Japanese Prisoners Of War

[chuffinel]

Peterw, I feel that I owe you an apology for my choice of words used in addressing you in my last post. However much I try to rationalize it, it was a personal attack on you and I'm sorry. We are all entitled to our opinions and mine is a strong one regarding the a-bomb on Japan. It would appear that yours is equally strong but of the opposite view. My view is somewhat coloured by some of the stories I heard from the former workmate that I mentioned earlier.Let's agree to disagree and keep the thread on topic. Thanks.

[Falls]

Hi,

 

Ref; Japan's treatment of PoW's in the second world war.

 

I knew four who survived the Japanese prison camps. Three were dead by 1960. Only one survived to become a senior citizen.

 

If any of you younger people want to get a different perspective on this subject and are planning a trip to S.E.Asia any time soon, you might want to stop off in Thailand and visit a place called Kanchanaburi. Better still, take the train from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi (a 2-3 hour ride) and ride on up to Namkot, the end of what is left of the railway the Allied PoW's and locals virtually built with their bare hands. Known locally as the Death Railway. I worked in Thailand in 1993/94 and after my first visit, I kept being drawn back to the place.

 

When the project was first considered by the Japanese High Command, Army engineers said it would take five years to build a railway into Burma if they could get the right heavy equipment. But the PoW's and local people built it in 17 months with pick, shovel and their lives. There are about 3000 PoW buried in the cemetery in Kanchanaburi and about the same number in each of two cemeteries up the line. The rest are buried somewhere at the side of the track bed. It is also estimated that approx. 100,000 local people also lost their lives on the project. They died from mistreatment but principally from disease. The Red Cross were delivering the necessary medical supplies to the camps but this was confiscated by the Japanese.

 

None of this, you might say, was in accordance with the Geneva Convention or any other recognized standard for international behaviour.

 

Just a foot note or two:

 

At the end of the War, the British lifted up all the track in Burma before they left in 1946?. The section in Thailand, from Namkot to Three Pagoda's

Pass near the border, was abandoned.

 

Kanchanburi is also home to the Bridge over the River Kwai (The bridge is actually over a river called the Kwai Nor or Little Kwai). Its nothing like the bridge in the movie.

 

Incidentally, the bridge in the movie (it was shot in Sri Lanka) was designed in the Colombo Office of Husband and Co., Consulting Engineers, of Sheffield.

 

Regards

[Arfer Mo]

Arthur; Thank you all for your comments, the reason Iasked was my brother refused to talk about it saying things were so horrible he wanted to forget.

[biker]

You’re quite right, the Americans did use flame-throwers in the Second World War (I don’t like the American version WW2) and in the first world war. The Germans did use poison gas in the First World War, and you’re equally right about the use of the machine-gun which BOTH sides used. You’re also correct about the Japanese, but to kill many thousands of Japanese civilians was morally inexusable. I regret having to say this, but there was an uproar from America when terrorists used three WMD to hit the twin towers, but of course it was fine for them to use atomic bombs!

I believe that the Germans were first to use flamethrowers in WW1.About the atomic bomb in WW2.If the bombs hadnt been dropped then Japan would have fought to extinction,military and civilian so everybody from Japan since then owes their live to the bombs.The Americans would have suffered terrible losses which might have affected their attitude to Europe post war and Russia would have entered the war on Japan.Russia would have had a major influence on the area after the war and who knows what would have happened.Japan were guilty of the worst crimes against people and still will not admit it.Their emperor survived without punishment.

[KJ_VENOM]

You’re quite right, the Americans did use flame-throwers in the Second World War (I don’t like the American version WW2) and in the first world war. The Germans did use poison gas in the First World War, and you’re equally right about the use of the machine-gun which BOTH sides used. You’re also correct about the Japanese, but to kill many thousands of Japanese civilians was morally inexusable. I regret having to say this, but there was an uproar from America when terrorists used three WMD to hit the twin towers, but of course it was fine for them to use atomic bombs!

 

another lets bash america rant the atom bomb dropped on japan shortened the war against japan without it WWII may have carried on for ages costiing more lives both soldiers and civilians

 

as for flame throwers both sides in WWI used these germany used gas attacks in WWI by all accounts a trerrible way to die luckily no-one would ever use chemical weapons against an enemy in this day and age let alone their own countrymen would they?

[daisy2]

Both my parents and their families were interned as British civilian POWs in Burma. My father was beaten on the knees and at one point faced a firing squad for beating up a Japanese soldier - he never spoke to us about it but suffered a great deal of pain throughout his life. They were perhaps more fortunate than most in that they were provided with food and during the day were allowed to work. One of the guards would warn them of air raids so they could avoid the 'hedgehoppers'. My Mum is nearly 90 and still remembers those days.

[biker]

Both my parents and their families were interned as British civilian POWs in Burma. My father was beaten on the knees and at one point faced a firing squad for beating up a Japanese soldier - he never spoke to us about it but suffered a great deal of pain throughout his life. They were perhaps more fortunate than most in that they were provided with food and during the day were allowed to work. One of the guards would warn them of air raids so they could avoid the 'hedgehoppers'. My Mum is nearly 90 and still remembers those days.

Anybody who was a prisoner of the japanese has my total sympathy as many were treated very badly.The Japanese committed far more crimes than the Germans but suffered far less post war.I went to the Imperial War Museum a few years ago.1 floor was all about the extermination of the Jews by the Germans.Another floor was about crimes against humanity by nations.The Japanese were not mentioned as committing war crimes and they were the worst of all.

[willo]

my grandad was gassed on the somme in 1916 & spent the rest of his life coughing his lungs up,his philosophy was -they started it-we finished it.as to the japs our ole fella was over there & saw summa the s**T the japs dished out to unarmed prisoners & colonial conquests[burmese etc]& allus said they were subhuman troops blinded by a pretend emperor even more fu***d up than adolph.as to the atom bomb-any 1 got relatives that fought on okinawa-say no more.after the surrounding islands fell recently declassified info shows the japs were gonna defend the homeland using P>O>W>S as human sandbags.they started it with a cowardly attack on pearl harbour & inadvertaintlly helped us achieve world peace,which we should strive to upkeep by any means nessescary.

[buck]

Yes, they dropped the atom bomb and shortened the war — with a WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION. They did the same in the first world war against the Germans — that time with flame-throwers, another WEAPON OF MASS DESTSRUCTION which was contrary to the Geneva Convention.

Lets not forget that the germans used poson gas in the first world war. America didn't join till 1917, the germans were using flame throwers long before that. I know you hate America but tell the truth once in your life.

[Texas]

Never had any relatives unfortunate enough to be taken prisoner by Japanese forces, but I did get to know, briefly, a guy who was. I worked for a short while on the G.P.O when they still did telephones, I got a job on a line gang, pulling cable through ducts.

The guy in question, his name was Earn, and I suppose that was short for Earnest, never did know his second name, had been captured, and became a P0W.

He was very quiet, thin as a rail, and worked like a demon.

I got his history second hand from the ganger, who was ex-world war two himself.

Apparently he had been forced to work on some Japanese railway project, but survived.

What got me though, was the fact that all he had, when he was released, was a bedroll and his loincloth, and that's all he had until he landed at Liverpool in the middle of winter. Bloody hell, they dont half look after you dont they.