Saturday, August 06, 2005

TAKE NO PRISONERS

Professor Richard Aldrich of Nottingham University examined lots of World War II soldiers' diaries and arrived at the conclusion that allied soldiers didn't exactly abide by the Geneva Conventions when dealing with Japanese prisoners of war. Allied forces had reason not to take Japanese prisoners:
The book also features the memoir of a New Zealand soldier working with a Fijian regiment who came across the bodies of two native women, pegged out on an earthen mound.

They had been "raped to death" by Japanese soldiers. Then they found a dead American soldier who had stakes driven through each shoulder and his hands cut off. "As we moved away again, one of my corporals said to me: "No more prisoners, turaga[sir]." I agreed with him.
Jeez, it's almost as if the World War II Japanese soldiers and today's Islamic fundamentalists use the same play-book. Great minds ...

1 Comments:

Anonymous The_Real_JeffS said...

A fair number of memoirs from WWII describe violations of the Geneva Conventions by both Allied and Axis military personnel.

It's important to note that Allied forces committed such crimes by exception, while Axis forces did so routinely. Although this varied widely with the German forces, depending on the "political" leanings of the officers involved (SS versus Wehrmacht, for example).

The same still applies today. Even more to the point, we are more willing to enforce the Geneva Convention, even if we are fighting forces specifically not covered by the Geneva Convention.

Not that any of this matters to fools on the left, of course.

8:16 PM  

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