RE: Japanese honor code and subs
Posted by:
kurt
()
Date: December 09, 2000 11:30PM
<HTML>On of the persistent canards of WWII sub warfare is that the Japanese refrained from a sub war against merchant ships because warring against civilians violated their \'honor\' or code of bushido, or some such rot.
In the Japanese culture of the day, a defeated enemy deserved no mercy, and their lives had no moral worth. Absolutely anything could be, and was, done to a defeated or conquered people. The Japanese massacred POWs, civilians, enslaved thousands as forced prostitutes, millions as slave labor. They performed bacteriological and chemical warfare experiments on civilians, killing untold tens of thousands. They tortured, raped, pillaged, and murdered wherever they went. In every nation that was occuppied by Japan in WWII, deep hatred for their actions remains to this day. Over 10,000,000 civilians were murdered by the Japanese in WWII.
This derives from the old samurai concept of \'to cut and leave\'. In medieval Japan, a samurai had the right to kill any non-samurai for any reason, or no reason at all, at any time without question: the right to \'cut [someone down] and leave [without being questioned]\'. POWs were usually killed without hesitation or mercy. In other words, Japanese did not think a conquered enemy, or an enemy civilian, deserved mercy or that their lives had any moral worth whatsoever.
Japanese subs (unlike the German U-boats) routinely massacred survivors in the water. Japanese subs started sinking allied merchantmen from the very beginning of the war, right from December 1941. There was no complusion or quarter given.
The difference is that Japanese subs were seen as decisive weapons against the american battle fleet. Deployment was oriented around sinking US capital ships in battle, not cutting supply lines. Later in the war Japanese subs were concentrated on running supplies to bypassed army garrisons. An anti-merchantmen campaign would detract from these \'more vital\' strategic goals and so it was not taken.
Tell your Professor Ramsey he has seen too many \'Karate kid\' reruns.
Strategy, not honor or morals, constrained the Japanese sub fleet from attacking (many) merchantmen.</HTML>
In the Japanese culture of the day, a defeated enemy deserved no mercy, and their lives had no moral worth. Absolutely anything could be, and was, done to a defeated or conquered people. The Japanese massacred POWs, civilians, enslaved thousands as forced prostitutes, millions as slave labor. They performed bacteriological and chemical warfare experiments on civilians, killing untold tens of thousands. They tortured, raped, pillaged, and murdered wherever they went. In every nation that was occuppied by Japan in WWII, deep hatred for their actions remains to this day. Over 10,000,000 civilians were murdered by the Japanese in WWII.
This derives from the old samurai concept of \'to cut and leave\'. In medieval Japan, a samurai had the right to kill any non-samurai for any reason, or no reason at all, at any time without question: the right to \'cut [someone down] and leave [without being questioned]\'. POWs were usually killed without hesitation or mercy. In other words, Japanese did not think a conquered enemy, or an enemy civilian, deserved mercy or that their lives had any moral worth whatsoever.
Japanese subs (unlike the German U-boats) routinely massacred survivors in the water. Japanese subs started sinking allied merchantmen from the very beginning of the war, right from December 1941. There was no complusion or quarter given.
The difference is that Japanese subs were seen as decisive weapons against the american battle fleet. Deployment was oriented around sinking US capital ships in battle, not cutting supply lines. Later in the war Japanese subs were concentrated on running supplies to bypassed army garrisons. An anti-merchantmen campaign would detract from these \'more vital\' strategic goals and so it was not taken.
Tell your Professor Ramsey he has seen too many \'Karate kid\' reruns.
Strategy, not honor or morals, constrained the Japanese sub fleet from attacking (many) merchantmen.</HTML>
| Subject | Written By | Posted |
|---|---|---|
torpedos
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tony | 12/07/2000 07:54PM |
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RE: torpedos
|
Craig McLean | 12/07/2000 10:31PM |
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RE: Japanese honor code and subs
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kurt | 12/09/2000 11:30PM |
|
RE: Japanese honor code and subs
|
Roy Prince | 12/10/2000 12:36AM |
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RE: Japanese honor code and subs
|
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RE: Japanese honor code and subs
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kurt | 12/09/2000 10:51PM |
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Japanese torpedoes
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