VJ Day 75th Anniversary

timthumbni

Today is the 75th anniversary of Victory over Japan in the Second World War.

Events are being held in Northern Ireland to mark the occasion.

Interestingly reading the BBC NI news site there was an article regarding a soldier from a nationalist area of Belfast who joined the British army and was captured by the Japanese in Singapore. He suffered greatly like most others who spent time in any pow camp under the Japanese. His son said he would never allow anything Japanese made in his house.

My point is that the Japanese are known for being almost painfully polite.
When you read about how brutally they treated their prisoners or watched some of the movies on the subject I find it puzzling they would act like this.
And it wasn’t just a one off. It appears that almost all of Japanese pow camps were shockingly brutal.

timthumbni

timthumbni wrote: »

My point is that the Japanese are known for being almost painfully polite.
When you read about how brutally they treated their prisoners or watched some of the movies on the subject I find it puzzling they would act like this.
And it wasn’t just a one off. It appears that almost all of Japanese pow camps were shockingly brutal.

Read up on the culture and history regarding the composition of their governments leading up to the war. It's not that confusing.

It's not about Japanese people themselves. It was about the culture of the time, the history of the region, and a perspective regarding to quality/importance of life. Generally all of which were different to western values and perspectives because of a vastly different history. You can see similar attitudes regarding other ethnic groups throughout Asia (and Africa).

EmmetSpiceland

They weren’t too “polite” in Unit 731, lots of pain though.

timthumbni

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

They weren’t too “polite” in Unit 731, lots of pain though.

Well, that makes for a nice read on a Saturday morning. Shocking. And the Americans let them off with it too.