liberated the Filipines from Spanish tyranny. We fought for them, not against them.

[@adikravets3632]

"They likely had it coming " is something I can't go by. All war crimes are horrible it not a competition who can do worse.

[@julianhermanubis6800]

@@adikravets3632 If you want the benefits of the rules, you need to follow them in the first place. The Japanese military did not, and a lot of innocent people died as a result. They also laughed at the Geneva Convention, including murdering surrendered enemy combatants, which is a very clear violation. Japan had first signed the Convention in 1929 then agreed to follow it in 1942.

[@julianhermanubis6800]

@@nastybastardatlive That is true, and then we looked around and said, "Hey, it's a shame we don't just take this for ourselves." The Filipinos thought we were aiding them in gaining independence. Then, we had a big, bloody war against the Filipinos until they decided that being an American colony wasn't so bad after all. It's true that American politicians were split on the war and some opposed it. It's also true that we granted independence to the Philippines on an agreed timetable that we followed despite the Japanese invasion. And we were probably no worse than the average colonial power and did create some major improvements in Philippines education and infrastructure. So, it's a mixed bag. But we were never supposed to take the place over to begin with.

[@tuddrussell]

I have a Iwo Jima wall clock from a brother Marine who was on Iwo Jima (RIP). He was talking to a neighbor friend of mine and when he was asked about what they did with all the prisoners. "We were not interested in taking prisoners." was the reply. Ooh Rah. My mother in law who is Okinawan and was 10-13 during the Okinawan occupation of the Japanese army told me they had nothing and the Japanese took everything and treated them like crap, and when the Americans arrived they brought candy, food and CHOCOLATE. My Father in law, also Okinawan (RIP) had his whole family was wiped out and was orphaned and passed around within his extended family till he became an adult, he ended up working on Kadena Air Base and retired as a cook from there. Sorry this was a rambling post.

[@bobbyshizz2138]

My grandfather was one of Merrill's Marauders in Burma. He never talked about the war. However, after a round of golf sometime in the 90's, we were having lunch on a patio at the course. Sitting a couple of tables away was a group of four elderly Japanese men. He looked at them, then looked at me and said, "I can't believe I used to klll those guys." That was the only time I ever heard him mention WW2.

[@Super-BallSharp]

Crazy thing is, they haven't changed.

[@kevinhealey6540]

I'm 75 and my father served in the South Pacific during the war. He said the Japanese weren't as fanatical soldiers as believed about not being taken prisoner. My father said they had it put in their heads that if the Americans ever took them prisoner, the Americans would do to them what they, the Japanese, did to their POWs. He said that when the American invading force was coming into a civilian area in Imo Jima, (Correction probably Okinawa) he could see a man throwing his wife and children off of a cliff to their deaths. The husband and father thought that Americans would torture his wife and children only to find out that wasn't the case. My father said what the Japanese did in the Philippines was really bad. He said that sometimes a Japanese soldier would sneak into an American encampment. He said they were not there to do sabotage. He said they were looking for food because they hadn't eaten for a while. However they did have a grenade with them to be used in case of possible capture. Sometimes someone would spot them and they would blow themselves up with the grenade. The tents and/or washed clothes being hung out to dry where the grenade exploded would be full of blood. The blood stains could not be washed out so the soldiers and sailors wore them with them the stains. Another WW2 Vet told me that in the film "It's a wonderful life", the character George Bailey got an exemption because he could not hear in one of his ears. In 1940 the WW2 Vet got an exemption from serving because he had could hardly hear in one of his ears and had a bad right arm. He was working in a factory making really good money in 1942. And he got called again from the draft board. So he went there and showed them his paper work about the bad ear and the arm. And they told him, "What we can do for you is put you in the artillery. With that bad ear, what difference will it make?" I ask him about still being drafted, even though he had a bum ear and a bad arm. He said in his own words, "That was World War 2. In those days if you were breathing, you were going." He was stationed in England. During that time he was switched into a Infantry Unit out of need and had to fight his way through France. Told me lots of stories. Said that when a US soldier pull the pin on a grenade, he had to wait before throwing it, to let the timer run down a few seconds, because Germans were very gifted at picking up grenades thrown at them and throwing it right back from where ever it came from. My mother said that when it was announced that when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, no one really knew what it was, but everyone astonished upon hearing how much destruction and death it caused. She said that when Japan finally surrendered, everyone did celebrate. It meant an end to see the Western Union Delivery Man with a telegram explaining someone killed in action, MIA, severely wounded with no chance of walking ever again or an MIA. My mother said whenever a Western Union Messenger would come to a neighborhood, everyone was in shock and would pray that he would not ring the door bell at their residence. Because everyone knew what it meant. The generation that was born between 1880 and 1927 had done great things in their life time. They knew what hard times were. They went through the depression. When Pearl Harbour was bombed they banded together to win the war. It was not an easy war to win and the US had to go all out to win it. My mother told me that in 1942 if you saw a male from age 18 to 40 not wearing a uniform, you knew he had a medical condition that kept him from being in the service. My father's younger brother was called down to the selection board several times. He had a heart condition and as soon as the doctor heard his heart beat, he was 4F. There were some that refused to join but not many. And they were some who dodged the draft. One way was to moving every three months, to keep from being called in. In that way the person was not around long enough to get a draft notice. It was very easy to find a job in those days. In 1970 I would say, there always was a bar in every town and the people in that bar were all men who served in the war. Some of them looked kind of shaken. I'd have to say that most or even all of that generation were decent and always did the right thing. Douglas MacArthur told Kennedy and Johnson not to get involved in Vietnam. He saw how the Korean war had been fought. He was right. I would say that was turning point of the United States going in a different direction. A big problem with the war was Viet Vets were coming home in droves and talking about how the war was not being fought to win. The information spread. This is only my theory but the peace was came to life when women got involved. A sister's brother or father was killed. A woman's husband or son was killed. Boyfriend financee etc. Because I remember in those days, women were just suddenly loose. "Free love" was the motto. Single motherhood. That's when drug use started up. Lots of Viet Vets were coming home hooked on whatever. Lots of Vets were speaking on college campuses explaining what was going on there. That it wasn't being fought to win. There weren't any fronts in Viet Nam for instance. What culminated the drive to stop the was were certain incidents. The picture of the little girl being napalmed. The murderous slaughter and Mai Lai and the trial of Lieutenant Calley and who gave him the order. The Tet Offensive probably cemented it. I'm coming to a point with all this. When the generation that was born 1880 to 1927, starting dying out starting in 1950, was when the country was on a down turn and has continued ever since. For instance, my father went to college in 1965 when he was 45 years old. He got his degree but he was none too happy with a lot of professors teaching classes and let them know what he thought. He corrected a few on what they were claiming about certain events that happened in history.

[@kevinhealey6540]

The World War 2 generation is almost all gone. However I know that they were and are disappointed that the grave sacrifices they made was depreciated by the generation that followed and it was not an easy war to win I'm not talking only about soldiers who risked their lives or were killed or living under constant stress wondering if they would get out of it alive and go back to their families. For instance there were factory workers who worked night and day for the war effort. There were people who were buying war bonds to help although the yield was not that great. There were people who would write to any soldier who were in the fields just to give them comfort. The USO was receiving serious amounts of money in donations. People volunteered in one way or another. Civil defense is an example. Care packages were common. My father told me about a rich man in his area who would invite soldiers to his home for a party before they would go overseas. He knew many of them would not be coming back. Some man who fought his way through Europe told me about his sister. She wasn't doing very well in school so her mother told that a local factory was hiring. She went to the interview and they guy asked her, "Wait a minute how old are you?" She said, "18 sir." He said, "Ok you start on Monday." She was 13.

[@josephandreuccetti7270]

How terrible

[@Firedog-ny3cq]

There were no Japanese civilians on Iwo Jima during the battle. They had been taken back to Japan long before the invasion. Your father must have been referring to the battle of Okinawa where such family suicides did indeed take place.

[@bloodybones63]

@@Firedog-ny3cq Also Saipan & Tinian

[@MALICEM12]

Isn't it odd how the Japanese projected their own brutality into the Americans. They did unspeakable things to the Philippines and Chinese and just assumed the Americans would do the same to them.

[@liamregan4975]

One Japanese soldier was ballsy enough to get close enough to my grandad to use his bayonet. Took the use of his arm but I would have to imagine him and his friends died shortly thereafter. The Pacific is largely overlooked I think because so many more soldiers died in Europe, but one cannot compare the difference in scale and size of the battlefield. Cannot imagine what landing on a hot beach and surviving an entire island campaign like Peleliu or Saipan would do to a person.

[@robinpreese]

Isn’t Saipan where the Japanese killed each other , to not be captured? Parents killing children children killing other children…

[@liamregan4975]

@@robinpreese yes marines and soldiers witnessed thousands throwing themselves over the cliffs. They had been told the Americans would butcher the children and rape the women. A lot of Saipan vets struggled heavily with this specifically from what I read.

[@hannahdyson7129]

Oh yes, Eastren Europe was a picnic 😬

[@Alk27-pl5jk]

38 seconds in and I already see a mistake. That “propaganda poster” is from an unreleased video game about what if ww2 was in space. It even has has English on it. How on earth did you think it was a real Japanese war poster?

[@thomas5585]

Even the art style is modern. The guy who made this video is a loon.

[@mikebrase5161]

My Grandfather was a Marine on Guadalcanal with the Old Breed. When I asked him about Prisoners, He lowered the Newspaper he was reading, he said we were on an Island they didn't want to surrender and we didn't want to take prisoners after what they did at Pearl. Then he raised the paper back up and went back to reading.

[@workingshlub8861]

my grandfather served in europe but he died when i was 12 so i never got to ask him....he never really told my father to many details either...

[@1320crusier]

Give no quarter and take none. My grandfather was offshore giving the Marines fire support

[@jkelley9681]

@@workingshlub8861 my father fought in France and Germany, he buried the memories of what he saw and had to do to survive very deep. Most of that generation tried hard to forget the horrors of that war.

[@magmat0585]

@@jkelley9681 Yeah, my gramps was in Europe, in a logistics unit from his papers. Never met him (died around the time i was born) but from speaking with family he also had some PTSD. My cousin believes, based off of some discussions with other family members, that my gramps got stuck with cleaning up one of the beaches after D-Day, and helping take care of all the poor guys who didn't make it off the beach.

[@jkelley9681]

@@magmat0585 that sounds like something sure to give you nightmares for years! I'm pretty sure my father was at the Bulge. He got to Europe a few months after Normandy.

[@toughspitfire]

An interesting thing to bring up is many of the Japanese officers that came off as less radical had spent significant time in foreign countries before the war started. Isoroku Yamamoto who commanded the Pearl Harbour attack and Tadamichi Kuribayashi who led the defense of Iwo Jima had both spent significant time in the US among other western nations. Not only did both early on realize that a war with the US would be a mistake but many believe their experiences in Western nations affected their moral outlook since both became known to be empathetic in ways that was not common amongst Japanese officers at the time.

[@RexKwon]

Half true of Yamamoto. He knew of our resolve to unite under a cause, to mobilize, and to build like an efficient machine. He said and knew that if they were to attack and not destroy the Navy entirely, they would have made the worst decision of the entire history of Japan. He drew up the Pearl Harbor plan, expecting to hit all of our carriers. 99.9% of the time, his attack would have been accurate, and our carriers would have been sunk. We had one of the smallest Navies at the time. People forget that because of how large it is now. We were isolationists. Tired of the children in Europe killing themselves for stupid reasons. (something I wish we would do again...isolate ourselves). The reason why people think we knew of the attack before it was coming is because how random of an event it was for ALL 4 of our carriers to be out of the dockyard at the same time. We need to remember, the British were still relevant in world politics during this time because the Empire still existed. I have strong suspicions the British helped us capture communiques from the Japanese and interpreted them in time to have us prepare. It's just too random and coincidental for all carriers to be at sea simultaneously. They were never all out together before during the entire time they were stationed in Hawaii.

[@collinwood6573]

@@RexKwon have no idea where you got the idea that the US had one of the smallest navies of the time before WW2. The US was essentially tied with the Royal Navy for the most powerful navy in the world in the 30’s. Even if you were talking about naval strength relative to past US navy fleets, that would still be incorrect. The only other times that the US had a comparable fleet were the Civil War and WW1. Even then, during the civil war the US created multiple world leading ships but it was heavily focused on costal operations and had very little actual power projection. The USN was building up during WW1 and reached a peak right at the end of the war but the Washington and subsequent London naval treaties basically locked in the relative strength of the USN so it did not fluctuate much in the 20’s and 30’s. Even if we look at carrier strength right before the US entered the war, they were still very strong. The UK and Japan both had more carriers but the quality of American carriers was on average superior. The RN had outdated planes and pitifully weak aircraft compliments for an individual carrier. The IJN carriers were only so powerful because they had both completely disregarded the naval treaties and had put massive effort into their carrier doctrine (the US had actually done this too and it’s the reason their carriers actually stood a chance against Japan early in the war). Also, it seems you are mixing up the number of carriers the US had based out of Pearl. They only had 3 total carriers in the Pacific. Langley was no longer an actual carrier and was stationed out of the Philippines anyways while Yorktown, Ranger, and Wasp were in the Atlantic and Hornet was undergoing a shakedown cruise. All 3 carriers being out of port at the same time was far from unusual as 1) it had happened many times before 2) the US was preparing for a war in which Japan would attack other places than Pearl Harbor so having the carriers ferry aircraft to those locations is perfectly expected and reasonable and 3) Saratoga was just coming out of an overhaul that was planned long before the Japanese fleet had even left Japan before their attack so the US had zero capability to predict when it would arrive in order to keep Saratoga away.

[@DomR1997]

​@@RexKwonisolationism was awful, stifling our potential to become one of the world's greatest super powers to ever exist. It also directly contributed to the shape WW2 took and its severity because of how late we joined WW1.

[@roddmatsui3554]

Can you imagine all the relatively younger people, born years or decades after the conflict being discussed, as they become aware that their name race or genetic history is mentally associated with the actions of previous governments, long since turned to dust? What a great price in receiving hate must be paid, by those innocents made to suffer needlessly.

[@WookiesRUs]

@@roddmatsui3554 why did you copy another comment lmfao

[@dereklonewolf9011]

My uncle fought against the Japanese spent his last year's in the jungles with the locals fighting a guerrilla war. So effective that local Japanese authorities placed a no prisoner taken approach so they ended up with the same edit. The knife cuts 2 ways ! 74+ 🍁hunter Yorkshire expat

[@michaeldeloach838]

My grandfather was a WW2 and Korean War vet. He was part of the ground crew who prepped the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, before it took off that day. He was also a golden gloves boxer on Joe Louis' boxing team who boxed in the '36 Olympics. He was indeed a great man who was part of the greatest generation.

[@patrickbrowder6857]

I interviewed my neighbor back in the early 90's who was one of the first black Marines. A line that stuck out in that was his description of watching the Enola Gay take off and everyone kind of stopped and watched cuz it looked funny, kinda heavy and awkward as he recalled. They would have been on the same airstrip August 6th, 1945.

[@Twiggo_The_Foxxo]

​@@patrickbrowder6857 then did everyone clap?

[@samsilverman824]

@@Twiggo_The_Foxxo Clap? U were NOT in the military.

[@User-79916_ue]

Top 10 things that never happened

[@michaeldeloach838]

@@User-79916_ue Obvious troll is obvious. You need re-training in guerrilla troll tactics. Fail. Try again...

[@hairydogstail]

I knew many WW2 vets who are now gone. They all had a hatred for the Japanese they did not have for the Germans. My one uncle said they found heads of their buddies mounted on post after a battle. They did in kind to the Japanese and he said the Japs stopped the practice when it was done to them. Our book keeper was a vet on many of the Island hopping campaigns and hated them until hill the day he died. He was one of the kindest men I new until the war was brought up and the subject of Japanese was talked about.. Another friend had a Jap try to ambush him with a big knife and he strangled him to death. The Japanese soldiers deserved all they got from the US fighting men they fought.. Even my mother was upset when my wife and I hosted two Japanese girls back in the late 1990's. These girls were nicest and most polite young girls I had ever met. My daughter has been to Japan 3 times now and loves the people. It is too bad nations and people can't learn to respect and care for each other as the US and Japan does today..

[@apubakeralpuffdaddy392]

It is understandable that the American Vets felt they way they did. What is remarkable is that the children of the Vets were able to make peace with the children of the Vets' enemies, like you did by hosting Japanese students & by your daughter travelling to Japan. Hopefully, our Glorious War Dead will find eternal peace in the Kingdom Come.

[@PiousSlayer]

@Apu Baker al Puff Daddy I genuinely believe it's because the veterans chose not to talk about what they saw and experienced (except for limited instances). It stopped the spread of hatred from going down their lineage. Then you have people who actively choose to spread racism down their lineage, and we wind up with racist groups and families. I think there was actually an anime/movie/show about this topic. There was a major war or something between two sides, and the people involved still actively hate each other. They want their kids (next generations) to be able to get along to have genuine peace in the future. They approach this by the characters trying to stifle their own biases and hatefulness for the opposite sides in various situations. Man, I really wish I could remember what it was called, I'd probably rewatch it.

[@apubakeralpuffdaddy392]

@@PiousSlayer The Hatfields & McCoys? The Protestant vs Catholic Wars of 17th Century Europe? The Trouble of Northern Ireland? Generational bias & prejudice are problems, no doubt, but I think that's becoming less of an issue today. Which is good. However, we've got bigger problems to face, like the new racism known as wokeism.

[@mastaaceexclusive]

They have been beheading prisoners and posting them up for centuries before this. You new?

[@hairydogstail]

@@mastaaceexclusive I'm well aware of Japanese atrocities throughout history..Where did you think the lack of respect for human life of Asians came from, you new??

[@fredkimtagg726]

My Father saw the brutality of the Japanese firsthand 32 Division spent 43 percent of the war in combat the most out of any other outfit in the Armed Services.He was awarded the Bronze Star 3 times Purple Heart multiple times with oak leaf clusters and was hit twice with malaria . His outfit didn’t take prisoners they saw what the Japanese did to kill civilians and they didn’t use bullets nor cared if the civilians were 8 hours old or 88 years old. His outfit sustained the last casualty of WWII. Anyone who doubts the use of the atomic bomb should read The rape of Nanking just on that that island should have been wiped off the face of the earth. Read about the incident where Eight American prisoners were eaten by the Japanese the record of which was sealed for 60 years it was so shocking. Any question of that decision to drop The Bomb should be answered

[@ohmylanta123]

In "With the Old Breed" by E.B. Sledge, he also recalls in gruesome detail about coming across dead USMC with head, hands, feet, and genitals cut off and arranged in sickening ways. I don't think that behavior exactly sits well with anyone, but there are endless accounts of it both sides of the war. E.B. Sledge does a phenomenal job of painting a picture of the war in the pacific without embellishments.

[@Kozo-Sushi]

He also has stories of US Marines smashing the mouths of soldiers and extracting teeth from them and him crying from the ordeal a year before Guadalcanal.

[@suzukigirl950]

That was indeed a great book

[@hectorbarrera8046]

*"Be the American, the Japanese think you are"*

[@rmurphy3435]

I grew up with many marines from the WW2 era. One of them was just a 17 year old kid from New York when he landed on Guadalcanal. He told me at first the marines fought fairly and honorably until they witnessed the butchery inflicted on fellow marines by Japanese soldiers. He said it shocked so many of the marines that when they left the island the marines taught the Japanese a few things about an American reckoning. War is hell no matter what anyone tells you and the Japanese were vicious and dangerous and only defeated by the same ruthless tactics they inflicted on their enemies.

[@definitelyjustcj4148]

My Great Uncle Harry was a US Marine that fought on Iwo Jima. He was stabbed in the gut by a Japanese soldier and he somehow made it back behind friendly lines patching himself up and going back in the fight. He earned a Purple Heart and he kept sand from the beach which we still have to this day. War is Hell but the willingness to walk through hell is even more mind boggling.

[@sportsmom165]

My daughter is a Marine and was stationed at Okinawa. She was meritoriously chosen to participate in the ceremony at Iwo Jima. Even in their 90's the survivors were still all Marine, they spent as much time with the pretty blue eyed blonde woman Marine as they could. She heard all of their stories & doesn't take that honor lightly.

[@definitelyjustcj4148]

@@sportsmom165 it was absolutely brutal. Mr. Harry wasn't too talkative about it once he got back no one knew his story because he never really thought twice about it. But our family knows what he went through and I yearn for the old war stories that are never told. The media glorifies many stories that we've all heard but the stories from men who actually experienced battle and come home and keep to themselves because they just want to live normally again is mind boggling. In their heads it's just a job they had to do and nothing more they don't care what their experience was because what is done is done. We still have his old 1911 pistol I'm pretty sure. I wish I could see the things that pistol went through.

[@Cfaulk45]

You know it’s bad when even the nazis knew how cruel and evil the imperial Japanese were

[@MrBillsomm2000]

My uncle who fought in the Philippines would tell us if we didn't behave he would cut off our ears and eat them. As a child I thought it a strange thing to say. I am sure he had PTSD.

[@jasondraughon8825]

My grandpa was on Iwo, and while I never asked him directly about the “taking prisoners” situation, from the things I remember him telling me, it wasn’t really much of an option at the time.

[@dannardozza7344]

For certain.

[@commandingsteel]

my great grandpa was in WWII (Iwo) and Korea...and he told stories about eating lard sandwiches while sitting on a pile of stacked up dead bodies...war is brutal and desensitizing

[@merikano2985]

I stepped into the restroom of the one barbecue joint, only to find staring in front of me was a preserved copy of the Washington Post's front page news of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The main image compared Hiroshima to New York City in terms of size and had the bomb been dropped on the southernmost tip of Manhattan how much of New York City would be destroyed. There was absolutely zero empathy for the Japanese on the front page. None. They cited it as an accomplishment that one bomb was able to do more damage than 30,000 B-24s. They saw using nuclear weapons as a means to an end and nothing else. But history requires nuance and at that time Japan understood war through things like steel and oil and blood, not nuclear weaponry. The fact that the American public knew nothing of fallout and the lasting affects radiation could have meant that while any loss of civilian life was tragic, body counts in the hundreds of thousands and millions were completely desensitizing at this point in the war. They just wanted it to end and not get killed by some suicidal Japanese warrior. Now if we went back in time and gave Japan nuclear weapons and the capability to use them on the mainland US? Maybe they would've felt differently about a ground invasion instead of using the atomic bomb. Mutually Assured Destruction at its finest.

[@jakeford7688]

You didn't take prisoners

[@scottstoddard4996]

My father was on the USS Detroit, a cruiser during the war. We talked of it little. He did tell me of the day the war ended. He said that when they found out the war ended that it was mixed emotions. I thought, how could that be. He explained that there were so many war attrocites comitted by the Japanese and they had all lost so many friends that they ALL thought, my God, just keep making them and keep dropping them until we sink the whole damn island. It's all about perspective and anyone who pretends to potificate from 2022 is an idiot.

[@jimbrent8151]

Yes the revisionists want to re-write history to assure their membership in the "woke" club of their choice.

[@concretecat]

Thinking something and acting on something is two vastly different waters

[@codywarhawk7099]

My grandfather was also on the USS Detroit, one of the officers that happened to be on that ship, and I bet that both of them knew each other and possibly could have been friends to some degree. He was one of the greatest guys I have ever known.

[@Strongboy1770]

My pop used to say too bad the war ended when it did, they could have killed more Germans. He wouldn't let a German product in his house until the day he died, and I avoid buying German stuff. I ran marathons until my knee crapped out, and passing a German runner always gave me a special buzz.

[@JRBendixen]

Its quite reasonably to pontificate on the past. What was what and why did it matter. We can learn and thats the object. And if we leave it to a few alone to speak we are doomed. Done with work and labour its good enough.

[@GDBROWN]

The reason the Japanese feared them so much is because of how horrendous they treated civilians and prisoners and when the Americans started to witness this they kind of became unhinged about it. Rightfully so.

[@mileshall9235]

"They supposed they could sow the wind without reaping the whirlwind."

[@johntrottier1162]

I was born on Okinawa in 1951 and lived their for 14 years. I grew up learning the Battle of Okinawa. Further study after I grew up confirmed what I had learned on the island. The Japanese soldier was trained never to surrender. In general, they fought to the end and considered anyone who did surrender as beneath contempt. With such training, to say their treatment of prisoners and captives was cruel and vindictive is an understatement. Troops who fought on Okinawa knew all about the atrocious treatment that allied soldiers have received in Burma and the Philippines. By that time in the war, most had lost at least one buddy in combat. All of them knew of soldiers who had died trying to aid a wounded Japanese soldier or accept a surrender. They say the longer you fight an enemy, the more you become like them. That happened on Okinawa.

[@shinjaokinawa5122]

EEEE Ya Sossa, and OOOOOOus. Happy Obon.

[@alsaunders7805]

My middle brother was born on Okinawa in 1966at Kadena Army/Air Base. Even though I was very young I remember visiting a place called Suicide Cliffs. 🤔🤓🍻

[@robertortiz-wilson1588]

Truth.

[@shinjaokinawa5122]

@@alsaunders7805 That's where the women threw themselves off a cliff rather than having the "Savage" Americans capture them alive. What a waste of human life. BTW do we know each other from that time?

[@Bithe_Get]

"The more you fight an enemy the more you become like them" Walter White vs Gus Fring in a nutshell

[@cnlbenmc]

They were probably terrified because Americans fought back highly effectively even in the face of their savagery, cruelty and fanaticism. Then committed to Total Victory, no matter the cost.

[@John-mf6ky]

Pretty sure even the Germans talked about the savagery and blood lust US troops had.

[@markmulder9845]

I don't think it helped that we dropped a miniature sun on them. Twice.

[@michaelhowell2326]

@@markmulder9845 they didn't know or believe we could. They were told plainly that we had a super weapon and we would use it if they didn't surrender. They didn't, so we did. But that didn't have any affect on the reason why they feared us before hostilities. The were afraid bc they knew that if they didn't deliver an immediate killing blow then they were done with. They knew we had numbers, money and production capabilities that were completely unmatched in the rest of the world. Not to mention that we didn't have to import much as far as resources go.

[@TK--hf6db]

@@markmulder9845 House of The Rising Sun more like House of The Nuclear Sun

[@markmulder9845]

@@TK--hf6db I'd say falling sun. Kek.

[@whip689]

America was well aware of the atrocities that Japanese Soldiers inflicted upon the Chinese and other Asian neighbors like the Filipino's. When we were attacked, it was understood how bloody and terrible war with Japan and Germany would be. Americans simply embraced it and saw it through to victory.

[@buckshot6481]

My Uncle was Army , at Pearl during the attack, He said he was playing poker with sailors from the Arizona that Saturday night before, I promise you he Never forgave or forgot.

[@rmurphy3435]

One of my boyhood friends dad was with the 1st Marine division on Guadalcanal in 1942. He was just 17 years old and told me they went into battle with all kinds of misconceptions about war. He said he witnessed the unbelievable brutality of what the Japanese did to marines who were captured. His comment was we marines became more vicious than they were, that was all he said.

[@yohannbiimu]

The phrase "Turnabout Is Fair Play" is undoubtedly apt on such occasions.

[@kirbyculp3449]

From the movie Guadalcanal "You taught me that Tojo".

[@CaptainPilipinas]

same thing as how the (pre-irradiated petrusite-powered era) Rebel higs may usually view any of the UCN/ISA colonies out there that surrounds them. [guessingly mumbled] especially the UCN|UCA capital itself. kind of closely from them too and not just as far as the ISA altair branch's colonies for example.

[@alsmith7382]

Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor would reportedly write in his diary, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” You goddamn right you did...

[@dannyh8288]

....until now, when its nothing but japanese cars on American roads

[@myproductions6225]

more like inside job

[@tomlawrence1335]

@@dannyh8288 lmfao what?

[@CallForGrandPappy]

That America does not exist anymore lmao, the “adept” Taliban pretty much put an end to that image along with all the other lost wars.

[@TimSlee1]

@@dannyh8288 How the turn tables..

[@Evocati-Augusti]

My great grandparents met in the Navy during WW1 ,my great-grandfather Naval intelligence my great-grandmother a Yeomen , My grandparents meet in WW2 at the Panama Canel, MY grandfather a Army MP and my Grandmother Army Nurse Corps, my parents met at Clark AFB during Vietnam, Both USAF R&D, and in 1990 I would start in the USAF , my grandparents pretty much raised me , and across the street moved in a Japenese family , and I got along with their kid as we both played in bands, (we would get a place in NYC later on and rent out a studio to play music)he's father was a Japanese WW2 soilder and my grandfather still had so much hatred toward the Japanese even in 1988, he would not allow me to go over there , but we as kids tricked them into talking , because I put some of our mail into there box, he put some of his mail in ours, and they were 1000% Japenese culture , and my grandfather was 1000 % American culture both from the same era , so we knew they would not send either wifes to return the mail, and there they were , in a position they had to talk, and they ended up talking for over an hour...and I was allowed over, and they had formed a bond.

[@josephpreissler6855]

You can only see your friends die so many times by the Japanese “false surrender” before you just cut the bastards down instead of taking the risk of believing their surrender

[@rxotmfrxotmf8208]

In the Singapore secondary school where I used to teach, occasionally we'll get groups of Japanese teachers who come to visit. Officially they were here to learn about how we teach the various subjects, but unofficially they would pepper us with questions about what their Imperial army did to Singapore during WW2. Eventually we donated all our library WW2 history books to them to take back to Japan, where they had been taught no atrocities were committed by the Imperial army. These teachers were invariably shocked that stories of their army atrocities in South-East Asia were true after all...

[@hiddentreasures3646]

That's interesting. When I first arrived in Japan, this was pre-internet days, two government officials came to visit me and ask me questions about what Australians think about the Japanese in light of WW2. I gave my honest opinion that, while I don't speak for all of Australia, the older generation have a generally negative view. Which is only natural perhaps for people who were once enemies at war.

[@JoeKubinec]

Fascinating story... thanks for sharing.

[@richardcostello360]

@@hiddentreasures3646 I'm an Australian and I'm disgusted with the us going along with the war crimes that Americunts did We should have told MacArthur and his violent thugs that they weren't welcome in our ports or on our land

[@lordblazer]

Yea Japan's education system absolutely refuses to teach this to their population, and of course the Japanese citizens who engage in international business, trade, education abroad, etc.... all learn this information second hand.. Also tv shows too... It shouldn't be how history gets learned but they learn it, they either go into denial about it, or just understand ok damn we sucked lol... Basically this. The majority of Japan's population never leaves the country so they're pretty clueless about it, but that's getting better in terms of getting access to this information isn't as limited as it use to be before the internet.

[@dougparson4407]

I learned during work with Japanese in the 1990s that all they are taught in school is that Japan was involved in WW-2. Thats it - no details. That is taking "Saving Face" way to far.

[@RoyalMountedAnkleBiters]

My grandfather fought in the Pacific theater. He said once they liberated the Imperial Japanese POW camps, saw the atrocities & heard what occurred all bets were off. Mercy was no longer to be given to them. They saw them as brutal sadistic savages who needed to be put down like rabid dogs for the sake of the world.

[@sampeacock3819]

war crim granddad

[@Darkcamera45]

@@sampeacock3819 no justified grandad I wouldn’t give a damm about people who do things like what the Japanese did during ww2

[@dd11111]

@@sampeacock3819 You disgust me.

[@dd11111]

@@Darkcamera45 Based grandad! I bet this other scumbag's grandad was in the nazi party. That why he wants you to think your Grandad was evil, to hide his own families atrocities.

[@randybloomfield5090]

My grandfather said the exact same thing

[@arson338]

I kinda feel like if I had to fight for my life against an enemy day after day I would feel inclined to take a few skulls

[@cassconner6023]

No one every mentions that after we achieved total victory we could have killed every single one of them, but instead we showed mercy and rebuilt their Country. If they had won would they have shown such mercy?

[@osier769]

Goes without saying, but not in the least. Any mercy by the Japanese would of been superficial at best until you were no longer of use.

[@jguenther3049]

The very few Japanese survivors on Iwo Jima were surprised we didn't kill or torture them when they surrendered. We gave them water and cigarettes. One wounded Japanese was given a cigarette by a corpsman and realized we probably wouldn't have wasted a smoke on him if we intended to kill him. That was the first inkling he had that he wasn't going to die.

[@tctree4690]

Before and during WWII the Japanese were taught that they were a superior race. They committed these atrocities because they believed it was no different than killing a rat. Similar to the hard core Nazis. My grandfather who served in the 3rd Marines said after taking control of an island and the Japanese knew they had lost they would still not surrender. Which to the Marines meant nothing but more needles killing. After seeing his dead friends had been used for bayonet practice, horribly multilated friends killed by the Japanese, terribly abused natives from the islands and they way they would even kill unarmed navy cormen. He had zero sympathy for the Japanese soldier.

[@telesniper2]

The Japanese don't even have a word for "mercy". Just like the French don't have words for "thank you", "victory" or "deodorant"

[@cassconner6023]

@@tctree4690 Understandable.

[@trplankowner3323]

Before the USMC had engaged in major combat with the Japanese, on 12 August 1942 at Guadalcanal the Goettge patrol of 25 men had been led to believe that a detachment of Japanese wanted to surrender. Goettge's patrol was ambushed as soon as they landed. Only 3 men managed to escape. Nine days later, Colonel Ichiki Kiyonao, the man who was supposed to lead the landings at Midway, led a suicidal attack during the Battle of the Tenaru. When they were soundly defeated by the well dug in and prepared Marines, many Japanese soldiers pretended to surrender and killed their would be captors. After these two incidents, without knowledge of previous Japanese atrocities committed against helpless prisoners, the USMC as a whole was far less than open to the concept of taking prisoners among the Japanese. These incidents occurred nearly five years after the Rape of Nanjing. As the war progressed and the Japanese resistance and suicidal refusal to surrender increased, Marines began to see the Japanese as less than animals. The Marine increasingly could put a real image to the tales that belatedly had circulated among them of the Japanese barbarity. It's certain that many Marines took things too far, but the Japanese people had certainly earned no mercy.

[@Someone111ify]

Forgiveness isn’t an option.

[@trplankowner3323]

@@Someone111ify No one was talking about forgiveness. We were discussing war.

[@randomyoutubecommentersecu7639]

They gave them exactly what they deserved. They never took it too far. Taking it too far would be repaying them with bayoneting them to death slowly instead of a bullet to the face when they had their hands up. They could have done so much to pay them back but they chose to finish them off swiftly and humanely in general, which is more than we can say for the animals that made up the IJ Land Forces of the time .

[@eligloverproductions]

@@randomyoutubecommentersecu7639 facts. you didnt see them giving the people of hawaii any mercy

[@eligloverproductions]

@@randomyoutubecommentersecu7639 an eye for an eye🤷🏻‍♂️

[@EskayDuro]

My grandfather...a very young Marine(16) posted in the Pacific in the early years of the war before being wounded on Guadalcanal was offered a dream job to build a cement plant in Japan. He told me that he flew over to Japan for the initial meetings and planning and was treated with nothing but deference and kindness by everyone he met...he had to turn down the job and fly home early however because as he walked down the street he fantasized about killing every man woman and child he saw. He was ashamed, being a kind, quiet Christian man. But he was honest. He couldn't safely live in Japan for the time it would take to build the plant.

[@jackiekittridge-steele385]

Interesting! My Dad was older when he enlisted the day after Pearl Harbour. He was in the Iwo landing and other bloody actions. But his age gave him perspective imho, and he viwed the Japanese as regular guys defending their home- just as he would, were rolls reversed.

[@cleonRIP]

Holy shit, that is brutally honest. Gotta respect it, tho. Your grandad was a real one 💯 thank you for sharing

[@EskayDuro]

@@cleonRIP just telling it like he told me...and only after I was in the Corps...I know that his wife and children never heard much I anything of the things he did. Growing up a friend of the family said " When your grandfather gets angry...everyone in the county knows to get away". But know one ever heard him raise his voice. He told me once he didn't talk about it for a long tike because he didn't want want people to remember him for the men he had killed but for the man he was now. They don't make them like that anymore. Miss him.

[@iceman5117]

Your grandfather had very severe mental issues, as much as I hate to say it. He sounds like a very disturbed man who enraptured himself in the sin of wrath

[@roddmatsui3554]

Can you imagine all the relatively younger people, born years or decades after the conflict being discussed, as they become aware that their name race or genetic history is mentally associated with the actions of previous governments, long since turned to dust? What a great price in receiving hate must be paid, by those innocents made to suffer needlessly.

[@ashmarsim]

NOBODY asked Japan for help, NOBODY! The closest anyone came to this was when Indonesia tried to allied themselves in order to gain independence but they quickly regretted it. Even Thailand very quickly distance themselves from Japan after the war. They want to think of themselves as saviors but were so much more brutal that everyone universally hated them.

[@connorgolden4]

I heard stories about my great uncle’s time in the pacific war. He saw the Japanese do some fucked up shit and never forgave them for the rest of his life and refused to buy Japanese products.

[@katemaloney4296]

I met a survivor of the Battle of iwo Jima. He didn't really say much, other than "I can't believe I survived and came back home!" He gave me a birthday card a few years back, and I will always treasure it. In another story: My cousin's uncle somehow survived the Bataan Death March and came home after the war to do some rehab, then return to normal life. He mentioned being captured and some of the March, but never went into the hell on earth he and his military brothers went thru. He took those nightmares and memories to the grave.

[@smith1958b]

My dad was a sailor on an LST ship at Iwo Jima. A kamikaze crashed into his ship killing 40 men and wounding many others. When his enlistment in the navy was up, he joined the army and was part of the occupation force in Japan.

[@gregusmc2868]

My great Charlie was a platoon sgt on Guadalcanal and, as a kid growing-up, I used to pester him at every family reunion or similar get together, to tell me stories about his experiences during the island-hopping campaign. He would smile and pat me on the back or head and say things like “Nah, you don’t want to hear that stuff,” or “How’s about we walk to the Jersey for ice cream instead?” He was a large guy for the times and had a very gentle, quiet manner, punctuated from time to time with his very quick wit that would always have our huge table laughing. Finally, during one reunion, so many family members came from Oak Ridge, Knoxville, and Pt. Pleasant, that some had to stay at the local Holiday Inn which had a pool-this was in small-town Ohio around 1973 and ANY type of pool was reason for me and my cousins to get our trunks on and start looking for someone to drive us down there to invade. This trip was unusual as I was the only one who wanted to go but Charlie offered to drive me out so I could get wet and he’d visit with whatever family happened to still be at motel. As we were driving I of course asked him AGAIN and this time I asked him explicitly “Is it true the Japanese soldiers wouldn’t surrender!?” He glanced over at me with a kind of half-smile and half-look of resignation and said: The Japanese soldiers didn’t surrender easily. One day we were moving across a little clearing between tree lines and we started taking fire from a tree at the other edge of that clearing. We managed to get closer and figure out which tree it was and I stood up and sprayed it with my Thompson. The man fell from pretty high up but before he hit the deck, he pretty much stopped in mid-air. He had a rope around his neck and hung hisself.” The look on his face when he said it made me feel bad about my non-stop pestering. Everyone talks about the “thousand yard stare” and if I ever saw it, it was at that precise moment. He never spoke about the war again and I never asked him about it again. He never used the common slurs like “Japs” or anything I had heard from so many other people-vets or not. He had somehow managed to compartmentalize those memories some 30+ years passed, and I felt like a jerk for making him “open the compartment” for my own curiosity. I had many many other uncles and grandfathers that had been in all the wars going back to the Civil War. I had heard my great aunts and grandmother’s stories about how the men they had married were “never right” again after, for example, being a Navy doctor aboard a hospital ship off Iwo Jima and other places. The marines I knew, and know now, were far from the stereotypes both governments had used to dehumanize the enemy. I was an 0331 (M-60 E3) machine gunner and DM-I turned down the offer to go to sniper school when I heard I would have to be jump-qualified just to get there-and I am grateful that I was able to get in and out of the military without having to go to war and I am always grateful for my fellow service members who have had to go, before me, and after me. Sorry for the ramble. Semper Fi.

[@joemcgulligut7874]

That was my experience too, my dad was too young, but none of my uncles who saw WWII infantry combat (e.g. Army, Battle of the Bulge) would talk about it. My uncle who was a P-38 pilot (and later a pilot in both Korean conflict and Vietnam) would talk about it some. Mostly how he couldn't believe it when each war ended and he was still alive.

[@gregusmc2868]

@@joemcgulligut7874 Yeah. I still have my grandmother’s grandfathers uniform buttons from his (as it says in faded pencil on the back) “From grandpa Parsel’s Civil War suit.” They’re posted on a very heavy piece of cardboard, red on the one side with the mounted buttons, and held on with bailing wire. He was in the Ohio 113th volunteer infantry and was in for 3 years. I’ve researched the 113th’s battle history-Kent State university has a multiple hundred page collection that was donated by a family member-a daily “diary” of sorts-but they were involved in some of the most brutal engagements of the war. The battle of Kennesaw Mountain, the burning of Atlanta, etc…one of the small round buttons has a dent in it, that was hit with enough force to partially flatten it, and I wish I could ask him what did that. It certainly looks like it had to be a slightly smaller ball (like the shot in a “buck and ball” load) but maybe it was just something less potentially deadly. He was from a farm near Kalida, Oh and the 113th mustered out in Dayton (if I remember right) and my grandmother-born in 1907-remembers her grandmother (or great grandmother) telling the story of looking down the dusty farm lane and seeing my great x 3, grandfather walking up the road with his rifle over his shoulder. Nothing like a 93 miles walk home from 3 years of war. I can only imagine the stories from your pilot family member and wow, to serve in ALL those conflicts and come out unhurt-he must have been one hell of a skilled pilot. I wish the “kids” these days, not all of them obviously, but all the ones who like to put the country down and holler about how discontent they are, could be gathered in a giant “education center” and listen to vets from the French and Indian war, up through the vets who served 6 and 7 tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and if they’re still so humiliated to live in this country, we could let them pick out one way tickets to whichever country they’d like to start their new lives in. Thanks for your story Joe. I would have loved to talk to your people too. Happy Veterans Day. 🫡❤️🇺🇸 Semper Fi

[@Johnnypeace]

Not a ramble at all! Thanks so much for sharing your story. I consider myself honored to come across it and read it. Most of all. Thank You, Your Uncle Charlie and your whole family for their service to our great country! God Bless you all!

[@Svensk7119]

I, too, had the fortune to miss the elephant, and the dubious honor of being shot at. Your story was a good one, sir. I wasn't a Marine, but I was Infantry, so I say "Follow Me". 11Mike.

[@yeet3718]

Thank you for sharing this

[@seanlander9321]

The only country that Japan offered sovereignty to for neutrality was Australia. Twice. The first land defeats Japan suffered were then handed to them by the Australians, and that was the beginning of the end of Japan.

[@MelanieAF]

From everything I’ve read, the Australians were fierce! And I am so, so grateful that they were moral and ethical, wouldn’t even accept neutrality (not that the Japanese could be trusted, so that was just common sense), and chose to throw in with the Allies!