Takeichi Nishi....

[Footslogger]

I was watching Letters from Iwo Jima and Baron Nishi took pity on a US Marine and ordered his men to treat the marines wounds. With all of today's stereotypes, were there any other Japanese soldiers that did what the Baron did? This would make a good research paper at my college. More info please?

[jeffk3510]

I am sure. They were human afterall....

[Zigurat666]

History is written by the victors. I,m pretty sure that the entire population of Japan's armed forces were not running around with portable thumb screws in their pockets for unwary G.I's. To think that would be naive in a way.

[morganbj]

ORIGINAL: Zigurat666

History is written by the victors. I,m pretty sure that the entire population of Japan's armed forces were not running around with portable thumb screws in their pockets for unwary G.I's. To think that would be naive in a way.

Not so.

I have it on good authority that thumb screws were provided to every Japanese school child when they attained the age of seven. By the time they were six, they had mastered the device and were then trained on the use of the samurai sword to behead bound prisoners. The final courses they took before completing their schooling concerned cruelty, deviousness, and world dominance.

See any US or British movie of the period, if you doubt my sources.

So there.

[crsutton]

This story was in the Washington Post on April 7.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fin ... s_homepage

[tocaff]

It always offers some hope that in the middle of the insanity and cruelty called war some can still keep their humanity and reach out to their "enemies."

[olperfessor]

Footslogger, before you write that paper you should read John Dower's War Without Mercy IMHO.

[Numdydar]

Don't forget the Christmas break the Germans and Allies had in WWI too as an example of people being human in the middle of a blood bath.

[sprior]

The stereotypes are true according to the BBC, so it must be true. But the same article also says "The Allies, he said, took no prisoners in the early days of the Normandy landings" which is demonstrably untrue.

[jeffs]

An interesting side bit to Baron Nishi is that many of his personal remains, including his Olympic Gold medal are on display at the Yasukuni Jinja Museum.
It is bizarrely very powerful for someone who has seen the film

http://www.yasukuni.or.jp/english/yushukan/index.html

http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaz ... /index.htm

Their descriptions of the war in/on China are definitely tainted. That said, they put a great deal of effort into the museum and westerners are not forced to disembowel themselves upon entrance (or maybe they let me
get away after I could talk in Japanese). The have a restored zero (ccol). They also have a tank (and it looks pretty lame)

[dr.hal]

Speaking of humanity in warfare, here is a piece I wrote in my "Director's Corner" (I'm a program director for a Masters program at Norwich University) on an incident in the Atlantic (the original has a bunch of photos with it but I'm not putting in this post):

Chivalry on the High Seas

Greetings folks, yes it is time for another sea story, as I know you all enjoy them SO much, and of course it is my favorite topic (once a swabby, always a swabby). Our tale this week is focused on the great Battle of the Atlantic wagged over 5 years pitting the United Kingdom against Germany. This battle, between U-boats and the Royal Navy, was for control of the seas and the flow of traffic upon them; the merchant ships that were the lifeline to the island nation.

This was a brutal battle fought to the death. Tens of thousands lost their lives, with little quarter given on either side. Ships sunk without warning, sailors left to freeze to death or drift on the high seas until overcome by other elements, submariners dying an unimaginable death of an imploding boat. But in all this horrific carnage, there were rays of chivalry and heroism that seldom get much play. There is one incident that stands out and is worth recounting; the sinking of the RMS Laconia.

The Laconia was a tired old pre-First World War Cunard liner of 20,000 tons that was working the passenger routes in the Atlantic until 1939. She was then taken over as a troop transport. On the 12 of September 1942 she was steaming at a fast 16 knots 900 miles off Freetown heading home. She was unescorted as it was the Royal Navy’s belief her speed was her best defense. Inside the ship were 1800 Italian POWs and around 900 Allied service people.

Unfortunately U-156 captained by Werner Hartenstein spotted her and maneuvered on the surface into an attack position. This took all day, but at 8 PM the U-boat was able to close and fired a spread of torpedoes, two hit and the ship was mortally wounded. Not all the life boats could be launched in time. Many hundreds jumped into the sea. Many hundreds more didn’t get that chance and went down with the ship.

Then something happened that almost never did in this war. The U-boat not knowing the cargo before the ship was hit, was astonished at the amount of life pouring out of the dying vessel. Against high command orders and instead of running away to fight another day, Hartenstein closed the stranded people and started picking up survivors!

Now you must remember a U-boat is TINY. Its crew of about 60 is crammed into a cigar shaped vessel of around 500 tons. There is no room! What could one small boat do? Well, Hartenstein notified Germany of his intentions to help and Admiral Donitz (in charge of all U-boat operations) agreed, sending two other German and one Italian U-boat to assist. Thus started one of the most humanitarian rescue attempts of the war.

U-156 broadcast appeals in plain English to enlist any help in the area. The British dismissed the messages as a trick and didn’t divert anyone. American B-24 Bombers on patrol also picked it up and attached U-156 for its pains. Fortunately the attacks failed (although they did sink a few lifeboats).

With decks crowed with men, with women and children inside the U-boats themselves and other survivors being towed in lifeboats behind, they set off. Five days later they were met by a small fleet of Vichy France ships (although technically neutral they were actually sent by the Germans) who took off the survivors, leaving the submarines to go about their deadly business.

The death toll from the sinking was awful, 1600 people lost their lives, but thanks to the actions of one captain, 1,100 were saved. The loss of the Laconia was terrible, yet a bit of honor was restored to an otherwise very savage fight.

[sprior]

There's an argument the germans only made a recue attempt because the majority of those on board were Italian PoWs. US submarines regularly picked up allied PoWs from torpedoed ships if they could too.

[dr.hal]

Well that would be a very valid argument if the Captain of the U-Boat could tell that they were Italians through a periscope, but that's simply not possible, he surfaced and started collecting survivors and then realized what he had hit... and he did not discriminate between nationalities, well on second thought he DID, he favored women and children ALL of whom were Allied folks!

[jeffk3510]

Like I said earlier...they were all humans.... Germans, Japanese, Russians....you name it....I am sure this was common throughout the entire war, if not all of military history in the history of the world...

[sprior]

I'm sorry guys, I just can't agree that WWII was just a bit of a misunderstanding and that everyone was basically decent, if a bit misguided. I'll just shut up.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: dr.hal

Well that would be a very valid argument if the Captain of the U-Boat could tell that they were Italians through a periscope, but that's simply not possible, he surfaced and started collecting survivors and then realized what he had hit... and he did not discriminate between nationalities, well on second thought he DID, he favored women and children ALL of whom were Allied folks!

It's a well known story. As far as "through a periscope", he did torpedo the ship after all. U-boats often surfaced to interrogate survivors in life-boats so there is nothing extraordinary required for the discovery of many prisoners' general identities. That does not take away from the humanitarian effort put forth, it's just a factual part of what happened.

[jeffk3510]

ORIGINAL: sprior

I'm sorry guys, I just can't agree that WWII was just a bit of a misunderstanding and that everyone was basically decent, if a bit misguided. I'll just shut up.

I am not saying everyone was decent. I am saying not everyone was a cruel heartless bastard that we think they are.

[chuckj118]

[align=left]Not all Germans were Nazis; Not all Nazis were SS; Not all SS were mass murderers; But enough were to kill a few million.

Not all Japanese were Samurai; not all Japanese were brutal to their enemies; but their national culture pushed them to be.; The stories of murders or humiliation of prisoners are rampant.; But most of the mass killings, murders, etc were personal crimes...unlike the Germans who made it into an industrial past-time.

Of course, according to Hollywood the truly evil during WW2 were the Americans.  They slaughtered Germans leaving bunkers, left burning germans to burn, and killed men who had there hands up on D-Day then joked about it.  The Americans were so awful that large numbers of the German army went out of their way to try and surrender to the USA or Brits rather than the Russians.  I suppose that was due to their desire to be beaten and slaughtered by the terrible US troops. 

They knew they deserved it you see.

[/align][align=right] [/align]

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: jeffk3510

ORIGINAL: sprior

I'm sorry guys, I just can't agree that WWII was just a bit of a misunderstanding and that everyone was basically decent, if a bit misguided. I'll just shut up.

I am not saying everyone was decent. I am saying not everyone was a cruel heartless bastard that we think they are.

I think you mistaken in your generalization of what "we" think. I believe the great majority here understand the difference between the generalization, and the degree to which it is valid, and an absolute, which isn't.

[Major SNAFU_M]

On the other, other, other hand, my wife's great uncle was a  POW that was on a Japanese ship torpedoed and sunk.  The Japanese would not let any of the oil-covered and (many) injured POWs into the life boats, etc. and smacked them repeatedly with oars if they tried to approach.  The Japanese were picked up and they left the POWs in the water.  Some few were rescued by allied forces.

That man, who for other actions was awarded the Order of the Orange, never would speak to a Japanese national for the rest of his life.