Death before dishonour in the Japanese army, Why & How?

As my 1st official post I wanted to pose a question to do with some research I'm doing for a possible post on my website. I'm new so please forgive me if I'm covering old ground, and feel free to tell me if I am, but I've searched through this section and that of Burma and couldn't quite find what I was after but if I've missed it somewhere else I'm sorry.

In 1914 the German Garrison of Tsingtao surrendered to the Imperial Japanese Army (and supporting British allies, highlighting the initial good relations between Britain and Japan but that's another post). In Bandō prison camp, the prisoners were well treated, they were not forced to work, they formed their own opera company, and sang Beethoven for the Japanese. Chinese Prisoners from slightly later conflicts were apparently paid for work.
By WW2 the Japanese had become the worst prison wardens in history, what had happened and why?

After two days of initial Internet searching to test the waters I feel that the key lies in the changing attitude of the IJA to warfare and fighting, this change seems to have occurred sometime between the 1820s and 30s when Hirohito came to power and the Shōwa Militarists took power, yet it's very vague online. As a newbie I'm stil not clear on what happened, or why, or even who really drove it that way, and I don't know where to look either.

So any help will be highly appreciated.

Josh.

 

Welcome Josh&Historyland,

You might want to start by investigating Japanese propoganda i.e. statism in Showa Japan, including the principles of Kokutai, hakko ichiu. This will give you a good idea about Japanese right wing politics stemming from the Samurai code and fueled by a government who pushed a mixture of ideas such as Japanese Nationalism, Militarism, Expansionist Policies and "State Capitalism".

CK.

 

good day josh&historyland,m,yesterday.10:11pm.re:death before dishonour in japanese army,wy and how,?well in my day the propaganda machine was forever telling us they would rather die than be taken prisoner.it was a great dishonour to there family's so they had been led to believe,hary-cary(spelling?)was the the one you heard about mostly,they thought they were doing the right thing,sad realy.have a good day regards bernard85

 

Josh, I am not sure if you will find too much on this website about the psyche of the Japanese, not in any real depth. If you are seriously into researching the topic, I suggest you get in touch with a good library such as the one at the SOAS ( School of African and Oriental Studies,I think) and discuss your area of interest with a librarian. There were a lot of tensions in the build up to Pearl Harbour between the US and Japan around supply of oil for power. Japan had none, and was struggling to develop.economically. I suspect the answer to the change of attitude is complex though and rooted in culture. Japan has in turn welcomed and then forbidden contact with other countries to trade in past centuries and had a warrior class and very structured society. You will need to read up on all this before being able to find an answer to your question.

 

I knew I remembered the exact synopsis of a bbc docu "Horror in the east":



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_in_the_East

Synopsis
In the First World War the Japanese fought on the same side as the British and captured German soldiers who were fighting in Asia. They were treated well, even, following an Imperial Order of 1882, 'as guests'. The question arises: "How could the Japanese behave with such kindness towards their prisoners in World War I and then, less than thirty years later, act with such cruelty?"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0309685/

 

Josh&Historyland, welcome to the forum.
Some of your questions and more can be answered by reading the excellent Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley available on Ebay for a few quid and well worth it.

edit....I've just read the post above, Horror in the East is on Youtube

 

Hi Josh,

I have been working around this subject matter for a while now in regards to the Burma campaign. I agree with many of the other forum members here and would encourage some background reading on Japanese cultural life and history. I'm at work right now, but when I get home I will post the titles of some books that may help.

Cheers

Steve

 

Try "Hirohito and the making of Modern Japan" by Herbert Bix - absolutely excellent.

There are parallels with Germany and Italy - major dissatisfaction with the results of WW1, shocking racialist treatment of them by the USA and Australia at Versailles, compounded with severe effects of the Depreciation.

With a new Emperor and his Court determined to reverse the slide to democracy under this weak minded father, Taisho Period, and conscious desire to emulate Emperor Meiji's successes, militarism and re-invention of a mystical past (as with the Nazis), set them on the same barbaric path.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome gents, and for the helpful replies.

Cooler King - That sounds like the stuff I'm after, very helpful thanks.

Bernard85 - Good day sir. That's what I've heard too, and it is so very sad, especially when you think that in 1914 they didn't seem to act that way, the change occurred very quickly and was obviously very effective. I appreciate your input.

Shiny 9th - Thanks that's a good lead, I really want to understand the change that occurred, which I think contributed no little bit to the eventual outbreak. Essentially I'm not so much trying to dig into the psychie of the Japanese soldier, yet, rather I'm trying to find out what happened to create that psychie between the end of WW1 and the begging of WW2.

arnhem44 - That sounds Great! The synopsis seems to get to the heart of what I want to find out. Thanks!

RoughEngineeringMadeEasy - Glad to be here Engineer! I'll look up Flyboys, think I've heard of it. And thanks for the documentary tip, I'll check YouTube later on.

Bamboo43 - Thanks for your input, I'm glad to find someone else looking into the subject, doubtless with more success than I. So far my research into Japanese culture and History as been focused on early periods like the Mongol Invasion and Samurai Culture in the Tokogowa shogunate, however recently my main drive has been the Bakumatsu period and the British involvement in the run up to the Meiji restoration, principally in the years 1853 - 67 when the Chōsu and Satsuma clans were pressing to restore the Emperor. Hopefully I have been on the right track.
I'd really appreciate any book suggestions you can offer that might get me some answers, the more the merrier though my shelves may well disagree with that statement!

Pecavi - Sunds great! I'll check it out!


Thanks again and please keep your comments coming, I need all the help I can get!

Josh.

 

Hey Josh, when I read your post I had something in mind and the link provided, in places touches on aspects of your thread...there is if you look into it more to meet your query. http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/ww2/anecdotes/cowra.html

 

A book I would recommend looking at is Anguish of Surrender: Japanese POWs of World War II

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0295985089/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=XIVH9ILEJ4RE&coliid=I1GA2J0F7INBG5

Book description:

As noted in the description Straus spends time looking at the evolution (or rather devolution) of Japanese attitudes on surrender and POWs.

Other books that may be of value are

Tumultuous Decade: Empire, Society, and Diplomacy in 1930s Japan
http://www.amazon.ca/Tumultuous-Decade-Empire-Society-Diplomacy/dp/1442612347/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404913814&sr=1-1&keywords=Japan+1930s




http://www.amazon.ca/Japans-Imperial-Army-Rise-1853-1945/dp/0700616632/ref=pd_sim_b_11?ie=UTF8&refRID=0DH0ZDP8XCYQG4C4BQ33



https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/richard-storry/the-double-patriots/



http://www.amazon.ca/Japan-1941-Countdown-Eri-Hotta/dp/0307594017/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1404914331&sr=8-1
for the Japanese mindset leading up to war

 

wtid45 - There is indeed! Thanks for the link, it's very interesting to explore the different aspects of this topic.

Orwell1984 - Oh boy! So many books, thanks for the suggestions, they look great.

Please keep the great replies coming, I'm very greatful.

While I'm on I meant to ask earlier. Are there any known cases of Japanese officers or soldiers attempting to treat allied prisoners humanely during WW2?

Josh.

 

Oh, those look good! Just orded the first one from Barns and Nobel.

Twenty years ago I could have just gone to the local public library and gotten a book like that. No more

 

All we have in Britain is amazon or Waterstones, (and some newsagents) hard to find exactly what you want in actual shops or as you say, libraries anymore.

Josh.

 

Ahh! home at last.

Josh,

I see you have had many replies and some very good titles amongst them. I would have to agree with Peccavi and Hirohito and the making of Modern Japan. I also found 'Japan from Prehistory to Modern Times', by John Whitney Hall, very useful and in terms of the treatment of POW's in WW2, 'Knights of Bushido' by Lord Russell of Liverpool. The latter covers all the terrible incidents and atrocities, but also delves into the reasoning and psyche behind some of them.

Good luck going forward.

 

Thanks Bamboo43! Everyone has been very helpful! It's going to take a while to track down all of these, and more to read them!

What's a book lover to do!

Please keep the great replies coming, I'm very greatful.

Also, If anyone can think of any known cases of Japanese officers or soldiers attempting to treat allied prisoners humanely during WW2, please let me know.

Josh.

 

This is a recollection from the Prisoners of the Japanese 1942-1945 website enititled: A Good Japanese Soldier by Reg Jarman 2/10 Field Ambulance AIF
http://www.pows-of-japan.net/articles/87.html

You might find some more items of interest if you explore the site a bit.

 

While digging into the background of the Singapore Naval Base, I saw a comment expressing suspicion that during the First World War the Japanese were fence sitting and would probably side with the likely winners. The more-than-humane treatment of the German POWs makes sense if this was the case - don't upset your enemies if you think you might be joining them.

How did the Japanese treat prisoners (assuming there were any) during the Russo-Japanese War? That might help establish a pattern:
RJW ?
WW1 good
China bad
WW2 bad

 

The Japanese treated their prisoners from the Russo-Japanese War following the standards of the time (Hague Conventions).
http://japandailypress.com/historic-photos-discovered-of-russian-pows-taken-by-japan-in-early-20th-century-war-2919061/
The above details an archive of pictures of Russian prisoners from that war and that there was a French consul who examined Japanese POW camps and wrote a report on them for the Russian government.
It's interesting to note this passage from the wiki on Japanese war crimes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes

On going through my files I found this article:
http://www.jmss.org/jmss/index.php/jmss/article/viewFile/277/291
Explaining the Interbellum Rupture in
Japanese Treatment of Prisoners of War by John Hickman

which may shed further light on the issue

 

The thought of hedging bets occurred to me too. But it rather presumes that the Japanese were already planning to ally with Germany. The below links show that Russian prisoners were well treated, as corroborated by the French consul making the pattern become :

RJW ? ( Good)
WW1 good
China bad
WW2 bad

Nevertheless the PDF below, Infers that the Japanese were influenced in foreign policy by the status quo powers and increasingly by the nonconformist militaristic state of emerging Fascist Germany.

On going through my files I found this article:
http://www.jmss.org/jmss/index.php/jmss/article/viewFile/277/291
Explaining the Interbellum Rupture in
Japanese Treatment of Prisoners of War by John Hickman

which may shed further light on the issue

These links are brilliant and really do help form a picture of what might have happened, thank you so much.
They seem to answer question of prisoners In the RJW & provide a logical assertion about what factors contributed to the change in Japanese military and foreign policy.

Josh