Nanjin massacre, the unit 731, and the Bataan Death March - -- -all of the case are mainly ill-treatment of POW.
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The Bataan Death March began at Mariveles on 10 April, and lasted for a week. During this hellish march, sick and starving prisoners were beaten randomly and denied any water.The US Army Center for Military History has estimated that as many as 650 American POWs and between 5,000-10,000 Filipino POWs were killed during the Bataan Death March.linklink
Nanjin massacre happened during occupation of Nanjin from noveber 1937 to February 1938.40000 to 100,000 Chinese captives and POWs were massacred.
The unit 731 was the secret military medical unit.It performed brutal human experimentations on living POWs to study the effect of biological weapons.It used boilogical weapons on Chinese cities.<,linklink
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testimony(in Japanese)linklink
We should not turn away from history.
Listen to the voice of victims.
<1>
For four years I was kept in solitary confinement and had no companionship at all. I was always blindfolded, or had to wear a blindfold when someone came into the room. I never saw another human being. The initial effect is eerie, but eventually you become accustomed to it
I had to get what exercise I could while chained to the wall. I had five minutes a day to go to the bathroom; for the rest of the time I had to use a bottle.link
<2>
For six days we received neither food nor water! We used our spoons to catch drops of rain.
We were surrounded by heavy tanks. During the night bright searchlights blinded us, so that sleep was impossible. We napped from time to time, standing up and leaning against each other. It was keeping us warmer that sitting on the frozen ground.
Many of us were near collapse. One of our comrades went mad, he jumped around wildly, wailing and whimpering. he was shot at once. His body was lying on the ground, and we were not allowed to come near him. He was not he only one. Each suspicious movement caused the guards to shoot into the crowd, and a few were always hit.link
And look at what they did to defenseless soldiers!
<3>
On one occasion he commented to a group of senior officers that very few ・・・ seemed to be taken prisoner.
"Oh, we could take more if we wanted to," one of the officers replied. "But our boys don't like to take prisoners.
"It doesn't encourage the rest to surrender when they hear of their buddies being marched out on the flying field and machine-guns turned loose on them."
his allegations are supported by other ・・・・ diarists, who report that ・・・・・, in particular, did not take many prisoners. Prof Aldrich also discovered new diaries showing that ・・・ generals worried about the abuse of human remains by their troops.
They were particularly concerned that the skulls of dead ・・・・ soldiers were often displayed as gruesome mascots by some units, while ....marines made a speciality of collecting ears.
".... are still being shot all over the place," he wrote. "The necessity for capturing them has ceased to worry anyone. ...soldiers are just so much machine-gun practice. Too many of our soldiers are tied up guarding them."link
And human experimentation!!
<4>
"When the needle entered the brain substance, she complained of acute pain in the neck. In order to develop more decided reaction, the strength of the current was increased by drawing out the wooden cylinder one inch. When communication was made with the needles, her countenance exhibited great distress, and she began to cry. Very soon, the left hand was extended as if in the act of taking hold of some object in front of her; the arm presently was agitated with clonic spasm; her eyes became fixed with pupils widely dilated; her lips were blue, and she frothed at the mouth; her breathing became stertorous; she lost consciousness and was violently convulsed on the left side. The convulsion lasted five minutes, and was succeeded by a coma. She returned to consciousness in twenty minutes from the beginning of the attack, and complained of some weakness and vertigo.">
she died a few days later, and her death certificate stated that she died from cancerDavid J. Rothman
What rationalizes ill-treatment of POWs?
<5>
"If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job," said one official
link
"We would be doing a great service to all nations to blur the distinction between combatants and stateless terrorists,”
"They will be handled not as prisoners of war, because they’re not, but as unlawful combatants do not have any rights under the Geneva Convention.
"We have indicated that we do plan to, for the most part, treat them in a manner that is reasonably consistent with the Geneva conventions, to the extent they are appropriate.”link
And denial?
<6>
officials categorically denied these false claims on numerous occasions.・・・・I would ... like to state categorically and unequivocally that these charges are entirely false; the・・・ forces have not used, and are not using, any sort of bacteriological warfarelink
Oh,god, Japanese are cruel,savage, barbarian, aren't they?
But click the link.<1> is not what happened to the U.S.POW but it is told by a former Beirut Hostage on the Guantanamo Prisoners.<2>is not what happened at the battan death march but what American soldiers did to German Pows.and <3> is not not description of Nanjin Massacre but what Amercian and Austraisan soldiers did to Japanese soldiers, and <4> is not what the unit 731 did but an desctiption of experimentaion on an Irish girl by an American doctor.<5> is not Japanese revisionist's comment but what an U.S. official and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said about detainees at Guantanamo Bay.<6> is not Japanese politician's statement but the statement of the U.S official to the allegation that the U.S used biological warfare during Korean War.link
It is not my intention to portray the U.S. as an evil country.On the contrary, the U.S. has been a good teacher for Japan, and I respect the country.It is just that since the U.S. is the most open country, it was easy to find the imformation.It is harder to find the detail of the massacre in the country like China and Korea where the freedom of speech is not protected.But of course, we can find the similar cases in each country.(See China's bloody century, Massacres of civillianslink
I am not trying to whitewash what Japan did, I listed the links about Japan's cases on this post, so you can read them:they illustlate the maddness at war.The madness is in us, in the humanity.There are heros such as Hugh Thompson, Jr.at My Lai,but not everyone can be a hero.We need to keepd keep Eichmann in mind and we should also take notice of the experiment by Stanley Milgram.
My point is that I just want you to notice that ill-treatment of Pows are not only Japan's problem, but also world's problem.
I want you to realise that every country tend to cover up and, when revealed, every country tris to rationalize the massacre,
I want you to recoginize how important to investigate the truth for both sides---one who alleges and the other who are alledged.
It is much more profittable to aproach this issue as a universal issue rather than the issue of one nation.
And if you turn away from what the US,China, Korea did, but blame only Japan, you are racist, you are using this issue not to gain an insight on the issue but only to gain the upperhand of Japan.>
Now why is it that the massacre happened?I'll list some reasons I came across.
Japanese people believed everything was justifiable if it was done for the sake of the country and "Tenno Heika"
[E]ugenic and racist ideologies were prevalent in Japan, as well as in the Western countries.
Since POWs were destined to be excuted anyway, some doctors rationalized their act by thinking
it was better to utilize them for research and getting precious data than merely to execute them.Takashi Tsuchiya
And,other doctors explain,
The defense's argument was that experimentation with human beings had been accepted medical procedure. The question, they asked, is whether "medical experimentation can be considered a crime." The prosecution did not argue this, but condemned the experiments because they had been used for political and racial purposes. David J. Rothman
Japanese soldiers were trained to commit suicide when they got captured,that partly explains the ill treatment of the POW.For their conciousness, there were little reason to preserve captives's lives when they themselves were commited to kill themselves when captured.
In relatiion to this,we should also take note of the fact that
Individually administered punishments (i.e. vindictive bashings by camp guards) were a major issue at the Tribunal. Such beatings were rampant, whether in the actual camps or on work siteslink
And also the sentiment of revenge partly explain the ill-treatment of POW.Imagine your friends are killed in front of you, and the murderer is now here as a POW. It is easy to treat him badly.Besides it is pointed out Japanese troop lacked logistic, they did not bring enough food when they invaded, so they looted where they invaded.
These psychological,ideological and material factors must have played an improtant role but they are not necessary for the tradgedy to happen.
But Gray's book shows that 'honest, conscientious, compassionate' physicans have been led into bad practice by a bad system."David J. Rothman
Eileen Welsome's book, "The Plutonium Files," (Dial Press, 1999), documents radiation experiments on human beings in the United States from the 1940s, after the exposure of Nazi experiments and the articulation of the Nuremburg Code. Some of the doctors who conducted these experiments and were later interviewed about them, confessed that they knew of the Nurmeberg Code, but did not think it applied to them--that code was for the barbarian NazisDavid J. Rothman
We need a system to prevent the massacre.
There was no system to administer POW matters with proper authority and in a unified fashion. link
The women, ranging from enlisted soldiers to officers, have reported poor medical treatment, lack of counseling and incomplete criminal investigations by military officials. Some say they were threatened with punishment after reporting assaults.link(This is the case of woman victims raped by fellow American soldiers)
So we need to build up the system to check and address the matter .
And as Rummel points out,of course democracy is the most essential element to prevent the democide .However, that is not good enough, even in the most developed country such as the U.S. the democide take place.
The democraitc system without checks from outside are likely to fail,
The U.S mistreatment of German POWs,or the high rape rate by GI's at the occupied cities by G.I. are cases in point.
I think what is needed,in addition to the democratic administration within the system,is the constant check from the third party,a special committee and journalists that check and report to the world what is happening in the place like the battle fields and prison camps and medical research centers and occupied areas, where life is most likely to be endangered.
Notes
<3>
American troops 'murdered Japanese PoWs'
By Ben Fenton
(Filed: 06/08/2005)
American and Australian soldiers massacred Japanese prisoners of war, according to one of the most detailed studies of memoirs of the Second World War in the Pacific, published this week.
It also discloses that the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army were far from the cruel, mindless troops of popular legend, and that Gen Douglas MacArthur wanted to launch nuclear strikes on the Soviet Union from an underground airstrip in Britain.
On one occasion he commented to a group of senior officers that very few Japanese seemed to be taken prisoner.
"Oh, we could take more if we wanted to," one of the officers replied. "But our boys don't like to take prisoners.
"It doesn't encourage the rest to surrender when they hear of their buddies being marched out on the flying field and machine-guns turned loose on them."
his allegations are supported by other American diarists, who report that the US marines, in particular, did not take many prisoners. Prof Aldrich also discovered new diaries showing that American generals worried about the abuse of human remains by their troops.
They were particularly concerned that the skulls of dead Japanese soldiers were often displayed as gruesome mascots by some units, while US marines made a speciality of collecting ears.
Australian troops are also shown not to like taking prisoners. Prof Aldrich quotes the 1943 diary of Eddie Stanton, an Australian posted to Goodenough Island off Papua New Guinea. "Japanese are still being shot all over the place," he wrote. "The necessity for capturing them has ceased to worry anyone. Nippo soldiers are just so much machine-gun practice. Too many of our soldiers are tied up guarding them."
<5>
While the US Government publicly denounces the use of torture, all of the national security officials interviewed defended the use of violence against captives as "just and necessary",
"If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job," said one official who has supervised the capture and transfer of accused terrorists. "I don't think we want to be promoting a view of zero tolerance on this."
Some officials estimated that fewer than 100 captives have been transferred to third countries. But thousands have been arrested and held with US assistance in countries known for brutal treatment of prisoners, the officials said.By Dana Priest and Barton Gellman
December 27 2002
"We would be doing a great service to all nations to blur the distinction between combatants and stateless terrorists,”
"They will be handled not as prisoners of war, because they’re not, but as unlawful combatants do not have any rights under the Geneva Convention.
"We have indicated that we do plan to, for the most part, treat them in a manner that is reasonably consistent with the Geneva conventions, to the extent they are appropriate.”link
As I understand it, technically unlawful combatants do not have any rights under the Geneva Conventions
US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeldlink
US judge says Guantanamo inmates have 'no rights'
"War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts," Judge Scalia said, during a talk on March 8 at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland, according to Newsweek.
"Foreigners, in foreign countries, have no rights under the American Constitution... Nobody has ever thought otherwise."linkTimes Online
The link deals with abuse
of POWs
I have written this post after reading the Korea liberator. I like the blog,but I thought either the author was a bit naive about his own country or he/she was unfair about this point..
The following is how the U.S government responded to the "The Forgotten War2
'...US commanders repeatedly, and without ambiguity, ordered forces under their control to target and kill Korean refugees caught on the battlefield.'
'...up to 400 South Korean civilians gathered by the bridge were killed by US forces from the 7th Cavalry Regiment.
'...as late as January 1951, the US 8th Army was detailing all units in Korea that refugees be attacked with all available fire including bombing.'
Previously, the US Army had dismissed the claims of South Korean survivors who, since 1960, had been trying to tell the truth about the killings at No Gun Ri. The Army said that US forces were not even in the area of No Gun Ri at the time of the killings.
Denial
Detail from US Air Force memo
The Pentagon inquiry into No Gun Ri was finally released in January 2001. The basis of its conclusions are doubtful. The investigation acknowledged the killing of civilians at No Gun Ri by US forces, but it concluded that the killings that took place there were not deliberate attacks but 'an unfortunate tragedy inherent to war'.
'I think the American government, the Pentagon and most government agencies don't want to see the truth come out if it will embarrass the government.I think it's almost a rule of political science. The government will always lie about embarrassing matters. And when you are up in the Pentagon a full Colonel and have a chance to make General, and General with the chance to become Chief of Staff, there's as much politics high in the Pentagon as there is in the halls of Congress. And I think that the Army just chose to try and down play the terrible character of Army leadership in 1950.'
The only major American investigation into the killing of refugees focused exclusively on the activities of the US Army over a small geographic area during one month of a conflict that lasted three years. Contradicting testimony from veterans and Korean survivors, the report concluded that there was no evidence to suggest that orders to kill civilians were given at No Gun Ri.BBC
Millions were in germ war tests
Much of Britain was exposed to bacteria sprayed in secret trials
Antony Barnett, public affairs editor
Sunday April 21, 2002
The Observer cash
神風、死の行進についての証言
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