What changed Japanese attitude to POWs in inter-war period?
Upvote:0
In large part, it was due to Japan's choice of allies in the two world wars. (In both cases, Japan was a "junior partner.")
In World War I, Japan's main ally was Britain. That country preached (but didn't always practice), the concept of "fair play." Nevertheless, Japan accepted this "Western" concept in order to fit in, because Britain's allies represented"most of the world."
In World War II, Japan's main ally was Nazi Germany, a country that was fighting against "most of the world," and adopted an "anything goes" policy against most POWs. Germany's views actually coincided more closely with Japan's natural cultural instincts.
It's true that the Germans treated "American, British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand" prisoners quite well, and that their brutality was toward other prisoners on the eastern front. But Germany did this because it wanted to take on Britain (and possibly America) as junior partners in its "New Order." Japan, on the other hand, wanted to expel the Anglo-Americans from its "Greater Southeast Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," which is why it treated Australian, English and Americans as badly as they (and Germany) treated "other prisoners.
Upvote:9
During Russian-Japan war and WWI the Japan wanted to be a member of the "civilized" nations club. And often behaved according to its rules. During the WWII, Japan already was the member of a very different club, the German-Italy-Japan alliance, that STRUGGLED against that old club and the rules of the later were negated or neglected at best.
Upvote:11
Well, I happened to be native Japanese.
Simply saying, the answer is because the relationship after the WW1, Japanese Imperial Army aggressively started invading China ( Second-Sino War )., which had them expanded so deep into China, whereas, the U.S and its allies were pressuring more and more on Japanese about it. ( Even Imperial Japan relied heavily on the production of critical materials such as iron through the import from the U.S.
According to here, even at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the difference of the materials produced between Japan and America is as below.
GDP : the U.S 12.7 vs the Imperial Japan 1 ( hereunder same )
Annual volume of production of warships 4.5 vs 1
Airplane 6 vs 1
Raw iron 10 vs 1
Coal 10 vs 1
Electricity 6 vs 1
Oil 740! vs 1.
Due to the huge gap? as well as the difference of opinions on Chinese matters, Japan had become callig Americans and British in Japanese "鬼畜米英", translated, "Americans, British The Fiend".
Probably the most infamous treat by the Japanese Imperial Army of American POWs is Bataan Road Deathmarch, which the Imperial Japanese Army estimated the numbers of POWs should've been 15,000 〜 20,000, whereas the actual number was 80,000. From the start, Japanese Army themselves are not fed enough ------------------
So that, when the Imperial Japanese Army, poorly equipped and thousands of themselves died out of hunger themselves during the Pacific War, it is easy for us to consider that Japanese Imperial Army treated American, or British POWs brutally so. ( But I don't think it is no comparable to Holocaust by Nazi Germany though...... but well, the defeated can not say so much. )
Thank you.
More post
- 📝 What does BPE/PE in some archaeology journals stand for?
- 📝 How dangerous was it to be a coast watcher during the Pacific War?
- 📝 What was considered utility clothing before WW2?
- 📝 Did Stalin offer Hitler peace after Stalingrad?
- 📝 How did/do Sumerian numbers sound?
- 📝 Can anyone help identify this World War One uniform?
- 📝 Is there evidence in Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel that supports his "due not to innate differences in the peoples" conclusion?
- 📝 How widespread was the Arabic Language in Syria before Islamic conquest?
- 📝 Punishment for deserting lictors
- 📝 How much of "Russia" was actually occupied by the Germans in World War II?
- 📝 Is there an example of 2 opposing military forces both attempting pincer movements on each other?
- 📝 What repercussions did Agrippina's murder have for Pompeii?
- 📝 When did the use of "Contact!" by soldiers emerge?
- 📝 What is meaning of 4 letter abbreviations in Roman names like Titus Flavius T. f. T. n. Sabinus?
- 📝 Is it true that "All spicy food is from Latin America"?
- 📝 Why didn't Marathas rule Delhi officially?
- 📝 Extent of Empire of Lalitaditya Muktapida?
- 📝 Why was there a perceived high rate of AIDS infection among Haitians?
- 📝 What was the population of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750 CE?
- 📝 During the Normandy landings, were any German naval assets brought to bear against the Allies?
- 📝 Antoninus Pius coins
- 📝 Were any Egyptian pyramids designed to be half an octahedron?
- 📝 What's the explanation for the similarities seen between the Rapa Nui script and the Indus Valley Script?
- 📝 Why was Ernst Röhm murdered?
- 📝 Did the Soviet military in fact fear that the Space Shuttle would be used as an orbital bomber? If so, why?
- 📝 Were iconic structures intentionally destroyed in 20th century wars?
- 📝 During feudalism in Europe, was one's allegiance to the lord more or less important than the allegiance to the king?
- 📝 Are the English Celts?
- 📝 Why didn't the Arab states industrialize?
- 📝 Why did anti-Chinese riots occur during the Indonesian Reformation of 1998?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What changed Japanese attitude to POWs in inter-war period?
- 📝 What is the best way to describe the form of Japanese government during the years before and during world war 2?
- 📝 What was the nature of the Japanese presence in China in the later stages of World War II?
- 📝 Could someone help to identify this Japanese mon found on what appears to be a late Edo Period Jingasa?
- 📝 What effects did World War II have on Japanese animation industry?
- 📝 What did Germany do in World War II about the different rail gauge in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 What were Germany's long-term aims in World War I?
- 📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
- 📝 What do the modern Japanese people think about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- 📝 What was the longest a World War II submarine stayed at sea without being resupplied at a port?
- 📝 What was the cleanest war ever fought?
- 📝 What was the Seven Years War called at first?
- 📝 What did Germany do after World War II to recover so successfully that it became more prosperous than its WW2 victors?
- 📝 What tactical situations made the use of traditional horse cavalry effective in World War II?
- 📝 What made the Russian Navy suspect Japanese torpedo boats were in North Sea in 1904?
- 📝 What were the post World War 2 effects on Germany?
- 📝 What was the ratio women to men after World War 2 in the Soviet Union
- 📝 What was the first known war in history?
- 📝 What goods did Germany trade during World War II, and with whom?
- 📝 What was the Hundred Years' War called at the time?
- 📝 What are the hay effigies in this Japanese movie?
- 📝 What factors related to the Eastern Crisis contributed to the outbreak of World War 1?
- 📝 What is the name and meaning of a World War 2 CCC Medal with both the Polish Eagle and British Statant Gardant Lion?
- 📝 How did the Japanese treat captured "Flying Tigers" in World War II?
- 📝 What was the church's attitude to "magic" prior to the 15th century?
- 📝 What percentage of British and American troops were involved in direct combat with enemy in World War II
- 📝 To what degree did women participate in the air war during WW2?
- 📝 What was the attitude of English knights towards their longbowmen counterparts?
- 📝 What were the individual soldiers motivated by during World War 1?
- 📝 What is the story of war that started with "if"?