Posts from DakotaSurfer in thread „They Were Expendable (1945)“

Quote from WaynamoJim

You know the main reason they treated our guys and the Brits so horribly? Because they had absolutely no respect for them. Why? Because they surrendered and to the Japanese, that was weakness and cowardly. They think they should've fought to the last man or killed themselves and die honorably. Honorably? Look how many Japs uselessly died and never saw home again because of honor.

I see what your saying but these atrocities were happening while the war was going on... there was no dishonor yet since they hadn't surrendered yet, but they were getting their butts kicked all over the Pacific. Once the war was over they just abandoned the camps and left our people to die or starve that's why we had to do a massive search for the camps because we knew the Japs abandoned all prisoners. They didn't even have respect for themselves, committing suicide was some sort of twisted honor to them.

My father-in-law never accepted it... what was done to his friends, he swore he'd never allow them in his shop. He lived through it, we didn't, but I can see where he's coming from. I lost friends on 9/11 and since then in Iraq.

I can certainly understand why some stories are not being told. I sat down with a WWII vet when I was in the military and the stories he told me ran shivers up my spine. The Japanese treated our guys horribly in their prison camps. Beaten, whipped, starved, dehydrated, manipulated and much more. I can see why many of our old vets won't tell the stories.

My father-in-law served in WWII, he had a lot of friends that spent time in some of those camps. He hated the Japanese to the day he died. But he did leave me with a funny story that I tell where ever I can.

He used to run an Old Texaco gas station which he later converted to a NAPA store. There is another business in town, a factory that makes bearings and such for big equipment. The factory saw some hard times about 20 years ago and was eventually bought by the Japanese. Shortly after they bought it, they sent a delegation to our city to check out the plant and to check things out so to speak. It kind of on the edge of town and not easy to find. As they wer driving down the main road they stopped in NAPA store to get directions. They asked my father-in-law: "Where is NTN" With their back accent it took him a couple times to figure out what they were asking. When he did figure it out, he looked at them with a straight face and replied: "You found Pearl Harbor easy enough didn't you?" They didn't say a word, just walked out and drove down the road. True story... I swear!