65 years since Hiroshima: Continuing lack of awareness of the predicament of the POWs

REK

The following link describes a massacre similar to what was anticipated for all POW's.

American Prisoners of War: Massacre at Palawan » HistoryNet

A Canadian POW, Vince Calder, makes reference to that incident and obviously they had prepared for that possibility.

"In May 1945, when we heard the war with Germany was over, our hopes went sky high. We had always though that, when Germany surrendered, Japan would try to hold on for a month or two and then claim that since their allies had double-crossed them by giving up, they could not continue fighting the world by themselves. After May, our treatment in camp continued to be fairly good, but at work it was no fun whatsoever. We took more beatings those days than ever before because the Nippers knew the war was on its last legs. We knew it also, and so we only laughed at them and they realised that some day soon, we might just get a crack at them too. For the past 1-1/2 years, we had the camp planted with dynamite in case they tried the same things on us that they did in Palewan."

 

Good thread REK

Batu Lintang camp

Following the unconditional surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945, the camp was liberated on 11 September 1945 by the Australian 9th Division. On liberation, the camp population was 2,024, of whom 1,392 were POWs, 395 were male civilian internees and 237 were civilian women and children. Amongst official Japanese papers found at the camp following its liberation were two "death orders". Both described the proposed method of execution of every POW and internee in the camp. The first order, scheduled for enactment on for 17 or 18 August, was not carried out; the second was scheduled to take place on 15 September. The timely liberation of the camp may have prevented the murder of over 2,000 men, women and children.

....


Death orders

Immediately prior to the surrender of Japan, rumours abounded in the camp that the Japanese intended to execute all the prisoners rather than allow them to be freed by the approaching Allied forces; when Dr Yamamoto informed some prisoners that they were to be moved to a new camp they naturally feared the worst, especially when he promised the unlikely idyll of a camp "equipped with the best medical equipment obtainable ... there would be no working parties and food would be plentiful ... the sick men would be especially well cared for".


Official orders to execute all the prisoners, both POWs and civilian, on 17 or 18 August 1945 were found in Suga's quarters after liberation of the camp. The orders were not carried out, presumably as a result of the unconditional surrender of Japan on 15 August. A "death march", similar to those at Sandakan and elsewhere, was to have been undertaken by those male prisoners physically able to undertake it; other prisoners were to be executed by various methods in the camp:

• 1 All POWs and male internees to be marched to a camp at milestone 21 and bayoneted there
• 2 All sick unable to walk to be treated similarly in the Square at Kuching [in the square at the camp rather than in Kuching town]
• 3 All women and children to be burnt in their barracks

Revised orders for the execution on 15 September 1945 of all the internees were also found, this time in the Administration Office at Batu Lintang:

• Group 1 Women internees, children and nuns - to be given poisoned rice
• Group 2 Internee men and Catholic Fathers to be shot and burnt
• Group 3 POWs to be marched in to the jungle, shot and burnt
• Group 4 Sick and weak left at Batu Lintang main camp to be bayoneted and the entire camp to be destroyed by fire

The camp was liberated on 11 September 1945, four days before the revised proposed execution date of over 2,000 men, women and children.

 

REK

The following link describes a massacre similar to what was anticipated for all POW's.

American Prisoners of War: Massacre at Palawan » HistoryNet

Canuck

I'm still trying to compose myself after reading that horrible, horrible article. Thank you (if "thank you" is the correct expression!) for posting it. Knowing how close this nauseating incident came to being repeated on an incomparably larger scale made the experience of reading it even worse!

Incidentally, until I saw your post I had no knowledge at all that this particular ghastly massacre had taken place - which I think reinforces the "continuing lack of awareness" theme in the title of this thread.

 

Batu Lintang camp

sol

Thanks for this - another sickening example of something that came terrifyingly close to happening and which fits the same grisly pattern.

(Incidentally, as an "aside", I see that the extract mentions the commandant Suga, which reminds me of something I stumbled across on Wiki a few months ago. While Suga was awaiting trial as a war criminal, he committed suicide. Ostensibly no doubt this would have been a matter of "Bushido", but the reality is understood to be that he had plunged to the depths of despair as his family had been living in Hiroshima. Afterwards, however, it emerged that his wife and four children had survived.)

 

LEK

A War Story

This is quite long but I suspect that will be of interest to you.

World War II and the NFB :: See Everything, Hear Everything

 

This is quite long but I suspect that will be of interest to you.

It definitely is! I've only watched the first 10 minutes and had better go to bed now (it's 2 in the morning here!) but look forward to watching the rest.

 

Canuk

Many thanks for the excellent link.
World War II and the NFB :: See Everything, Hear Everything

Beautifully constructed and well worth watching.

Ron

 

Slim - now there I would agree with you Tom .

 

REK

The following link describes a massacre similar to what was anticipated for all POW's.

American Prisoners of War: Massacre at Palawan » HistoryNet

A Canadian POW, Vince Calder, makes reference to that incident and obviously they had prepared for that possibility.

"In May 1945, when we heard the war with Germany was over, our hopes went sky high. We had always though that, when Germany surrendered, Japan would try to hold on for a month or two and then claim that since their allies had double-crossed them by giving up, they could not continue fighting the world by themselves. After May, our treatment in camp continued to be fairly good, but at work it was no fun whatsoever. We took more beatings those days than ever before because the Nippers knew the war was on its last legs. We knew it also, and so we only laughed at them and they realised that some day soon, we might just get a crack at them too. For the past 1-1/2 years, we had the camp planted with dynamite in case they tried the same things on us that they did in Palewan."


Thank you for the very informative link.

It makes for grim reading.

Regards
Tom

 

A War Story

This is quite long but I suspect that will be of interest to you.

World War II and the NFB :: See Everything, Hear Everything

Canuck

I've watched the film now. Incredibly powerful and really conveys the atmosphere, suffering and dreadful conditions. Just makes me glad that I was born when I was - thanks very much for posting.

In addition, the film has a very specific relevance to this particular thread (although it is not spelt out in the film itself). After the Japanese surrender, Jack Edwards - the Welsh sergeant who is the film's predominant interviewee - found what I believe was the only surviving copy of the 1944 "order to massacre all prisoners" referred to in one of my earlier posts on this thread.

Thanks again - a fantastic film.

 

My pleasure REK.

In my teens, I worked a summer job with a former Winnipeg Grenadier POW who was captured at Hong Kong. I'm sure, in retrospect, that he edited his descriptions of life in the camps but even at that it was pretty horrific. What made him stand out from vets of the European theatre was his outspoken and uncompromising hatred of anyone and anything Japanese. It was completely out of character with the wonderful man that he was but that appears to be a common attitude from those who endured that experience. Bryce came out of the camps well under 100 lbs and once said that he owed it to his comrades never to forgive or forget.

 

... and once said that he owed it to his comrades never to forgive or forget.

Exactly. I've never understood why it's considered to be so magnanimous to forgive a man for beating, maiming, killing or torturing somebody else!

Of course, this still leaves the thorny question of whether any other nation would have behaved just as badly if they'd been subjected to the same kinds of indoctrination, peer pressure etc as the Japanese had been. I have an uncomfortable feeling that the answer is yes.

 

Of course, this still leaves the thorny question of whether any other nation would have behaved just as badly if they'd been subjected to the same kinds of indoctrination, peer pressure etc as the Japanese had been. I have an uncomfortable feeling that the answer is yes.

I totally agree. The only absolute constant is human nature. Be it a Japanese, German, Rwandan, Turk or any other nationality, the capacity for evil has remained undiminshed throughout history. It simply needs the right set of circumstances to emerge again and it most certainly will.

Interesting that you also emphasized the 'somebody else'. I'm not sure any of us are entitled to forgive on behalf of someone else. They should reserve that right exclusively.

 

Interesting that you also emphasized the 'somebody else'. I'm not sure any of us are entitled to forgive on behalf of someone else. They should reserve that right exclusively.

Absolutely. And if that somebody else is dead - making it impossible for the perpetrator ever to be forgiven - then so be it.

Although, even as I type this, I find I'm beginning to waver. What of a man whose actions are largely driven by the heat of the moment and later, in more normal times, feels genuine remorse for what he has done?

The bottom line, though, is that I just don't see how I can forgive when I am not the victim. Perhaps in these circumstances I can cease to bear the culprit any ill will of my own, but I cannot actually forgive him - I just don't have the authority.

In the Japanese context, of course, it seems relatively easy to justify not forgiving, as collectively they have shown so little remorse (particularly when compared with Germany).

However, as with everything, there are individual exceptions - such as war criminal Hiroshi Abe who made his peace with James Bradley and (in the link below) former POW Ron Upton:

Agape Reconciliation - Keiko Holmes

Abe looks pretty harmless on that photograph but, in his time, he had been one of the most vicious engineers on the railway:Hiroshi Abe (war criminal) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.