What was the role of Shinto religion in making Japanese soldiers so fanatic and merciless? Does Shinto religion have anything that could have prevented adherents of that religion from being so cruel?
Or did State Shinto religion of Imperial Japan stimulate cruel behavior?
What was the influence of Buddhism in Imperial Japan during World War Two?
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Great question, note I am no expert on Shinto. Apparently it was the state religion until 1945. When I was there In 2019 the huge Shinto temple in Central Tokyo was next to the infamous Yushukan museum. Having said that, there seem to be a number of Shinto variants.
Here is Mark Felton
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I think this depends on perspective. I read, that since surrender was out of the question for a normal japanese soldier, it was seen as a punishment if you had to look after prisoners. Therefore guards was men of low moral standard that had no respect for men who have surrendered. I guess the combination created the rude threatment of pow’s.
As a fun fact this also means that Japanese pow’s just talked freely under interrogation as the concept of pow was a nonexisting option, and therefore behavior under interrogation was not part of their training.
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