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August 19, 2006

Bloody Iwo

Did you ever wonder what the Battle of Iwo Jima looked like from the perspective of the Japanese defenders?

The Japanese movie trailer for Flags of Our Fathers is now online; the American version is on hold until next month.

The movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, is based on the book by the son of one of the men who raised the American flag in the iconic photo.

The book was a very moving read; I'm afraid to see what Hollywood has done with it.

Based on the Japanese preview, it looks like it emphasizes the universal nature of war and the toll it takes on the troops, an unfortunate piece of post-modern moral equivalence.

The Japanese were not merely fighting for God and country, motivated by a sense of honor and patriotism in the Western sense. Rather, they exceeded the racial animus of the Nazis, viewing not just different races -- but all peoples who were not Japanese as subhuman.

The fascist regime inculcated a value system that held that nothing was more virtuous than dying in defense of the Emperor; that an enemy who died bravely was to be honored, but one who surrendered was to be held in the greatest contempt.


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Both of the Officers in "The Contest to Cut Down 100 People" – (Right) 2nd Lt. Tsuyochi [sic] Noda, (Left) 2nd. Toshiaki Mukai – Photo by Correspondent (Shin[ju]) Satō in Changzhou (Tokyo Nichi-Nichi Shimbun, Dec. 13, 1937


The Japanese rape of Nanking featured samurai sword beheading contests of Chinese POWs and civilians; competitions wherein Japanese soldiers tossed Chinese babies in the air and caught them on their bayonets, spitting them like roasted chickens; and the wholesale rape and subsequent slaughter of women and girls. If you can stomache it, there are six pages of photos from the Rape of Nanking here, featuring bayonet practice on live prisoners, children hacked to pieces and other scenes of staggerring depravity.


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A photograph found on the body of a dead Japanese soldier shows Sergeant Leonard G. Sifflee about to be decapitated by his Japanese captor on October 23, 1943.


American and British POWs stood a good chance of surviving captivity if held by the otherwise monstrous Nazi regime, while the POWs in the "care" of the Japanese suffered an unbelievably high mortality rate. According to one source, the mortality rate for POWs held by the Germans was 1.2 percent; for those held in the Pacific Theater of Operations, an astonishing 37 percent.

The behavior of the Japanese Army during the war was entirely consistent with the values and ethics of Japanese society during the 1930s and 1940s, and the Geneva Conventions-defying executions of Allied airmen and soldiers -- photographed and featured in enemy publications -- helps explain the undying hatred many U.S. and U.K. vets held for their former enemies, a depth of enmity little seen between the former combatants in the European Theater of Operations (Soviets excepted).

It's a lot to draw from a brief movie trailer, but I'm troubled by the handsome young Japanese soldiers and their brave leaders portrayed in the clip.

Folks, there was an objectively good side in the war. And an incontestably evil side, too. And if you have to ask which was which, then we're doomed.

Posted by Mike Lief at August 19, 2006 01:20 PM | TrackBack

Comments

Mike, my blood ran cold at reading those descriptions. Not sure I really want to know, but where do I find the history of what you're describing?

Meantime, The fascist regime inculcated a value system that held that nothing was more virtuous than dying in defense of the Emperor;

sounds ominously familiar.

Posted by: Anwyn at August 19, 2006 08:01 PM

I've got nothing bad to say about modern Japanese. They seem to a pretty good bunch of people. I admire their work ethic and the good way that they live their lives. I consider them to be a true ally of the United States today.

My grandfather was a marine who fought many battles with Japanese. He would never buy a Japanese car and until the day he died, he wouldn't even sit in one. He hated "the filthy Japs" as he called them with a passion. Because of their actions against civlians and the way they treated our boys as prisoners, you could see a faint grin on his face even in his late 70's just before he died as he recounted how he and the other marines took joy in killing them. We've forgotten in this country what a war is like when its a fight to the death and the survival of your nation depends upon the outcome. He said that if a Japanese soldier surprised them and tried to surrender, the marines killed them with pleasure. According to gramps, you could never tell if they were going to surrender or pull the pin on a grenade and take you out with them.

The Japanese deserved the nukes we hit them with. Japan was an evil society. The Islamic lunatics deserve the same complete destruction that we visited on the Japanese. Unfortunately, the Islamic morons won't get what they've got coming to them until they take out one of our major cities with a nuke.

Posted by: Red Stater at August 19, 2006 08:50 PM

Anwyn,

There are many accounts of the Japanese atrocities available on the Web; I've updated the post to include a few links, but a quick search via Dogpile or Google will point you in the right direction.

As to the similarity between the Japanese culture in the years leading up to the war and the Muslims urging their children to kill their way into paradise, the parallels have struck me, too.

Posted by: Mike Lief at August 19, 2006 11:53 PM

Thanks for the links, Mike. As for the similarities, those who don't know their history ... etc.

Posted by: Anwyn at August 20, 2006 05:12 PM

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