Human Cattle.

Fredrick

I Heard an interview with Antony Beevor yesterday on the radio and they were discussing that a high percentage I think it was over 50% of the japanese army that died during the war was from starvation due to them being cut of as the allies had all the shipping routes. And how the Japanese army used POW's and local towns people as food :eek: not suprising the allies covered it up for years as not to upset the families of the victims.

The more I read and hear about wars and what barbarities people are capable of or forced to carry out, I would take this recession and a lot more any day than to go through what some of the poor souls did and suffered during them days and since.

Thank god for peace.

jonniebgood1

Fredrick wrote: »

I Heard an interview with Antony Beevor yesterday on the radio and they were discussing that a high percentage I think it was over 50% of the japanese army that died during the war was from starvation

I think it was 60%.
There was also an American plan called 'Operation starvation' aimed at Japanese mainland. I believe the purpose was to avoid a land based invasion and starvation applied to raw materials as much as food.

Fredrick wrote: »

And how the Japanese army used POW's and local towns people as food :eek: not suprising the allies covered it up for years as not to upset the families of the victims.

How widespread this was is not known. The Australian war crimes section in Tokyo found that cannibalism had been used in POW camps. This was based on testimonies by POW's from these camps.

In many cases this was inspired by ever-increasing Allied attacks on Japanese supply lines, and the death and illness of Japanese personnel as a result of hunger. However, according to historian Yuki Tanaka: "cannibalism was often a systematic activity conducted by whole squads and under the command of officers". This frequently involved murder for the purpose of securing bodies. For example, an Indian POW, Havildar Changdi Ram, testified that: " on November 12, 1944 the Kempeitai beheaded an Allied pilot. I saw this from behind a tree and watched some of the Japanese cut flesh from his arms, legs, hips, buttocks and carry it off to their quarters... They cut it small pieces and fried it." http://www.b-29s-over-korea.com/Japanese-War-Crimes/index4.html

martinedwards

an army marches on its stomach.

cut the supply lines and the result is a weakened enemy.

that's exactly what the U-boats were trying to achieve in the North Atlantic.

how the victim reacts is the difference

Stovepipe

Hi all,
The Japanese were indifferent to their casualties and were callous by Western standards, to their own men.Their medical treatment was appalling and the ordinary soldier knew that the chance of seeing Japan again once they had gone overseas was remote.

regards
Stovepipe

Fredrick

Also was listening to a podcast earlier today about the rape of Nanking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre, rough bunch alright the Japanese military back then, and lots of them apparently went on to lead honourable lives back in the homeland after, the cnuts.

TerrorFirmer

It would be interesting to compare Japanese casualties to Western ones in terms of breakdowns, as aside from the topic raised, the Japanese also had extremely simplistic medical care, deaths from which were astronomical. They were never capable of a prolonged land based warfare campaign.They gambled everything on a sea based campaign.

mikemac1

Fredrick wrote: »

Also was listening to a podcast earlier today about the rape of Nanking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre, rough bunch alright the Japanese military back then, and lots of them apparently went on to lead honourable lives back in the homeland after, the cnuts.

What podcast was this?

jonniebgood1

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

It would be interesting to compare Japanese casualties to Western ones in terms of breakdowns, as aside from the topic raised, the Japanese also had extremely simplistic medical care, deaths from which were astronomical. They were never capable of a prolonged land based warfare campaign.They gambled everything on a sea based campaign.

For Japanese Casualties see

Also other tables compiled here http://www.japanww2.com/wt_list.htm

al28283

Fredrick wrote: »

The more I read and hear about wars and what barbarities people are capable of or forced to carry out, I would take this recession and a lot more any day than to go through what some of the poor souls did and suffered during them days and since.

Thank god for peace.

So World War 2 > Recession?

Who'd have thought it?

Fredrick

mikemac1 wrote: »

What podcast was this?

Talking history: shows from 2005, its an american podcast found it on itunes.

Fredrick

al28283 wrote: »

So World War 2 > Recession?

Who'd have thought it?

:rolleyes:

Delancey

The effectiveness of the US Navy submarine campaign in the Pacific is often overlooked , fact is that while subs never accounted for more than 2% of US naval strenght in the Pacific they were responsible for 50% + of Japanese shipping losses.
For a country with limited resources of its own the destruction of its merchant marine was a disaster. Mainland Japan was close to starvation by wars end.

The speed of the Japanese collapse took Allied commanders by surprise - a 1943 lettter to his mother from a young Lt. John F. Kennedy closes with the words '' here's to the Golden Gate in '48 '' .

Capt'n Midnight

Delancey wrote: »

The effectiveness of the US Navy submarine campaign in the Pacific is often overlooked , fact is that while subs never accounted for more than 2% of US naval strenght in the Pacific they were responsible for 50% + of Japanese shipping losses.

There was also skip bombing
mine laying by B29's also took their toll on Japanese controlled shipping in coastal waters where subs couldn't go safely

But the key aspects of the submarine war was that Japan never used convoys and the US submarines were told to prioritise Tankers above warships of similar tonnage as the aim was to cripple all transport.

There were elements of a race war in the Pacific so the Japanese weren't likely to be treated as well as the Germans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgenthau_Plan

. In the U.S., Hull argued that nothing would be left to Germany but land, and only 60% of the Germans could live off the land, meaning 40% of the population would die.

In newly occupied areas of China the Japanese troops more or less lived off the land, in the worst senses.

130Kph

I thought I’d use this thread (and widen it to all of WWII) rather than open a new one.

I’ve always found it impossible to process the deaths of 70 million people in an intense, mechanised slaughter in the space of a few years and in the lifetime of most people’s (grand) parents.

I don’t think the human mind can ever truly comprehend it but this video presents a stunning & chilling new statistical analysis [18 minutes].

https://vimeo.com/128373915