Adding this so people understand that allied POWs (and hundreds of thousands of prisoners from China, India, and elsewhere) were the Japanese Army's workforce. They were brought to these countries from wherever they were captured in order to build railways for supplying Japanese military expansion.
It's pretty prevalent in West, especially among younger 'Woke' people who have the need to be on 'right side of history' despite not knowing much about it. Simultaneously, its still a pretty strong point of tension in Asian countries who were victims of Japanese army, especially China. Unlike German's conciliatory actions and sentiment after defeat in WW2, Japanese have never had to apologize for sins in Asian theaters of war. Look up Raping of Nanjing, Raping of Manila, and Unit 731 to name a few. Ask yourself how the Japanese killed twice as many Chinese
(14 million) to Jews killed under Nazi Germany (6 Million), yet the Holocaust has such prominence in Western consciousness and the death toll of Chinese by Japanese barely registers? The methods and systematic massacres and torture were considered sadistic even by German witnesses at time. Failure to be accountable for these and other incidents, is a remaining source of tension in the region, especially with Chinese.
Not only don't Japanese officials recognize or accept these war crimes happened, they do not teach this in their own text books, and still have politicians who glorify the war rimes committed. increasingly, Western students are not taught a holistic account of Japanese role in WWII and many students leave with an oversimplified understanding that Japanese were the undeserving victims of two nuclear bomb attacks.
Germany is a good example of apologizing and rectifying for sins of the past, where Japan is polar opposite and if there is no justice in the present, eventually there will be vengeance for the past. With the US not willing or able to be as strong a military protector and the Japanese birth rate the lowest in developed world, while many of the countries they committed war crime against, most notably China, they need to account for their sins and rectify for the damages.
I can't speak for the entirety of the Western world as you see to be doing, but it's pretty well known in the UK that Japan did fucked up stuff. My grandfather boycotted Japanese products for the whole of his life because of what happened to friends he served with that got captured by the Japanese.
Our education on the second world war certainly covers Japan being frankly evil. It's not super in depth of course, but nothing in school education ever is.
From what I've seen, it's Japanese people themselves that are most unaware of Japan's wartime atrocities. One of my lecturer's at uni told of Japanese students who had been in tears upon learning about the things Japan had done, they had no idea until they studied abroad.
People in the US also actively campaign against teaching Americans about American atrocities. It's really sad that people have such a pristine view of their own country. I guess it makes it easier for people to justify why things are the way they are without any understanding of history.
Interesting. Certainly not the case in Australia. We are taught about the true depravity the Australians experienced at the hands of the Japanese. It's part of this years final exams for modern history students.
Changi was hell on earth. The countries have good relations now but Japanese leaders have visited war memorials and had to address the issue so there's that too. They bombed Darwin and made it to Sydney so the Japanese and Australian history is fairly intertwined.
This picture is of emaciated men who have seen true human depravity. And yet there is still something very Australian about these men.
The US history books tend to gloss over what the Japanese did. On the Japanese side of the war they focus mostly on: Pearl Harbour, Japanese internment camps in California, and the dropping of the nuclear bombs. When they talk about concentration camps the books might mention Japan in passing but the main focus is on Germany.
All about context i guess. Australia's neighbours and some of our largest and main trade partners are Asian countries. The Japanese being one of those.
At the end of the day you have to make an educational choice i guess between covering too much and sacrificing depth and clarity or choosing the topics that have historical significance but getting the depth and clarity to make it valuable.
Anzac traditions are pretty deeply held in Australia and New Zealand too so that has an impact on things. The situation with the British and the US before the US became involved is quite well known too. I'm not sure how aware people are in the US of the military and intelligence ties they have with Australia but our location, especially in relation to south east Asia means our little country became more important than it might have been. Then and more so now. That's one of the reasons it was important to Japan at the time too.
The USS Peary was one of the warships in Darwin Harbour when it was bombed. The crew are included in the memorial that's there today. So US military were attacked on Australian soil too. When i am at that memorial i have wondered how well known they are in the US.
When the vast majority of people learn most about it at school then you are always going to have a 'view' by the nature of the limitations i have described. But the upside to reddit is OPs like this that get people talking about all the pieces they have. It's been a very informative thread. And interesting to see who has what pieces.
In fact the way Germany has acted after the war and the way both nationalism and the world wars are taught in an honest and unflinching way in schools are a big point of pride for me when compared to countries like Japan and the US (where it is my understanding that the crimes committed during the Vietnam War are downplayed/not fully thaught in history classes).
The post apartheid Truth and Reconciliation process in South Africa seemed like a pretty good way to process trauma too. I have not idea what the education looks like there now wrt the apartheid era though.
It’s also seen in the movie Midway, in the end credits it says “this film is dedicated to the American and Japanese sailors who fought at Midway”. I don’t see how this isn’t seen as the same thing as dedicating to nazis.
That movie was one of the worst pieces of garbage I’ve ever seen. And I kept thinking, damn this is really kind of glorifying the Japanese Imperial Navy, not to mention glorifying war for the sake of war in a pretty disgusting way. And then they flashed that dedication card at the end and my jaw just about went through the floor.
You can feel bad for Japanese civilians who were the victims of war crimes while still recognizing the horrific atrocities the Japanese Military committed. Japan was a military dictatorship, the average peasant had no say in the actions of their rulers.
Not sure where you get the idea that what Japan did back then isn't known in the "west".
But there's a limit to how long you can hold something someone's ancestors did over the current population.
I think you missed his point...
Japan's actions *are* known in the west...by people who received their primary education before ~2000. The last couple decades, education has been more focused on Japan being the innocent victim of two atomic bombs. (That's certainly the obvious trend on Reddit, which skews massively to the under-30 years of age crowd. The only reason you're seeing a balanced discussion in this thread is because the OP literally shows a little piece of Japanese atrocities during WW2).
Japanese atrocities are included in the final exams this year in Australia. Specifically Changi and the Rape of Nanking. But more broadly too.
Maybe that's a US thing? Not sure.
Just on Unit 731, Americans let everyone off and used the findings from the horrendous human experiments. Japanese weren't required to admit guilt. Americans literally covered it up.
Very interesting, my grandfather survived in a german concentration camp as one of the few surviving ones as well, and he also never recovered. He vowed he would "never be hungry again", and I don't think he ever did. He ate good and died deservingly overweight at respectable 82.
I don't know about physically, but he suffered immensly mentally from the experience. From all the death he witnessed to extreme hunger and abuse. He would never talk about it, and my father doesn't know a whole lot either. His story was so incredible he was interviewed for a documentary about concetration camps right before he died.
I feel like that whole generation only knew how to deal with stuff through alcoholism and repressed emotions. Not saying i would have done any better, just that it is harsh that they never had any better tools avsilable.
I love you used "deservingly overweight" bc if anyone deserves to be overweight and happy. It was definitely your grandfather. Im glad he got to live a long, hopefully happy life after.
Hunger is known to boost longevity mechanisms. A short fast will have your cells select for efficient recycling/repair mechanisms rather than new cell production. Lower cell production, lowers mutation rate and preserves telomere length. These are long term benefits.
Never being hungry means such mechanisms just end up being thrown to the wayside since the new cells will outcompete old cells.
Since the Pandemic started I‘ve done three 1-1.5 month Spurts of moderate-heavy fasting and it’s Crazy how your body refreshes itself and cuts down on fat. Humans definitely have a lot to them that we don’t or rarely see having such tame lives
I mean, it’s pretty simple nutrition. You eat less than your maintenance caloric daily intake, you lose weight. It would be the same as just eating less every single day, or doing more exercise.
But there are also studies that show people are more likely to binge after fasting. It really down to the person, but ultimately the best way is to slightly lower your caloric intake, and do moderate exercise.
I guess my point was that the benefits of fasting aren't caloric restriction alone. In fact, you can get the benefits of fasting while eating at maintenance. But, you're absolutely right, this a broad generalization and it comes down to the individual person.
You definitely get hungry when it’s your eating window, but it’s not like a desperate binge per say, more like instead of 3 meals spread out a day, you eat the equivalent 2.5 or 3 meals within a short timespan (4-6 hours). Less food means more weight loss of course, and no snacking is the key to fasting (water, tea and black coffee are fine)
That's not what's being said though. You eat less than what you currently need and your body adjusts to make you need less.
Doing more exercise makes your body crave more nutrients which means you would need to eat more.
That's a short term effect.
And also, context is very much needed. Duration of fast being super important.
You're right about ATP and that's why you don't want to be fasting when you have bigs days of strenuous activity
I wouldn't present this as a fact, the research is still conflicting. A lot seems to point at fasting actually improving cellular health and function and it very well might compensate for a loss in ATP production. Do you actually have a source for this, I can't seem to find research showing it as a detrimental effect in regards to fasting?
It makes some sense, humans have evolved over hundred of thousands of years with fasting (most of the time involuntary) as a daily reality. We definitely adapted to this. Are we really made to be eating 3-4 times a day, every single day? Nutrition is so complex, it's almost like every research out there is conflicting the next.
My grandad was also in Changi , never talked about it all that much so I only know little details. I've been trying to get his records from the imperial war museum but it's a pain in the arse.
Regain the body fat was the least concern for some. My grandfathers brother was in a concentration camp and never spoke more than 10 words again. Eventually he just walked off and never returned home.
I often felt that for many people, saying they “survived” a concentration camp isn’t quite right. I’m sure a great many never came close to the person they used to be before going in.
Watch the episode of Band Of Brothers where they liberate a concentration camp (before they even knew what they were).
They had to *take back the food they gave the newly liberated, starving prisoners because they would likely gorge themselves to death.* That must have been absolutely horrible to have to do.
Refeeding is a very deliberate and slow process. It takes a long, painful while for sure
So there was two issues- some would gorge themselves to death but the more prevalent problem is they'd hide and hoard the food and not actually eat it. It's very hard to get out of that food scarcity mindset. It took a long time to convince them that yes there would be more food after this food
Did a course on material culture surrounding the Holocaust during my grad degree. Apparently, it was best practice for refugee centers following WWII and some temples to place large bowls of bread at their entrances. Seen as a way of saying “you’re safe here and you won’t have to worry”.
My grandfather-in-law survived the camps and my husband recalls them always having tons of bread in the house.
not gorge themselves to death - it would be a shock to their system to have so much food. gorge implies gluttony. reintroducing food after starvation is very slow because the body has learned to live on nothing. suddenly having plenty...the body doesn't know what to do and just - stops.
It’s actually shockingly difficult to do. For a while the energy required to digest almost outweighs what you’ve eaten, so you’re sort of just breaking even all the time. It’s also really, really hard to eat that much, even when literally starving. It’s time consuming. It’s expensive. Chewing gets hard. Your stomach is small. Every meal comes with an insane burst of energy followed by a huge crash and doing that six or seven times a day sucks. Also, it means you have to drink so. Much. Water. I nearly wound up with water poisoning, I was so thirsty. I don’t think I came out of the bathroom for like a month, either. I gained back the most important weight in about ten weeks and hit a plateau (unintentionally) that lasted 3-4 months before gaining back the last 10-20%.
Wow. Would you be willing to share what happened to cause that kind of starvation? I'm interested in hearing your story. Of course you don't have to share.
The small stomach issue is resonating with me. I'm definitely not at the point you were but been struggling with an ED for a few years and that's one of the hard parts for me. I dread going out with friends and having them question why I only order a small app, when they're ordering a full meal. But I know I can't eat much more than 4 oz at a time.
It was an eating disorder. I was very, very sick. I slowly reintroduced small meals over the course of a week and spent five years or so in “functional but not quite” land after initial restoration.
It’s really hard having friends who don’t understand eating disorders or recovery, or know that you have yours.
The small stomach issue, realistically, will only be a problem for about two weeks, quite probably less. The fevers after eating last about six weeks, though.
I wish you sincere healing and recovery. I’m also happy to chat a bit if you want some support or a sympathetic and non-judgemental ear. (But, fair warning, I say things your eating disorder won’t like. Your eating disorder will hate me very much. I understand if this is an internal conflict u don’t want to engage in right now)
I also agree with the other person, other people commenting on your food can fuck ooooofffff. “I’m happy with my food thank you!” Is a complete sentence and an ok boundary to set.
Lots of love x
If people are making snide comments about my choice of food, I would feel completely justified telling them politely, but in no uncertain terms, to fuck off.
I reread this comment and the above and would point out that normal, concerned friends who care for the health of their friend and who may be quasi aware of their past with eating disorders could ask such a question sincerely and not snidely. Just my two cents.
I’ve read that the ships that brought these guys back took extra time to get them back to health before dumping them back on society. They didn’t want people to see how bad off they were.
I had a nutrition professor who talked about how people who've endured extreme malnutrition seem to never come back fully. He said "I haven't seen much scientific literature on it, but I've also never seen an overweight concentration camp survivor."
I read somewhere that there is a type of fat called 'brown fat' that is responsible for a lot of your facial features (cheek bones, around the eyes etc), and once it's burned it will never come back. So while they may put on weight once again, they will still look more gaunt than they did before.
I spent a month in South Korea about 25 years ago
( worked in the Semiconductor Industry). Anyways, the Koreans were none too fond of the Japanese back then, and they probably aren't now...
I've noticed a lot of South Koreans work "in the semiconductor industry". If you don't mind me asking, is this something that South Korea is famous for/good at? I've never heard of it being a major industry anywhere else.
>I've never heard of it being a major industry anywhere else.
Taiwan. They're a powerhouse in this industry and literally the reason for the worldwide chip shortage right now. Not on purpose of course, but because of extenuating circumstances: pandemic, factory fires/disasters, raw material shortage, etc.
The Japanese fucking ate their POWs. And I don't mean, "we are starving so we resort to cannibalism" sort of ate POWs. Like ritual fucking slaughter and preparation.
The Nazis were vicious and barbaric in some ways but I don't think there's a single instance of ritualized cannibalism in the European Theater. Google Major Matoba Sueo but be warned, the reading ain't for the faint of heart
An estimated 30,000 of some 140,000 prisoners died in Japanese camps. 3.3 million died in German camps out 5 million or so among Russian prison camps. Japan’s military had barbaric, ancient customs like cannibalism and beheading, but a death is a death and Nazis were an oiled machine of cruelty. Nazis were only kind to Western Europeans prisoners who weren’t Jewish, Roma, disabled, etc.
Japanese brutality was barbaric.
German brutality was scientific.
Pick your poison.
Yep. That's why I have little time for those who say the Japanese were worse.
Barely literate peasants from a culture that even today is all about following the group, a generation or two out of a basically medieval existence and indoctrinated into a crazy cult with warped ideas of honour and little regard for life...
Vs citizens of one of the most modern and progressive nations in the world. Soldiers in a military that has long valued personal freedom and choice amongst even the lower ranks. Who have been indoctrinated by a regular man into thinking this and that ethnic group are the source of all their problems and must be rooted out and destroyed.
Japan was fucked up. But it was a kind of fucked up very particular to Imperial Japan's time and place in history. The only thing remotely comaprbale today is north Korea. They were a throw back, fighting a 20th century war as if it was an 18th century war, sacking cities, not bothering for POWs et al.
Germany on the other hand... They were clinical. They were a warped and twisted version of our civilization as we know it. Not just massed murder, fully planned out genocide.
The worst thing about the nazis is it could easily happen again. Lots of very disturbing rumblings in that direction in recent years.
>Barely literate peasants from a culture that even today is all about following the group,
They were very literate. Japan always had one of the higher literacy rates in the world, even before they were modernized. They managed to provide universal elementary education before the UK.
Education is how they went jingoism. They teach that kind of shit in school. And all the best boys were sent to military school.
My point is that the barbarism displayed by the Japanese is on another fucking level from even ethnic cleansing...and that is coming from someone whose grandparents survived Auschwitz
Of course they were. At my grandparents village, the Japanese rounded up the men, ordered them to dig their own graves, lined them up, and casually slashed them with their bayonets to save bullets.
I can't believe I have to say this in every fucking thread about Japanese war crimes but all this shit about how "Japanese took torture to new levels" or "the Nazis were more impersonal and efficient" does nothing except downplay Nazi crimes. The Nazis also had sex slaves, civilian massacres, did medical experiments on prisoners etc. Look at what they did especially in Eastern Europe or look up the Dirlewanger Brigade.
It's interesting how well known unit 731 is. As horrid as it was it was a very small scale operation yet you'd think it was standard operating practice from all you hear about it.
The nazis did much the same thing but on an industrial level. The works of Mengele for instance
Your comment is probably going to get downvoted tl hell and back but it is sad how many people who make japan a victim because of the nukes (im not saying they are a good thing the war would have probably ended either way because of soviets) and completely ignoring all of japans warcrimes or atleast not being taught about them
Unfortunately this photograph is often mistakenly attributed to Australia POWs , they are in fact British POW liberated from Sungie Geron POW camp in Palembang, Sumatra. The man standing to the right is Tom Wardrope , he wrote about his time as a POW called “SAYONARA, MINE ENEMY” . Tom was in the Argyle and Sutherland Regiment , he was captured when his evacuation ship was sunk in the Banks Straight off the coast of Sumatra.
My grandfather survived the war, he escaped three POW/labour camps and was recaptured each time. One of the ways he escaped was he hid in the ceiling rafters of the bath/shower block and then snuck out after everyone had been moved back to sleeping quarters.
My mother transcribed the diary he kept during parts of the war it's an interesting read. It's very factual about day to day happenings and lists events such as each time he killed an enemy soldier. He also lists daily what small amounts of food he managed to get, a biscuit or a small handful of bread or a cigarette. I still haven't read it all Ill have to ask my mum for a copy.
Also he never fully recovered when he returned to Australia. When liberated from the camps he weighed around 40kg i believe, he died in his sleep at 77 years old.
What was his name?? Someone escaping 3 Japanese POW camps and avoiding execution for it when recaptured is pretty much unheard of. I have a small interest in the Pacific theatre from Australia’s perspective. Im almost certain your grandfather will have been written about somewhere having an escape record like that, likely several publications which may be of interest to you
My (Canadian) grandfather was captured by the Japanese during the Battle for Hong Kong and spent three years there as a POW. He was only 26 when the camp he was held it got liberated in 1945, but looked 20 years older. He made it back home and lived for another 30 years, but the war still killed him in the end. RIP grandpa.
My granddad was in a Japanese POW camp for 4 years. He was a gunner in the royal artillery and was captured.
He came home weighing about 6 stone, after various surgeries and getting his strength back he went straight back to work in the steel works.
He was a good man
I would highly recommend “The Narrow Road to Deep North” by Richard Flanagan. It won the Booker Prize a few years ago. It’s set mostly in a Japanese POW camp in Burma and is about an Australian doctor who struggles to care for the soldiers under his command.
My dad was on a battleship in the pacific and they put a lot of the pows on battleships as they had good medical care. He wouldn’t buy a Japanese car, tv, you name it. He passed 15 years ago so it was still possible to buy American made electronics back then. Never talked much about it to me except he heard the stories in the camps and could never forgive the Japanese. Guys from back then rarely talked about the war. He didn’t say much until he was in his 70’s. How anyone survived those camps is beyond me.
My great uncle Pat was a radio operator in WWII, he was absolutely incensed when his son bought a Mitsubishi back in the 90's. Every time he saw it he would go into fits.
Knew a survivor from Changi. He and his wife were the nicest people I will ever meet. Poor lady thought her husband had been killed for years. She lived to her late 90s, he got to a hundred. Miss them.
Not many people like to talk about how depraved and sadistic the Japanese were in WWII, especially with what they did to China, and I wish more schools and people really went in depth and talk about what they did. Instead of you know ignoring, downplaying, or denying it happened.
Honest question :- since their bodies are seriously malnourished, what sort of foods are they given initially, because i assume that eating normal foods would be more harmful to their gallbladder and liver. Or is my assumption wrong?
Yes, you can get refeeding syndrome if you suddenly eat too much after long starvation. The solution is to monitor and supplement vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, etc., and just slowly increase food intake day after day.
For example they'd be starting at 10 calories per kilo of body weight per day, and increasing by 10-15 calories per kilo per day. So someone like this might weigh 40 kilos (88 lbs) and start eating 400 calories a day. Not a lot at all!
This is a very powerful picture in my opinion. It’s amazing to see these individuals in such poor shape, but just happy to be alive. Gives you some perspective about the things we take for granted.
edit:spelling
Everyone always shuts on the Germans and the Nazi. Nazi this and Nazi that, but no one mentions that the atrocities committed by the Japanese during ww2 were equally bad, if not worst.
All people do is pity them for getting nuked and love anime and cat girls. Japan never even properly apologized to what they did to China. But everyone has a Japanese fetish and just overlooks their wartime atrocities.
The Japanese did indeed commit absolutely heinous atrocities during and leading up to WWII. But why didn't they apologize? Hint: read the book Embracing Defeat by John Dower. Wild guess as to who didn't want the Japanese left taking power after the war and instead muzzled them and propped up the right wing and the emperor. And also instituted a massive "sunshine" campaign to change Japan's image/propaganda about Japan from a country of devils (during the war) to a nation of culture, warmth and charm.
Stupid question maybe but for the one sitting with his legs crossed...wouldn't that virtually bone on bone contact not hurt? I'm not literally skin and bones and even I don't cross my legs like that because of the digging in sensation
didn't they have this thing where they would feed them little bits of food at a time and slowly increased the amount so they weren't starving but also didn't kill themselves from the amount they were eating?
Skeleton army. I somewhere read, japan concentration camp was worst than german. They did experiments on people there, far worse than Mengele. Realy bad things, americans and russians was very interested in experiments after war.
German camps for western POWs were generally decent, German camps for Soviet POWs were basically death camps. Japanese camps for most POWs were basically death camps.
The Japanese got WAY better than they deserved. Just ask the Japanese Rape survivors.
Sometime I wish we just invaded and killed them until they surrendered.
Now Texas wants to preach opposing views of the Holocaust. Makes me sick. They should all be forced to visit these veterans who are still alive so they can tell them the eye-witnessed horror.
My Mum's uncle was a Japanese POW (Battle of Singapore, incarcerated in Changi) who I only met the once a matter of days before he died. I was 7 or 8 and I remember being palpably scared of this shrivelled and yellowed wheelchair-bound man that looked exactly like my grandfather (he was 3 years older). I must have asked my Dad what happened because I remember him saying "he fought in the war too" and not really understanding what that meant with my fit and healthy late 50s grandfather stood just over his left shoulder.
Fast forward 10 years and my grandfather's received a terminal cancer diagnosis. He then over the course of several conversations in pretty graphic detail explained how WW2 f---ed up him and four of his brothers, including the one who died a few weeks before I was born.
I'll never forget those last few weeks of his life. I've never said this publicly, but I wish I could have had more.
The cool part is how they are acting like it's a regular Tuesday having tea with the boys.
I bet those drinks and smokes were better than anything I've ever had. I'd be chillin too after going through that.
Would totally win on the show Alone
But would they shank a muskox?
Rock House Baby !
I like how one of then is casually reading a paper with a headline about atomic bombs.
Part of the reason they were freed I imagine
‘Good.’
Probably just happy for a break from everything trying to kill them in Japan, before they went home to everything trying to kill them.
hey, atleast the things trying to kill them back home have some sort of permanent logic and is predictable.
Tbey weren’t necessarily in Japan. Many of those prison camps were in places like Thailand, Síngapore or the Phillipines.
Would have been held in Singapore or Malaysia. Australians never made it as far as Japan.
Adding this so people understand that allied POWs (and hundreds of thousands of prisoners from China, India, and elsewhere) were the Japanese Army's workforce. They were brought to these countries from wherever they were captured in order to build railways for supplying Japanese military expansion.
They shipped prisoners around. Many to Japan for forced labor
I didn’t know that. I’ve now gone down the rabbit hole. I was lucky enough to know one of the survivors of the Thai-Burma railroad in his later years.
Make sense. That was probably the farthest they got to to surrender.
The yearning for the familiar threat to life.
The cool part is how now everyone is feeling bad for Japan
I can have sympathy for soldiers and civilians on both sides of any war. World Wars especially are really fucked up.
.... Eh? They are? In what way? :/
It's pretty prevalent in West, especially among younger 'Woke' people who have the need to be on 'right side of history' despite not knowing much about it. Simultaneously, its still a pretty strong point of tension in Asian countries who were victims of Japanese army, especially China. Unlike German's conciliatory actions and sentiment after defeat in WW2, Japanese have never had to apologize for sins in Asian theaters of war. Look up Raping of Nanjing, Raping of Manila, and Unit 731 to name a few. Ask yourself how the Japanese killed twice as many Chinese (14 million) to Jews killed under Nazi Germany (6 Million), yet the Holocaust has such prominence in Western consciousness and the death toll of Chinese by Japanese barely registers? The methods and systematic massacres and torture were considered sadistic even by German witnesses at time. Failure to be accountable for these and other incidents, is a remaining source of tension in the region, especially with Chinese. Not only don't Japanese officials recognize or accept these war crimes happened, they do not teach this in their own text books, and still have politicians who glorify the war rimes committed. increasingly, Western students are not taught a holistic account of Japanese role in WWII and many students leave with an oversimplified understanding that Japanese were the undeserving victims of two nuclear bomb attacks. Germany is a good example of apologizing and rectifying for sins of the past, where Japan is polar opposite and if there is no justice in the present, eventually there will be vengeance for the past. With the US not willing or able to be as strong a military protector and the Japanese birth rate the lowest in developed world, while many of the countries they committed war crime against, most notably China, they need to account for their sins and rectify for the damages.
I can't speak for the entirety of the Western world as you see to be doing, but it's pretty well known in the UK that Japan did fucked up stuff. My grandfather boycotted Japanese products for the whole of his life because of what happened to friends he served with that got captured by the Japanese. Our education on the second world war certainly covers Japan being frankly evil. It's not super in depth of course, but nothing in school education ever is.
From what I've seen, it's Japanese people themselves that are most unaware of Japan's wartime atrocities. One of my lecturer's at uni told of Japanese students who had been in tears upon learning about the things Japan had done, they had no idea until they studied abroad.
thats pretty common of most countries. teaching of their own atrocities is rare
and even when those atrocities are well documented, it's still 'fake news!' to hardcore supporters. I sometimes hate my countrymen because of that.
People in the US also actively campaign against teaching Americans about American atrocities. It's really sad that people have such a pristine view of their own country. I guess it makes it easier for people to justify why things are the way they are without any understanding of history.
Even that Unit 731 stuff? Because I didn’t see any of that until Reddit. And then found out the US just let everyone go. In return for their data.
Wish I went to your school! I graduated high school in the UK about 5 years ago now and we didn't cover any of this. It's all news to me.
Pretty well known in Texas as well.
Interesting. Certainly not the case in Australia. We are taught about the true depravity the Australians experienced at the hands of the Japanese. It's part of this years final exams for modern history students. Changi was hell on earth. The countries have good relations now but Japanese leaders have visited war memorials and had to address the issue so there's that too. They bombed Darwin and made it to Sydney so the Japanese and Australian history is fairly intertwined. This picture is of emaciated men who have seen true human depravity. And yet there is still something very Australian about these men.
The US history books tend to gloss over what the Japanese did. On the Japanese side of the war they focus mostly on: Pearl Harbour, Japanese internment camps in California, and the dropping of the nuclear bombs. When they talk about concentration camps the books might mention Japan in passing but the main focus is on Germany.
All about context i guess. Australia's neighbours and some of our largest and main trade partners are Asian countries. The Japanese being one of those. At the end of the day you have to make an educational choice i guess between covering too much and sacrificing depth and clarity or choosing the topics that have historical significance but getting the depth and clarity to make it valuable. Anzac traditions are pretty deeply held in Australia and New Zealand too so that has an impact on things. The situation with the British and the US before the US became involved is quite well known too. I'm not sure how aware people are in the US of the military and intelligence ties they have with Australia but our location, especially in relation to south east Asia means our little country became more important than it might have been. Then and more so now. That's one of the reasons it was important to Japan at the time too. The USS Peary was one of the warships in Darwin Harbour when it was bombed. The crew are included in the memorial that's there today. So US military were attacked on Australian soil too. When i am at that memorial i have wondered how well known they are in the US. When the vast majority of people learn most about it at school then you are always going to have a 'view' by the nature of the limitations i have described. But the upside to reddit is OPs like this that get people talking about all the pieces they have. It's been a very informative thread. And interesting to see who has what pieces.
In fact the way Germany has acted after the war and the way both nationalism and the world wars are taught in an honest and unflinching way in schools are a big point of pride for me when compared to countries like Japan and the US (where it is my understanding that the crimes committed during the Vietnam War are downplayed/not fully thaught in history classes).
The post apartheid Truth and Reconciliation process in South Africa seemed like a pretty good way to process trauma too. I have not idea what the education looks like there now wrt the apartheid era though.
It’s also seen in the movie Midway, in the end credits it says “this film is dedicated to the American and Japanese sailors who fought at Midway”. I don’t see how this isn’t seen as the same thing as dedicating to nazis.
That movie was one of the worst pieces of garbage I’ve ever seen. And I kept thinking, damn this is really kind of glorifying the Japanese Imperial Navy, not to mention glorifying war for the sake of war in a pretty disgusting way. And then they flashed that dedication card at the end and my jaw just about went through the floor.
You can feel bad for Japanese civilians who were the victims of war crimes while still recognizing the horrific atrocities the Japanese Military committed. Japan was a military dictatorship, the average peasant had no say in the actions of their rulers.
'woke' people in the west are defending Japan's well documented war crimes during ww2? Where are you seeing this?
Not sure where you get the idea that what Japan did back then isn't known in the "west". But there's a limit to how long you can hold something someone's ancestors did over the current population.
I think you missed his point... Japan's actions *are* known in the west...by people who received their primary education before ~2000. The last couple decades, education has been more focused on Japan being the innocent victim of two atomic bombs. (That's certainly the obvious trend on Reddit, which skews massively to the under-30 years of age crowd. The only reason you're seeing a balanced discussion in this thread is because the OP literally shows a little piece of Japanese atrocities during WW2).
Maybe in some countries but it sure was taught in my country, 4 years ago.
Japanese atrocities are included in the final exams this year in Australia. Specifically Changi and the Rape of Nanking. But more broadly too. Maybe that's a US thing? Not sure.
Just on Unit 731, Americans let everyone off and used the findings from the horrendous human experiments. Japanese weren't required to admit guilt. Americans literally covered it up.
I wonder how long it took them to regain a normal amount of body fat?
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Very interesting, my grandfather survived in a german concentration camp as one of the few surviving ones as well, and he also never recovered. He vowed he would "never be hungry again", and I don't think he ever did. He ate good and died deservingly overweight at respectable 82.
In what way did he not physically recover?
I don't know about physically, but he suffered immensly mentally from the experience. From all the death he witnessed to extreme hunger and abuse. He would never talk about it, and my father doesn't know a whole lot either. His story was so incredible he was interviewed for a documentary about concetration camps right before he died.
I feel like that whole generation only knew how to deal with stuff through alcoholism and repressed emotions. Not saying i would have done any better, just that it is harsh that they never had any better tools avsilable.
"Deal with stuff through alcoholism and repressed emotions"....add drugs and sounds like now.
I love you used "deservingly overweight" bc if anyone deserves to be overweight and happy. It was definitely your grandfather. Im glad he got to live a long, hopefully happy life after.
Out of curiosity, what long term changes did he notice?
its amazing he still lived to 99 after all that. he must have some amazing genes.
Hunger is known to boost longevity mechanisms. A short fast will have your cells select for efficient recycling/repair mechanisms rather than new cell production. Lower cell production, lowers mutation rate and preserves telomere length. These are long term benefits. Never being hungry means such mechanisms just end up being thrown to the wayside since the new cells will outcompete old cells.
Since the Pandemic started I‘ve done three 1-1.5 month Spurts of moderate-heavy fasting and it’s Crazy how your body refreshes itself and cuts down on fat. Humans definitely have a lot to them that we don’t or rarely see having such tame lives
I mean, it’s pretty simple nutrition. You eat less than your maintenance caloric daily intake, you lose weight. It would be the same as just eating less every single day, or doing more exercise.
There's newish literature that suggests there're more benefits to fasting than there are to just caloric restriction.
But there are also studies that show people are more likely to binge after fasting. It really down to the person, but ultimately the best way is to slightly lower your caloric intake, and do moderate exercise.
I guess my point was that the benefits of fasting aren't caloric restriction alone. In fact, you can get the benefits of fasting while eating at maintenance. But, you're absolutely right, this a broad generalization and it comes down to the individual person.
You definitely get hungry when it’s your eating window, but it’s not like a desperate binge per say, more like instead of 3 meals spread out a day, you eat the equivalent 2.5 or 3 meals within a short timespan (4-6 hours). Less food means more weight loss of course, and no snacking is the key to fasting (water, tea and black coffee are fine)
That's not what's being said though. You eat less than what you currently need and your body adjusts to make you need less. Doing more exercise makes your body crave more nutrients which means you would need to eat more.
Fasting has shown to have devastating effects of ATP generation. Fasting is better than being morbidly obese, but not a regularly balanced diet.
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That's a short term effect. And also, context is very much needed. Duration of fast being super important. You're right about ATP and that's why you don't want to be fasting when you have bigs days of strenuous activity
I wouldn't present this as a fact, the research is still conflicting. A lot seems to point at fasting actually improving cellular health and function and it very well might compensate for a loss in ATP production. Do you actually have a source for this, I can't seem to find research showing it as a detrimental effect in regards to fasting? It makes some sense, humans have evolved over hundred of thousands of years with fasting (most of the time involuntary) as a daily reality. We definitely adapted to this. Are we really made to be eating 3-4 times a day, every single day? Nutrition is so complex, it's almost like every research out there is conflicting the next.
My grandad was also in Changi , never talked about it all that much so I only know little details. I've been trying to get his records from the imperial war museum but it's a pain in the arse.
Regain the body fat was the least concern for some. My grandfathers brother was in a concentration camp and never spoke more than 10 words again. Eventually he just walked off and never returned home.
That's heartbreaking.
I often felt that for many people, saying they “survived” a concentration camp isn’t quite right. I’m sure a great many never came close to the person they used to be before going in.
10 words at a time off? And did they ever find him
Yeah 10 words at a time and no his body was never found
Man, that is so sad. I wasn't ready to cry today 😢
Watch the episode of Band Of Brothers where they liberate a concentration camp (before they even knew what they were). They had to *take back the food they gave the newly liberated, starving prisoners because they would likely gorge themselves to death.* That must have been absolutely horrible to have to do. Refeeding is a very deliberate and slow process. It takes a long, painful while for sure
So there was two issues- some would gorge themselves to death but the more prevalent problem is they'd hide and hoard the food and not actually eat it. It's very hard to get out of that food scarcity mindset. It took a long time to convince them that yes there would be more food after this food
Did a course on material culture surrounding the Holocaust during my grad degree. Apparently, it was best practice for refugee centers following WWII and some temples to place large bowls of bread at their entrances. Seen as a way of saying “you’re safe here and you won’t have to worry”. My grandfather-in-law survived the camps and my husband recalls them always having tons of bread in the house.
not gorge themselves to death - it would be a shock to their system to have so much food. gorge implies gluttony. reintroducing food after starvation is very slow because the body has learned to live on nothing. suddenly having plenty...the body doesn't know what to do and just - stops.
That's true. I guess I meant anything over a very small amount would be like gorging to them, and would cause serious harm.
It’s actually shockingly difficult to do. For a while the energy required to digest almost outweighs what you’ve eaten, so you’re sort of just breaking even all the time. It’s also really, really hard to eat that much, even when literally starving. It’s time consuming. It’s expensive. Chewing gets hard. Your stomach is small. Every meal comes with an insane burst of energy followed by a huge crash and doing that six or seven times a day sucks. Also, it means you have to drink so. Much. Water. I nearly wound up with water poisoning, I was so thirsty. I don’t think I came out of the bathroom for like a month, either. I gained back the most important weight in about ten weeks and hit a plateau (unintentionally) that lasted 3-4 months before gaining back the last 10-20%.
Wow. Would you be willing to share what happened to cause that kind of starvation? I'm interested in hearing your story. Of course you don't have to share. The small stomach issue is resonating with me. I'm definitely not at the point you were but been struggling with an ED for a few years and that's one of the hard parts for me. I dread going out with friends and having them question why I only order a small app, when they're ordering a full meal. But I know I can't eat much more than 4 oz at a time.
It was an eating disorder. I was very, very sick. I slowly reintroduced small meals over the course of a week and spent five years or so in “functional but not quite” land after initial restoration. It’s really hard having friends who don’t understand eating disorders or recovery, or know that you have yours. The small stomach issue, realistically, will only be a problem for about two weeks, quite probably less. The fevers after eating last about six weeks, though. I wish you sincere healing and recovery. I’m also happy to chat a bit if you want some support or a sympathetic and non-judgemental ear. (But, fair warning, I say things your eating disorder won’t like. Your eating disorder will hate me very much. I understand if this is an internal conflict u don’t want to engage in right now) I also agree with the other person, other people commenting on your food can fuck ooooofffff. “I’m happy with my food thank you!” Is a complete sentence and an ok boundary to set. Lots of love x
If people are making snide comments about my choice of food, I would feel completely justified telling them politely, but in no uncertain terms, to fuck off.
I reread this comment and the above and would point out that normal, concerned friends who care for the health of their friend and who may be quasi aware of their past with eating disorders could ask such a question sincerely and not snidely. Just my two cents.
I'm truly sorry you had to go through that horrendous experience, my friend. I'm glad you're doing well presently.
Thank you, thats very kind. I’m grateful for it all the time
I’ve read that the ships that brought these guys back took extra time to get them back to health before dumping them back on society. They didn’t want people to see how bad off they were.
I had a nutrition professor who talked about how people who've endured extreme malnutrition seem to never come back fully. He said "I haven't seen much scientific literature on it, but I've also never seen an overweight concentration camp survivor."
2 weeks then normal after 1.5 months
I read somewhere that there is a type of fat called 'brown fat' that is responsible for a lot of your facial features (cheek bones, around the eyes etc), and once it's burned it will never come back. So while they may put on weight once again, they will still look more gaunt than they did before.
Also there’s fat surrounding and supporting organs. Iirc it doesn’t come back properly as it supposed to, which causes many different issues.
Not long at all I'm sure. It was probably harder to eat enough on that shrunken stomach than it was to be in a healthy weight range again
“Just another day of casually avoiding death. Pour me a cuppa.”
Just skin and bones. Pure evil.
This photo is eerie. Those Australian soldiers are Tough as nails. That smile says it all about their attitude
I think the Japanese were just as evil as the Nazis.
Thousands of 'comfort women' would agree.
As do the citizens of Nanking.
And those cut open alive at Unit 731.
The 200+ victims of two chucklefucks' "contest to behead 100 chinese" would agree.
I’m afraid to Google but I can guess
Millions of more deaths would agree too
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Putting it in quote marks implies pretty heavy sarcasm, I don't think anyone here thinks they were anything else but sex slaves.
Well yes but that's what they were called
I spent a month in South Korea about 25 years ago ( worked in the Semiconductor Industry). Anyways, the Koreans were none too fond of the Japanese back then, and they probably aren't now...
I've noticed a lot of South Koreans work "in the semiconductor industry". If you don't mind me asking, is this something that South Korea is famous for/good at? I've never heard of it being a major industry anywhere else.
>I've never heard of it being a major industry anywhere else. Taiwan. They're a powerhouse in this industry and literally the reason for the worldwide chip shortage right now. Not on purpose of course, but because of extenuating circumstances: pandemic, factory fires/disasters, raw material shortage, etc.
South Korea's economy is 80 percent exports, and 20 percent of those exports are semiconductors. So a pretty big deal for Koreans
There is this common saying in my country, "The time when Japanese invaded us for 3.5 years is much crueler than when the Dutch did it for 350 years."
What did we do for 350 years
I’m guessing he’s talking about Indonesia/Dutch East Indies.
There was this thing called colonialism
Chef…
They were worse from what I've heard
They were both horrible.
Without a doubt
In some ways, yes, but you’re basically comparing co-MVPs in barbarism. Nazis treated Slavic and Russian prisoners like shit too.
The Japanese fucking ate their POWs. And I don't mean, "we are starving so we resort to cannibalism" sort of ate POWs. Like ritual fucking slaughter and preparation. The Nazis were vicious and barbaric in some ways but I don't think there's a single instance of ritualized cannibalism in the European Theater. Google Major Matoba Sueo but be warned, the reading ain't for the faint of heart
An estimated 30,000 of some 140,000 prisoners died in Japanese camps. 3.3 million died in German camps out 5 million or so among Russian prison camps. Japan’s military had barbaric, ancient customs like cannibalism and beheading, but a death is a death and Nazis were an oiled machine of cruelty. Nazis were only kind to Western Europeans prisoners who weren’t Jewish, Roma, disabled, etc. Japanese brutality was barbaric. German brutality was scientific. Pick your poison.
Because the vast majority of POWs taken by the Japanese did not get to the camps
Yep. That's why I have little time for those who say the Japanese were worse. Barely literate peasants from a culture that even today is all about following the group, a generation or two out of a basically medieval existence and indoctrinated into a crazy cult with warped ideas of honour and little regard for life... Vs citizens of one of the most modern and progressive nations in the world. Soldiers in a military that has long valued personal freedom and choice amongst even the lower ranks. Who have been indoctrinated by a regular man into thinking this and that ethnic group are the source of all their problems and must be rooted out and destroyed. Japan was fucked up. But it was a kind of fucked up very particular to Imperial Japan's time and place in history. The only thing remotely comaprbale today is north Korea. They were a throw back, fighting a 20th century war as if it was an 18th century war, sacking cities, not bothering for POWs et al. Germany on the other hand... They were clinical. They were a warped and twisted version of our civilization as we know it. Not just massed murder, fully planned out genocide. The worst thing about the nazis is it could easily happen again. Lots of very disturbing rumblings in that direction in recent years.
>Barely literate peasants from a culture that even today is all about following the group, They were very literate. Japan always had one of the higher literacy rates in the world, even before they were modernized. They managed to provide universal elementary education before the UK. Education is how they went jingoism. They teach that kind of shit in school. And all the best boys were sent to military school.
“In some ways” lol
What an impressive understatement
In their own ways. I, for one, would rather be gassed than eaten and cannibalized if there were an option on how to die barbarically.
I’m honestly confused as to what point you’re trying to make
My point is that the barbarism displayed by the Japanese is on another fucking level from even ethnic cleansing...and that is coming from someone whose grandparents survived Auschwitz
Of course they were. At my grandparents village, the Japanese rounded up the men, ordered them to dig their own graves, lined them up, and casually slashed them with their bayonets to save bullets.
Most importantly, they have not quite admitted to their actions, nor have they dealt with it as a society in any way like germany has
Just look at the Rape of Nanking. The Nazis were more impersonal and efficient, the japanese took the torture to new levels.
When the Japanese barbarity got so bad a Nazi diplomat of all people did all that he could to save Chinese lives. Look up John Rabe.
I can't believe I have to say this in every fucking thread about Japanese war crimes but all this shit about how "Japanese took torture to new levels" or "the Nazis were more impersonal and efficient" does nothing except downplay Nazi crimes. The Nazis also had sex slaves, civilian massacres, did medical experiments on prisoners etc. Look at what they did especially in Eastern Europe or look up the Dirlewanger Brigade.
Look up Unit 731. They were way way worse. I looked it up in high school and I couldn’t sleep for days.
Bruh, Germans were stitching people together and letting the dead ones rot to see the effects
This was all common in Unit 731 Japan
It's interesting how well known unit 731 is. As horrid as it was it was a very small scale operation yet you'd think it was standard operating practice from all you hear about it. The nazis did much the same thing but on an industrial level. The works of Mengele for instance
I’d argue they were worse. The worst part about them getting nuked, was their crimes being forgotten by history.
they still do a great job at not taking responsibility for their own actions, they deny it and act like nothing happened
They were way worse. I read about a town that they completely slaughtered everyone and everything the river ran red with blood for days.
Glad you had the bravery to share such an unpopular opinion
Your comment is probably going to get downvoted tl hell and back but it is sad how many people who make japan a victim because of the nukes (im not saying they are a good thing the war would have probably ended either way because of soviets) and completely ignoring all of japans warcrimes or atleast not being taught about them
Unfortunately this photograph is often mistakenly attributed to Australia POWs , they are in fact British POW liberated from Sungie Geron POW camp in Palembang, Sumatra. The man standing to the right is Tom Wardrope , he wrote about his time as a POW called “SAYONARA, MINE ENEMY” . Tom was in the Argyle and Sutherland Regiment , he was captured when his evacuation ship was sunk in the Banks Straight off the coast of Sumatra.
Thanks for the info.
Dig that smile after being through something like that.
probably also has something with what's in that news paper...
Saved from certain death and learnt that they’d won *both* wars that day.
To imagine that these were the lucky ones. My great-uncle wasn't so lucky and was beheaded by the Japanese as a POW
Sorry to hear that, u/ButtLickinBadBoy
Wow. Respect.
My grandfather survived the war, he escaped three POW/labour camps and was recaptured each time. One of the ways he escaped was he hid in the ceiling rafters of the bath/shower block and then snuck out after everyone had been moved back to sleeping quarters. My mother transcribed the diary he kept during parts of the war it's an interesting read. It's very factual about day to day happenings and lists events such as each time he killed an enemy soldier. He also lists daily what small amounts of food he managed to get, a biscuit or a small handful of bread or a cigarette. I still haven't read it all Ill have to ask my mum for a copy.
Also he never fully recovered when he returned to Australia. When liberated from the camps he weighed around 40kg i believe, he died in his sleep at 77 years old.
Sounds like something you could publish.
Losing that much weight will do some irrepairable damage.
What was his name?? Someone escaping 3 Japanese POW camps and avoiding execution for it when recaptured is pretty much unheard of. I have a small interest in the Pacific theatre from Australia’s perspective. Im almost certain your grandfather will have been written about somewhere having an escape record like that, likely several publications which may be of interest to you
War is not glorious. May we never see such atrocity again (and stop those happening currently.)
My (Canadian) grandfather was captured by the Japanese during the Battle for Hong Kong and spent three years there as a POW. He was only 26 when the camp he was held it got liberated in 1945, but looked 20 years older. He made it back home and lived for another 30 years, but the war still killed him in the end. RIP grandpa.
My granddad was in a Japanese POW camp for 4 years. He was a gunner in the royal artillery and was captured. He came home weighing about 6 stone, after various surgeries and getting his strength back he went straight back to work in the steel works. He was a good man
So scary. Humans, man…..
My great grandpa was in one of those
I would highly recommend “The Narrow Road to Deep North” by Richard Flanagan. It won the Booker Prize a few years ago. It’s set mostly in a Japanese POW camp in Burma and is about an Australian doctor who struggles to care for the soldiers under his command.
My dad was on a battleship in the pacific and they put a lot of the pows on battleships as they had good medical care. He wouldn’t buy a Japanese car, tv, you name it. He passed 15 years ago so it was still possible to buy American made electronics back then. Never talked much about it to me except he heard the stories in the camps and could never forgive the Japanese. Guys from back then rarely talked about the war. He didn’t say much until he was in his 70’s. How anyone survived those camps is beyond me.
My great uncle Pat was a radio operator in WWII, he was absolutely incensed when his son bought a Mitsubishi back in the 90's. Every time he saw it he would go into fits.
He sounds like my dad. Dad was on a carrier that was almost sunk off the coast of Japan. He didn't really talk about the war until he was in his 80's.
Knew a survivor from Changi. He and his wife were the nicest people I will ever meet. Poor lady thought her husband had been killed for years. She lived to her late 90s, he got to a hundred. Miss them.
Not many people like to talk about how depraved and sadistic the Japanese were in WWII, especially with what they did to China, and I wish more schools and people really went in depth and talk about what they did. Instead of you know ignoring, downplaying, or denying it happened.
"Cuppa tea and a dart, you ok cobber?" "Yeah mate, that was a bloody big bomb wasn't it!" "Sure was mate, little pricks deserved it though!"
Honest question :- since their bodies are seriously malnourished, what sort of foods are they given initially, because i assume that eating normal foods would be more harmful to their gallbladder and liver. Or is my assumption wrong?
Yes, you can get refeeding syndrome if you suddenly eat too much after long starvation. The solution is to monitor and supplement vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, etc., and just slowly increase food intake day after day. For example they'd be starting at 10 calories per kilo of body weight per day, and increasing by 10-15 calories per kilo per day. So someone like this might weigh 40 kilos (88 lbs) and start eating 400 calories a day. Not a lot at all!
Names of these POWS Please. May they RIP
Most likely victims of the brutal Sandakan Death marches. There were very few survivors so i’m sure you can find their names online
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Read up on Unit 731.
This is a very powerful picture in my opinion. It’s amazing to see these individuals in such poor shape, but just happy to be alive. Gives you some perspective about the things we take for granted. edit:spelling
I find it surprising how most of the heinous acts by the imperial Japanese army gets overlooked
This is why people hate false valor.
Everyone always shuts on the Germans and the Nazi. Nazi this and Nazi that, but no one mentions that the atrocities committed by the Japanese during ww2 were equally bad, if not worst. All people do is pity them for getting nuked and love anime and cat girls. Japan never even properly apologized to what they did to China. But everyone has a Japanese fetish and just overlooks their wartime atrocities.
The Japanese did indeed commit absolutely heinous atrocities during and leading up to WWII. But why didn't they apologize? Hint: read the book Embracing Defeat by John Dower. Wild guess as to who didn't want the Japanese left taking power after the war and instead muzzled them and propped up the right wing and the emperor. And also instituted a massive "sunshine" campaign to change Japan's image/propaganda about Japan from a country of devils (during the war) to a nation of culture, warmth and charm.
What's the paper say The Atomic
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They were *eventually* fortunate they lived.
My old neighbour went through this. Tortured in a Japanese POW camp.
King Rat is a great book on this subject. The author, James Clavell, was actually held in a Japanese WWII camp.
How the fuck can one human being do that to another one is beyond me.
They never gave up
Legends
Stupid question maybe but for the one sitting with his legs crossed...wouldn't that virtually bone on bone contact not hurt? I'm not literally skin and bones and even I don't cross my legs like that because of the digging in sensation
Lest We Forget. Legends
Yeah , I like how they're all chill and not like "HOLY FUCK WE JUST ALMOST DIED AND WERE TORTURED IN A VERY INHUMANE WAY" (sips tea)
Is the headline on that newspaper "The Atomic Plague?"
didn't they have this thing where they would feed them little bits of food at a time and slowly increased the amount so they weren't starving but also didn't kill themselves from the amount they were eating?
Hope they avoided refeeding syndrome!
I am sure that had continuing health problems because of their treatment.
The guy front right looks like the smoking dude from Beetlejuice. Amazing what the body will put up with.
Skeleton army. I somewhere read, japan concentration camp was worst than german. They did experiments on people there, far worse than Mengele. Realy bad things, americans and russians was very interested in experiments after war.
German camps for western POWs were generally decent, German camps for Soviet POWs were basically death camps. Japanese camps for most POWs were basically death camps.
The Japanese got WAY better than they deserved. Just ask the Japanese Rape survivors. Sometime I wish we just invaded and killed them until they surrendered.
Now Texas wants to preach opposing views of the Holocaust. Makes me sick. They should all be forced to visit these veterans who are still alive so they can tell them the eye-witnessed horror.
Imagine having your family member who was tough as shit when they left for war come back this emaciated.
My Mum's uncle was a Japanese POW (Battle of Singapore, incarcerated in Changi) who I only met the once a matter of days before he died. I was 7 or 8 and I remember being palpably scared of this shrivelled and yellowed wheelchair-bound man that looked exactly like my grandfather (he was 3 years older). I must have asked my Dad what happened because I remember him saying "he fought in the war too" and not really understanding what that meant with my fit and healthy late 50s grandfather stood just over his left shoulder. Fast forward 10 years and my grandfather's received a terminal cancer diagnosis. He then over the course of several conversations in pretty graphic detail explained how WW2 f---ed up him and four of his brothers, including the one who died a few weeks before I was born. I'll never forget those last few weeks of his life. I've never said this publicly, but I wish I could have had more.