Summit Gist

Chinese POW moments before execution by a Japanese officer using a shin gunto during the Nanking Massacre- 1937 While Im sure war played some part in it, much of this comes from historic Japanese culture. Their cultural value of life was much less than their. cultural value of death or social structure. At the time the Japanese saw surrender or capture as quite literally the worst thing that could happen to a person, and stigma that could only be overcome via an honorable death. This drove much of there ritualistic suicides, kamikaze campaigns, and their (in our cultures eyes) horrific treatment of prisoners. The Japanese atrocities during the 1930s and 40s goes much deeper than just war itself. ls that why the Japanese were outcasts the United States during WWIl? Americans of Japanese descent did not have the same culture as those who lived in Japan, so no. They were sent to camps because some people thought they might betray their adopted country. From what I take on what my parents ...

November 1945: Japanese Colonel Esao Tokunaga, who was in charge of all Prisoner Of War Camps in Hong Kong during World War II, being held prisoner at Stanley Jail. (Photo by PNA Rota/Getty Images) JAPAN SURRENDERS The American army advanced rapidly on the Japanese positions. In 1945, Japan’s army was pushed back into its archipelago, and the Allies massively bombed the country’s main cities. This operation culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the beginning of August, a show of force that convinced Japan to surrender a few days later on August 15th. Their capitulation was officially signed on September 2nd. Starting in 1944, the prisoners started seeing many signs that the war was coming to an end. At the camps, many Canadians reported seeing American aircraft, which indicated the proximity of the U.S. Navy to their positions. In Japan, civilian internees, who were put with the military prisoners in the labour camps, started looking like “walking ghosts” accor...