America's use of phosphorus, poison gas, flamethrowers and atomic weapons in WWII.

[Bonobo]

I am currently reading "Japan at War: An Oral History" by Haruko and Theodore Cook. It consists of interviews with Japanese throughout the various stages of the war. I was shocked to see that we used poison gas in Okinawa (thrown into caves along with use of flamethrowers) and Phosphorus bombs mixed with jellied gasoline intended to cause the Tokyo conflagration.

On reflection, it is shocking that, 60 years after those nukes were dropped, we are still making them and not telling the truth about our brutality to American children. It is ironic for me that Americans are so quick to attack Japanese educational system for not telling the truth about Nanking, when we do not tell the truth about our use of these inhuman(e) weapons.

I recommend the book to anyone that is interested in hearing first hand accounts of what happened. It is filled with many stories about how well the US personnel treated the Japanese who surrendered, as well as the above truth about poison gas, et al.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. We used flame throwers and napalm bombs in Vietnam too.

Also Willie Peter. I don't even recall having ever been told any of that stuff might be illegal.

[Winterblues]

4. We also used Foo-Gas and Flechette Rounds

And we booby-trapped the bodies of their soldiers with mines. I knew those things were wrong even if the Army didn't tell me so outright.

[Jackpine Radical]

18. Yeah. For those who don't know the jargon,

Foo-gas was the colloquial term for Fugassi flame mines, which were a sort of field-expedient form of napalm. They consisted of 55-gallon drums of gasoline and oil buried in the ground with a couple of pounds of plastic explosive under them and detonation cord wrapped around their tops. They were set up as anti-personnel mines around secured perimeters. When you set one off, it created a huge ball of flame that would engulf anyone within 100 feet or so.

Flechette rounds are antipersonnel artillery or recoilless rifle rounds that are set to burst in midair at some preset distance, launching thousands of small steel darts in every direction. It's absolutely amazing how creative people are at killing each other.

[Hangingon]

2. I think that has been well covered in book over the years.

The B-29 tactics were changed when Curt LeMay took over. He brought the bombers down and went after the cities. Most histories of Iwo Jima and Okinawa dealt with the difficulty of clearing Japanese troops out of cave fortifications. Use of tear gas, flame throwers WP were clearly referenced. It is a staple of History and Military channel. I do not think we distorted our position.

[Bonobo]

20. Certainly not taught in schools.

I sure never heard it and I doubt many would believe it to be true.

[Hangingon]

23. I don't remember being taught tactics and weapons in school.

Perhaps history is taught differently today. I knew from early on that we used flame throwers and napalm taking cave fortifications in the Pacific. It was in the books I read, the documentaries and even the John Wayne movies. I knew we used tear gas. The militarize of the world have all used white phosphorous. I don't understand why most people would not believe we used these weapons. Many have commented that the war in the Pacific was a tougher war than Europe.

While we are eager to pillory ourselves for using these weapons while we deplore the lack of apology from the Japanese and their version of the history of the war. Remember that we are not alone in the view. Korea, China and the Philippines all share our view.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. Any specifics on the poison gas claim and what are the sources

I'll put the book and my to buy list

[Bonobo]

17. They are first hand accounts.

Bodies turned purplish and bloated up quickly-unable to breathe is what person said.

[Greyhound]

5. Yes, we did. All wars are crimes and the best we can ever hope for is

for them to end quickly.

"The casualty rate in every war is 100%" - a Navy "lifer", veteran of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.

[gordianot]

6. Japan was not innocent in developing weapons of mass destruction.

They developed aerosol anthrax and tested biological agents on prisoners including American POW's. Eventually the United States used their research in weapons development after the war. As far as brutality is concerned review the Bataan death march and abuse of prisoners of war. This does not excuse anyone from actions but Japan was far from innocent in their brutality. There are enough horrors of war to go around for everyone.

[Rebubula]

11. War Crimes

War is a crime.

That said...I feel no sympathy or guilt for anything that happened to Japan during WWII. The US can be a dirty bastard - but the Japanese powers of those times were off the charts. I know that the rank and file Japanese were not party to the decisions made above them - and I forgive them (not that it is my place or position to do so) - but when a nation does what Japan did to its neighbors, almost all return aggression can be forgiven.

The Bataan marches and Japanese POW camps made Andersonville look like Club Med.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. Great book. I read it some years ago. K&R

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy.” - Gandhi

[Doc_Technical]

8. C'est la guerre.

When your enemy is fighting a war of attrition and he
is fighting to the death with no chance of victory,
and there are tunnels everywhere which allow your
enemy access to all parts of a territory, and you
see your friends killed and mutilated by an enemy
who gives no quarter and asks for none, you lose
your humanity and become an animal who's only goal is
to kill all your opponents in any way possible with
a minimum loss of life of your comrades.

[deaniac21]

9. The Japanese are greatly known for there kindness and

their detailed histories of WWII that explain how they didn't do a single bad thing during the entire war. They are also fastidious about teaching these facts in Japanese schools. I wish our society could be more like them.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. Actually, there's a lot of controversy about what to teach in the schools

Japan has its own freeper types, who like to believe and want everyone else to believe that the world ganged up on poor little Japan for no reason. At the moment, they have the upper hand.

However, the subject is widely discussed in newspapers and magazines.

When Nicholas Kristof was the New York Times reporter in Tokyo, he claimed that no one in Japan knew about the Nanjing Massacre. Yet several of my American translator friends who live in Tokyo pointed out that at the very time Kristof was writing, the newsstands were full of magazines that discussed Japanese war crimes, either denouncing them or trying to excuse them, but that even the most right-wing magazines didn't deny the Nanjing Massacre, only claimed that it was limited to Chinese soldiers, not civilians.

There are books about Japanese war crimes (I translated one of them into English), and even a movie, The Sea and Poison, about medical experiments on prisoners of war in Manchuria.

By the way, there was a war crimes trial in Tokyo, resulting in a lot of imprisonments and a few executions. Unfortunately, during the Korean War, the U.S. became more preoccupied with "fighting Communism" than with anything else, so they released many of the war criminals, a large number of whom had yakuza connections, and sent them after the leftist labor unions that were opposed to the Korean War.

I liken the subject to the subject of the Vietnam War in the U.S. Lots of right wingers who say that the U.S. should have "won" and that there were no massacres or other violations of human rights, and if they were, the victims were all Communists anyway or would have grown up to be Communists. Since the Vietnam War occurred while I was in high school, I have no idea what high school students today are taught about it, but I doubt that the documented atrocities take up much space.

[deaniac21]

13. Wow, I wish I could read and write Japanese! How long did it

take you? My Dad was one of those terrible B-29 pilots.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. I studied in the U.S. for five years, one year of which was intensive,

then lived in Japan for a year. Never really stopped studying. I'd say that by the time I went to Japan, I could read most things with a dictionary. But as a translator, I learn new words and expressions nearly every day.

You're never really done learning a language.

[deaniac21]

15. The eastern languages MUST really be tough for an English

speaker. My hat is off to you!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. The U.S. Foreign Service classifies languages according to their difficulty for English speakers

from Group I (Spanish, French, Italian) to Group IV (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic).

This is not a measure of how difficult it is to gain a tourist knowledge. In most languages, that takes a couple of weeks. It's a measure of how long it takes to gain a professional knowledge, i.e. you could function as an adult in the society, hold down a job, and otherwise conduct your whole life in the language. Group IV languages take 4 times as long as Group I languages.

[deaniac21]

21. Thanks for the education!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. In The Fog of War, Robert McNamara is clearly remorseful about his role

in targeting Japanese cities for massive firebombing.

The documentary shows the lists of cities that were targeted, and my reaction was astonished horror. Utsunomiya, a city that can be seen in its entirety from the freeway? Maebashi, in the wilds of Gunma?

Back in the spring quarter of 1986, I taught a course in Postwar Japanese Culture, and since I wanted the students to understand just how far and how fast Japanese society had come since the war, the first reading I assigned was the harrowing account of the firebombing of Tokyo from the "Japan at War" volume of Time-Life's history of World War II, based on the testimony of survivors.

Little did I know that that would be the night that the U.S. bombed Libya.

When the students, many of them on ROTC scholarships, came back to class two days later, discussions were very sober. Several of them said that after reading that account, they wondered if the people on the ground in Libya were going through the same horrors.

The rest of the course proceeded without any particular political discussions, but I've always hoped that at least some of the students learned that war is not a video game.

[Bonobo]

19. Wonderful, Lydia.

To affect those kind of people that otherwise might not get it is a rare and wonderful chance.

[ACTION BASTARD]

22. Lots of good reviews on Amazon.

As a young Marine I spent much time in Japan (1st MAW, MCAS Iwakuni)so you have peaked my curiosity quite a bit. This too will go into my read pile.

[Dreamer Tatum]

24. I'm too busy reading a translation of a Chinese book about Japan's follies

I mean, did you get the memo? War is hell. Bataan, Malmedy, Hill 303 Massacre...any of these ring a bell?

[Dangerman]

25. We're the ONLY nation capable of using nuclear weapons.

You think we're better than the rest of the world?

[Hangingon]

26. Sorry, we are not the only nation capable of using nukes.

The club is getting bigger all the time. We were the first nation to develope a workable bomb, but we were not the only nation working on one.