[skeet]

Originally Posted by Rapier

How bad was Japan, you should talk to members of the Airborne that jumped into the PI and liberated the JAP camps they were in many ways worse than the German camps. Or the Marines who took back the little islands after the surrender, where US Prisoners were herded into trenches and burned alive using gasoline poured on them, so they would not tell of their torture and killing. You would never forget that either. Let us not forget a small thing known as "The Rape of Nan king" where the Japs murdered 250,000 to a half million civilians AFTER the city surrendered. The oriental people in the Pacific lost millions of souls, not due to war, but occupation by a brutal animal they call the Japanese Army. Their atrocities are so profound one must make a list and under C include cannibalism, as documented events. Heard about it, no? Why not? Perhaps it is Sony, Nissan, etc. are still run by Japanese Army officers, never tried.

German concentration camp guards were not just a poor GI sent to do his duty. They could always transfer to combat units. Most camp guards stayed not because of what you suspect, self-preservation, nope, they were selected to start with for brutality. Their prisoners were animals and were going to die. The Germans found out early on that a regular GI could not stand the repeated killings, so with typical efficiency; they selected replacements that could and would kill again and again without EFFECT. That is what you are looking at, not a poor old man, but a mass murderer hand picked by a government as a killing machine, a killer of innocents.

And some of those reasons are why I do not think we should forgive or forget. My uncle was one of those liberating guys in the Pacific. He very seldom spoke of the experiences..or of the powers that were telling them to NOT talk of them. The Japanese were in some ways worse than the Germans..much worse. Especially to our prisoners of war...Many of the Jap military thought of the people who surrendered to be of no use..A real man would not surrender...would fight to the death. So therefor whatever he did to a prisoner was alright. The prisoner was less than human anyway, afterall. And Ed is correct From what I have read and learned first hand..the guards in the European camps HAD to do this murder everyday...the average person could not endure such a thing unless somewhat deranged. It is surprising that we had very little retaliation by the American and Allied troops in The European theater. In the Pacific though..you should talk to the men that were there. They had very little regard for the people they were killing. Most, I think, just realized it was either kill the enemy or they would be killed. It was truly brutal. To many of the American troops it was incomprehensible