World War II in the Pacific by R. Conrad Stein

Author:R. Conrad Stein [Stein, R. Conrad]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4645-0418-1
Publisher: Enslow Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2011-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

And worse suffering was in store for Japanese civilians. Beginning in late 1944, a deadly storm of bombs poured down from the sky. The raids became a horror the people could not have imagined even in their wildest nightmares.

Life in the Japanese Empire

“Asia for the Asians,” proclaimed the victorious Japanese when they took over Burma, Indonesia, the Philippines, Indochina, and other regions that were once colonies of the West. Initially, many Asian patriots cheered the Japanese as liberators who would finally drive the white colonists out of Asia.

But the Asian people quickly discovered that the Japanese were far crueler than the Europeans and Americans had been. In one occupied country after another, arrogant Japanese officers allowed their men to run roughshod over the civilian population. The horrible crime of rape was committed practically everywhere the Japanese army traveled. In Hong Kong alone, hundreds of young women, including some nuns, were raped and murdered by Japanese soldiers. In other areas, occupying Japanese troops demanded to be treated as if they were kings. Laws were passed requiring villagers to bow when they met a Japanese soldier on the street. Filipino citizens were forced to wear rising-sun armbands to demonstrate their loyalty to the emperor.

Bushido, the warrior code of bravery, was a prime reason behind the brutal treatment of captive peoples. Army officers believed that no Japanese man or woman would accept living under a foreign overlord. A proper Japanese person would commit suicide rather than submit to any authority other than the emperor. Consequently, the Japanese officers reasoned, people who would surrender to an enemy army had to be subhumans, men and women without pride.

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