Empire of the Sun

dadsgirl

Active member
Thought it be an excellently made movie. 1941... The Japanese start attacking parts of China that were under British rule. A privileged boy separated from his parents... I still remember the drag marks on the floor, he called for his mum. He tried to survive in the streets, avoiding authorities, the urchin he became. But, with other "foreigners" ,was thrown into a POW camp. Near an air strip. He gained respect for all- this includes the Japanese officers. Every morning he sang their national anthem. They noticed and in turn, was given an odd "respect" and a Japanese bomber jacket. He brought joy to the prisoners, even dignity.
I think only a child would sing the enemy's national anthem. They are born with " clean slates" and fresh hearts. If you have not seen it, well, it's a long one but worth it. Semi-autobiographical
 
Last edited:
A far more accurate TV series was Tenko, based on the true story of civilian Australian, British, Dutch women and children prisoners of the Japanese. But even that didn't tell the whole story of the brutality handed out by Japanese guards and the starvation diet.
 
A far more accurate TV series was Tenko, based on the true story of civilian Australian, British, Dutch women and children prisoners of the Japanese. But even that didn't tell the whole story of the brutality handed out by Japanese guards and the starvation diet.

Basically the Japanese treated all prisoners like dirt. Starving, overworking, executing and torturing them. > than 30% of the American POW's didn't survive captivity. Those that did were skin and bones and often had diseases. It was the same for British and common wealth POW's. It's a miracle that any of them lived. Surprisingly they treated Asian prisoners just as bad. Chinese, Philippino’s, Malays were given the same brutal treatment. Apparently much like their German counter parts they had quite the superiority complex.
There was a movie "The Great Raid" about where the Americans liberated a camp "camp Cabanatuan" just as the Japs were about to execute 500 American POW's. A true movie and a good watch.
 
Last edited:
My uncle John RAF VR, was captured in Java, ending up in Sandekan north west Borneo. He was murdered by Japanese guards 26th March 1945 aged 22. He has no known grave.

Out of over 2500 Australian and British POW's only 6 Australians survived, only 3 were fit enough to testify at the war crimes trail of Captain Hoshijima CO who was found guilty of war crimes and hanged on 6 April 1946. Capt Takakuwa and his second-in-charge, Capt Watanabe Genzo, were found guilty of causing the murders and massacres of prisoners-of-war and were hanged and shot on 6 April 1946 and 16 March 1946 respectively.

Captain Hoshijima bit the hangman as he was led to the gallows.

Hanging was too good for them.

Nelson Short, William H. Sticpewich and Keith Botterill; three of the six only survivors of the death marches.
 
Well I'm glad they got him anyways. A lot of Japs got away with war crimes.

Far too many. Hirohito should have been hanged along side he mate Tojo. Japanese schools even today skirt around Japanese atrocities in China and WW2.
 
Far too many. Hirohito should have been hanged along side he mate Tojo. Japanese schools even today skirt around Japanese atrocities in China and WW2.

It would be a joke to say Hirohito the head honcho wasn't aware of what was going on. For cripes sake they murdered ~ 10 million.
 
One needs to understand that the Japanese Army Privates life was not much better than the Prisoners that he guarded , he was feed true but he was subject to brutal beatings and punishments from his superiors for the slightest infraction so he wasn't very sympathetic to how a prisoner was treated .
 
It would be a joke to say Hirohito the head honcho wasn't aware of what was going on. For cripes sake they murdered ~ 10 million.

Thats only a conservative estimate. On my station, human remains were found with their hands tied behind their backs with barbed wire, executed and buried.

The Japanese guards became more vicious as they began to lose the war according to a chap I worked with, who was a POW. He died aged 55 due to the brutality handed out by the guards. POW camps liberated in Malaya, buildings were found full of Red Cross parcels, never issued to the POW's. The Japanese guards were not starving.

Private Japanese guards were never subject to the brutality and torture POW's were subject to.

http://www.pacificwar.org.au/JapWarCrimes/Explaining_JapWarCrimes.html
 
Last edited:
Torture no , being punch and kicked by superiors yes , Americans , Brits in the hands of the Japs and Germans at Stalingrad why surrender and suffer a worst fate ? .
 
General Percival made the decision to surrender on 15 February 1942. The water supply on Singapore Island had virtually dried up, petrol supplies were almost exhausted, military supplies were running low and the constant bombardments of the city were causing shocking civilian casualties. Percival realised that his only options were to fight to the death or surrender. He personally arranged the ceasefire and signed the surrender document at the Ford factory that same evening. All British Empire soldiers were ordered to lay down their arms at 8.30 that night.

For most of the Australian, British, Indian and other troops holding the forward lines, the surrender came as a great shock. Many had thought they would fight on.

The Far East was considered low priority for modern equipment and aircraft.
 
Last edited:
The Japs were no better off they had a couple more days of ammo they were eating snakes and bugs they did have Air craft Percy out numbered them 3 to 1 Percy's troops were more than ready to fight on , the civilians in Singapore thought they had it bad until the Japs showed up then they really had it bad .
 
Torture no , being punch and kicked by superiors yes , Americans , Brits in the hands of the Japs and Germans at Stalingrad why surrender and suffer a worst fate ? .

1st off these large scale surrenders are usually not decisions made by the individual fighting soldiers. They are made by superiors who fail to see a viable military option. The biggest surrender of the war occurred at Kiev when ~ 700,000 Soviets surrendered. Of these only 5% returned at wars end. The point was the battle was lost and their was no recourse but to surrender. The same was true for Singapore.
 
Ever hear of save the last bullet for yourself ? . Its an old American saying used when fighting the Apaches because no good would have come out of you being captured .
 
Ever hear of save the last bullet for yourself ? . Its an old American saying used when fighting the Apaches because no good would have come out of you being captured .

If you're daft enough to do that, then good luck. Try telling a 19 year old to "Go shoot yourself son."

There's an even older saying, "Where there's life, there's hope."

However, that was the fate of a number of Chindits operating in Burma, who were too badly wounded to make it back.

The lessons of the Japanese invasion of Malaya and Singapore and the subsequent surrender were not lost, Major General Orde Wingate's Chindits and others proved that the Japanese troops were not super soldiers, they could be beaten and beat them they did.
 
Last edited:
In Vietnam the NVA had no Air Power but they fought to the death their death and your death it was very rare to capture one unless he was severely wound and even then he was dangerous and because of that they won the war .
 
In Vietnam the NVA had no Air Power but they fought to the death their death and your death it was very rare to capture one unless he was severely wound and even then he was dangerous and because of that they won the war .

Tetvet I thought they did have some MIG's and did engage us in dog fights on occasion especially during the earlier portions of the war?
 
Back
Top