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Title: U.S. Air Crew Shot Down over Japan Were Dissected Alive
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URL Source: http://downtrend.com/admin/u-s-air- ... d-alive?utm_source=Outbrain_C6
Published: Apr 17, 2015
Author: Downtrend
Post Date: 2015-04-17 09:14:32 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: None
Views: 1032
Comments: 69
A Japanese university has opened a museum acknowledging that its staff dissected downed American airmen while they were still alive during World War II. A gruesome display at the newly-opened museum at Kyushu University explains how eight U.S. POWs were taken to the center’s medical school in Fukuoka after their plane was shot down over the skies of Japan in May 1945. The flyers were subjected to horrific medical experiments. Doctors dissected one soldier’s brain to see if epilepsy could be controlled by surgery, and removed parts of the livers of other prisoners as part of tests to see if they would survive. Another soldier was injected with seawater, in an experiment to see if it could be used instead of sterile saline solution to help dehydration. Poster Comment: Just one small piece of the WWII Japanese war atrocities committed against American servicemen. 
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#4. To: Jethro Tull, Cynicom (#0)
B-29 crewmembers were told that they should expect torture/execution/etc. if forced to bail out over Japan. Unlike Germany, I think (without available historical documents to prove otherwise) American/allied POW's in Japan were facing immediate execution once Operation Olympic commenced.
Yes, from all I've read the Germans treated downed Americans far better than the Japanese did. Japan had not signed the Geneva Convention, so there was that.
Only by comparison. The Germans considered airmen as war criminals (as indeed they are) and did shoot them. OTOH they were more lenient with spies than the allies where--they did not shoot them but the allied forces did.
2% or 3% of American POWs died in German camps but ,50% in Japanese camps.
Very few Japanese were prosecuted for war crimes. Believe it or not, the explanation for the discrepancy was that the Germans were expected to know better.
Quite a few Japs were tried and hung after the war, but it was no "Nuremberg Tribunal!" with a parade of Jews spewing bullshit about gas chambers with wood doors. Many more committed ritual suicide in order to avoid allied retribution and/or public humiliation (saving face).
I was at Wake Island after the war. It was littered with Japanese tanks, gun emplacements etc etc. The Japanese took 98 civilians out and machine gunned them. Wake back then was most eerie place I ever visited, so much history. One could not stand there at sunset and not feel the past. Never forget it.
Got to know one of the in-laws on my wife's side of the family. Man was a marine who fought in the Pacific theater during WWII. He'd once recounted how they were mopping up after taking one of the stepping stone islands on the way to invading the Japanese islands themselves. I believe it was Iwo Jima. He's gone now, so there's no way to check the story, but that is neither here nor there. I remember being shocked at how matter of factly he told the story of taking the surrender of a Japanese soldier on the beach. They disarmed him, searched him and sent him on his way. They let him walk on down the beach toward nowhere until he was about 25 yards away and let one fly out of a Garand. Hit him in the back. That was the end of that particular infantryman. I must have registered my surprise at the end of the tale, because the old man offered that there was no way to take prisoners on that occasion. It's still kind of hard for me to stomach shooting a man in the back, but hey, island hopping was a vicious affair in those days, and there was little hope of mercy at the business end of a Japanese Imperial bayonet.
Lowest basic premise of all military, kill or be killed. There are times and places for mercy to be extended, often not. Friend of mine, 101st airborne on his way down was under gun of German soldier. He could have shot him in parachute, he did not. Why not???? Circumstances and human nature.
That German soldier was probably my dad. He once told me while we were watching a WWII movie that his officers instructed him that it was against the laws of war to fire on a man suspended from a parachute.
#63. To: randge (#62)
My friend told me the soldier was older man. He took my friends rifle then helped him out of harness etc. He spoke English. He took my friend to the Command Post, turned him over to others, when he walked away he said good luck to my friend. War? No,, not at all.
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#5. To: X-15, 4 (#4)
#23. To: Jethro Tull (#5)
Yes, from all I've read the Germans treated downed Americans far better than the Japanese did. Japan had not signed the Geneva Convention, so there was that.
#55. To: Ada (#23)
#56. To: Turtle (#55)
#58. To: Ada (#56)
#59. To: X-15 (#58)
#60. To: Cynicom (#59)
(Edited)
#61. To: randge (#60)
#62. To: Cynicom (#61)
Replies to Comment # 62.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 62.