4 ms·

Forgotten tragedy of Italian war detainees (2020)

81 points by 1970-01-01 3y ago

animal_spirits 3y ago
This is tangential but I think NHK does incredible journalism and I’m happy that they have an English publication. They have a lot of very interesting historical stories I see on YouTube
personjerry 3y ago
[flagged]
- LanceH 3y ago
  There were trials and executions for war crimes. It also has nothing to do with this article.
  - troft 3y ago
    The Americans in exchange for information obtained by the Japanese over the course of their human experimentation let a bunch of war criminals go free. I don't understand why this person's comment has been flagged. This flagging business seems to be getting out of control. Who moderates the moderators?
    - hulitu 3y ago
      [flagged]
      - dang 3y ago
        "Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, bots, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=true&page=0&query=by:dang%20astroturf https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
    - localplume 3y ago
      [dead]
  - personjerry 3y ago
    [flagged]
- vehementi 3y ago
  Why do you find that interesting?
toyg 3y ago
To be fair, this was more reflecting the utterly embarrassing way the Italian king and his government managed the switch on 8 September 1943. There are similar stories of Italians rounded up by Germans all over Italy, Germany, and Africa. Italian troops were unprepared and received confused orders, if they ever received any.
Mystery-Machine 3y ago
[flagged]
- rl3 3y ago
  >This sounds like a joke. Your own quote of the article includes the word starvation. I fail to see the joke there. >"Meanwhile many other PoWs capture by Japan were tortured and being experimented on." Perhaps you missed the heading in the article entitled "Human experimentation." >There's some evidence that Japanese torture camps were the most brutal torture camps ever, in the history of the world. There's actually a mountain of evidence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731
  - Mystery-Machine 3y ago
    The joke part is obviously the "no bathtub" and similar, not the "starvation". That and especially "some" / "mountain" of evidence is really a strawman. I think we agree that there's evidence, no need to be picky about the choice of words. Some can refer to any quantity less than "all".
    - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
      We might consider that "no bathtubs" was merely a euphemism for "no sanitation and no way to clean their bodies at all" which I would judge as definitely prisoner abuse. Nobody enjoys or survives for long in filthy unsanitary conditions.
  - brightball 3y ago
    “Unbroken” was an incredible read that got into this too.
  - snovv_crash 3y ago
    Everyone in Japan was starving in support of the war effort.
- retrac 3y ago
hulitu 3y ago
> “Diplomats, ambassadors and their wives, as well as high-ranking military attaches, suddenly had to face a life of starvation with no bathtubs. I think that constitutes abuse, even if they weren’t beaten,” she says. I mean, for poor people is ok to sleep on the floor with no bathtubs. But for "diplomats, ambassadors and their wives, as well as high-ranking military attaches" it is definitely not. I guess fascism never dies.

81 points by 1970-01-01 3y ago

This is tangential but I think NHK does incredible journalism and I’m happy that they have an English publication. They have a lot of very interesting historical stories I see on YouTube

personjerry 3y ago

[flagged]

LanceH 3y ago
There were trials and executions for war crimes. It also has nothing to do with this article.
- troft 3y ago
  The Americans in exchange for information obtained by the Japanese over the course of their human experimentation let a bunch of war criminals go free. I don't understand why this person's comment has been flagged. This flagging business seems to be getting out of control. Who moderates the moderators?
  - hulitu 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - dang 3y ago
      "Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, bots, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=true&page=0&query=by:dang%20astroturf https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
  - localplume 3y ago
    [dead]
- personjerry 3y ago
  [flagged]
vehementi 3y ago
Why do you find that interesting?

toyg 3y ago

To be fair, this was more reflecting the utterly embarrassing way the Italian king and his government managed the switch on 8 September 1943. There are similar stories of Italians rounded up by Germans all over Italy, Germany, and Africa. Italian troops were unprepared and received confused orders, if they ever received any.

Mystery-Machine 3y ago

[flagged]

rl3 3y ago
>This sounds like a joke. Your own quote of the article includes the word starvation. I fail to see the joke there. >"Meanwhile many other PoWs capture by Japan were tortured and being experimented on." Perhaps you missed the heading in the article entitled "Human experimentation." >There's some evidence that Japanese torture camps were the most brutal torture camps ever, in the history of the world. There's actually a mountain of evidence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731
- Mystery-Machine 3y ago
  The joke part is obviously the "no bathtub" and similar, not the "starvation". That and especially "some" / "mountain" of evidence is really a strawman. I think we agree that there's evidence, no need to be picky about the choice of words. Some can refer to any quantity less than "all".
  - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
    We might consider that "no bathtubs" was merely a euphemism for "no sanitation and no way to clean their bodies at all" which I would judge as definitely prisoner abuse. Nobody enjoys or survives for long in filthy unsanitary conditions.
- brightball 3y ago
  “Unbroken” was an incredible read that got into this too.
- snovv_crash 3y ago
  Everyone in Japan was starving in support of the war effort.
retrac 3y ago

hulitu 3y ago

> “Diplomats, ambassadors and their wives, as well as high-ranking military attaches, suddenly had to face a life of starvation with no bathtubs. I think that constitutes abuse, even if they weren’t beaten,” she says. I mean, for poor people is ok to sleep on the floor with no bathtubs. But for "diplomats, ambassadors and their wives, as well as high-ranking military attaches" it is definitely not. I guess fascism never dies.