After watching the “Christmas” episode for 1941 this week, it was mentioned in the segment for the fall of Hong Kong that Japanese tortured, murdered and raped British, Canadian, Indian and Chinese soldiers and medical staff in retaliation for the stiff resistance they faced. (As stiff as the Commonwealth could be given the circumstances). I find it interesting this was the case given we always hear how the Japanese always did similar things to allied soldiers they felt hadn’t fought hard enough. I guess I’d like more to start a discussion to see if this seems paradoxical or hypocritical. Just how the episode covered it made me think. Like to see what you all think. In memory of the horrid tragedy that occurred that Black Christmas. (I’m Canadian).
I’m not sure it was hypocritical or paradoxical. Surrender was always a sign of weakness to the Japanese, regardless if the ones surrendering fought valiantly or meekly.
The Japanese Army and Navy had significant culture differences compared with western militaries or the Soviet military. The Army had an open tolerance for physical abuse and assault of soldiers by their superiors far in excess of any other military. PoWs noted that when their guards weren’t beating them, they were beating each other.
The officer corps did not respond to civilian control in ways that would be called insubordination, insurrection and mutiny in any other country.
In past wars such as the Russo-Japanese War the Japanese Armt had behaved as every other army did with respect to surrenders and prisoners. The change towards prisoners was a symptom of the changes that brought the militarist to power in Japan.
The Japanese started having a different mentality after WW1 and a lot of factors lead to how they treated enemy combatants and civilians and they were brutal in their treatment of POWs and conquered territorial populations by many accounts their methods were more brutal than what the Germans were doing. After the fall of Hong Kong as many as 12,000 civilians were raped, tortured and murdered in the coming years of occupation.
During the death March of POWs from Hong Kong to various camps if you fell you were almost guaranteed to be killed by the guards. There is one account of a British Soldier that collapsed and as the Japanese guards walked by they would bayonet him as he screamed until he finally went silent after several guards had stabbed him. By many accounts the Hong Kong death March was more brutal than the Bataan death March but wasn’t well reported at the time it only came to light of the public after the war but it’s a forgotten part of history.
Prison Camps were even worse as food was scarce at the best of times even when it was plentiful and you could be executed for the slightest infraction. Add to that POWs were tortured just for fun and amusement of the guards. One Canadian POW recalled one of his mates was beaten senseless for over an hour by the guards who used bamboo sticks, wooden staffs and rifle butts all because one of the guards didn’t like the way he looked.