4 ms·

True that. Both my parents grew up near a POW camp in Malaysia during WWII. They said that yes, when the Japanese occupied Malaya, the treatment of the allied

True that. Both my parents grew up near a POW camp in Malaysia during WWII. They said that yes, when the Japanese occupied Malaya, the treatment of the allied prisoners by the Japanese guards was brutal and cruel. But they also said when the tables turned later in the war, and the Japanese were prisoners in the same camps under British and US guards, the treatment dished out was every way just as bad.

evgen 7y ago
Then your parents are completely full of shit. We have documentation of the crimes committed by the Japanese when it comes to captured prisoners, both military and civilian. If the British or US did anything even 1/10 as bad it would have been widely reported by at least the 60s or 70s (by communist groups aiming to disrupt US influence in that region if not by anyone else.)
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- dang 7y ago
  Please don't respond by breaking the site guidelines, regardless of how wrong a comment is or you feel it is. Your post would be just fine without the first sentence. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- kenned3 7y ago
  I assume by "documented the crimes" you include your documentation of things like the mai lai massacre as well?
  - evgen 7y ago
    Why yes I do. There is a very long list of actual crimes committed by US troops during various conflicts and I would never seek to hide them, but having done some basic research I am also going to call out misinformation and unverified BS when I see it.
- cyberferret 7y ago
  Well, forgive me for taking the word of people who actually witnessed things first hand, rather than 'scholars' who rely on the words written by the winners 5 decades later. I assume you have read the exploits of US guards torturing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib? I've also read reports that one much vaunted US air ace in the European theatre during WWII was renowned for machine gunning German pilots while they were hanging from their parachutes or running from the burning wrecks of their aircraft on the ground. Funny how those sorts of stories are not widely circulated these days? Then again, with a president who recently pardoned a war criminal who shot a young civilian girl in the M/E just for kicks, and indeed, is now celebrating him as a hero - I won't hold my breath.
scottLobster 7y ago
Some quick googling shows allied POW death rates in Japanese custody were between 27-36%. I can't find any hard consolidated numbers for Japanese POWs in allied custody after the war, but I can't find any event that even approaches the scale of the Bataan Death March or Unit 731 let alone other documented Japanese cruelties. It's possible your parents witnessed some isolated cruelty, but there is zero evidence that on the whole the UK/US were equivalent to the Japanese in treatment of prisoners.
- cyberferret 7y ago
  No doubt that a majority of casualties were on the death marches or working on railroads and bridges. My dad and his friend used to actually drop food parcels to allied prisoners working on repairing bridges in his area. (He also dropped food to Japanese prisoners later in the war who worked on bridge repair. In fact, he said one of the scariest moments was when a Ghurka guard saw him drop food to a Japanese prisoner, and drew his Kukri in anger. My dad ran for miles to get away because he knew the Ghurka tradition was that once the Kukri was drawn, it could not go back into its scabbard without tasting blood). The cruelty he witnessed seemed to be behind the wires, with executions and public torture by both sides being prevalent. I do recall hearing stories from other people outside of my parents while growing up in South East Asia, but once again, the curation and editing of those stories rarely get past local areas. Nobody outside of the countries where it actually happened seems to want to hear, or repeat those events. For instance, hardly anyone in the West seems to want to acknowledge how easily the Japanese walked into Malaysia, with almost no opposition. When they occupied Kuala Lumpur, they shot up the clock tower in the railway station near where my father lived, and that was it before the foot soldiers moved in. When the allies recaptured KL in later years, they carpet bombed the railway yards, killing hundreds of civilian labourers who lived in shanty towns within the yards. The tales of a triumphant US/English force recapturing their colony usually tends to omit details such as these.

evgen 7y ago

Then your parents are completely full of shit. We have documentation of the crimes committed by the Japanese when it comes to captured prisoners, both military and civilian. If the British or US did anything even 1/10 as bad it would have been widely reported by at least the 60s or 70s (by communist groups aiming to disrupt US influence in that region if not by anyone else.)

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
dang 7y ago
Please don't respond by breaking the site guidelines, regardless of how wrong a comment is or you feel it is. Your post would be just fine without the first sentence. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
kenned3 7y ago
I assume by "documented the crimes" you include your documentation of things like the mai lai massacre as well?
- evgen 7y ago
  Why yes I do. There is a very long list of actual crimes committed by US troops during various conflicts and I would never seek to hide them, but having done some basic research I am also going to call out misinformation and unverified BS when I see it.
cyberferret 7y ago
Well, forgive me for taking the word of people who actually witnessed things first hand, rather than 'scholars' who rely on the words written by the winners 5 decades later. I assume you have read the exploits of US guards torturing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib? I've also read reports that one much vaunted US air ace in the European theatre during WWII was renowned for machine gunning German pilots while they were hanging from their parachutes or running from the burning wrecks of their aircraft on the ground. Funny how those sorts of stories are not widely circulated these days? Then again, with a president who recently pardoned a war criminal who shot a young civilian girl in the M/E just for kicks, and indeed, is now celebrating him as a hero - I won't hold my breath.

scottLobster 7y ago

Some quick googling shows allied POW death rates in Japanese custody were between 27-36%. I can't find any hard consolidated numbers for Japanese POWs in allied custody after the war, but I can't find any event that even approaches the scale of the Bataan Death March or Unit 731 let alone other documented Japanese cruelties. It's possible your parents witnessed some isolated cruelty, but there is zero evidence that on the whole the UK/US were equivalent to the Japanese in treatment of prisoners.

cyberferret 7y ago
No doubt that a majority of casualties were on the death marches or working on railroads and bridges. My dad and his friend used to actually drop food parcels to allied prisoners working on repairing bridges in his area. (He also dropped food to Japanese prisoners later in the war who worked on bridge repair. In fact, he said one of the scariest moments was when a Ghurka guard saw him drop food to a Japanese prisoner, and drew his Kukri in anger. My dad ran for miles to get away because he knew the Ghurka tradition was that once the Kukri was drawn, it could not go back into its scabbard without tasting blood). The cruelty he witnessed seemed to be behind the wires, with executions and public torture by both sides being prevalent. I do recall hearing stories from other people outside of my parents while growing up in South East Asia, but once again, the curation and editing of those stories rarely get past local areas. Nobody outside of the countries where it actually happened seems to want to hear, or repeat those events. For instance, hardly anyone in the West seems to want to acknowledge how easily the Japanese walked into Malaysia, with almost no opposition. When they occupied Kuala Lumpur, they shot up the clock tower in the railway station near where my father lived, and that was it before the foot soldiers moved in. When the allies recaptured KL in later years, they carpet bombed the railway yards, killing hundreds of civilian labourers who lived in shanty towns within the yards. The tales of a triumphant US/English force recapturing their colony usually tends to omit details such as these.