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How “Uncivilized” Wounded Japanese Terrified US Marines During WWII
These horrors stuck with some soldiers for life
One of the things that defined warfare in the Pacific during the Second World War was the fact that the Japanese seemed to have no intention of playing by the rules that Westerners expected. They would frequently throw tactics out the window at the squad level in favor of suicide charges and mass casualty events. They used devious propaganda to keep American soldiers up at night and sow doubt in their ranks. They flew their planes into the side of US ships rather than consider forfeiting the war.
The battlefield fanaticism of the Japanese would spook American soldiers for years. But that level of devotion and single-mindedness even continued for the wounded.
In “civilized” warfare, men were expected to lay down their arms when they were wounded. In many cases, the opposing army would give care to the enemy wounded before interring them into a prisoner of war camp. Prisoners of war were expected to be kept at a basic level of sustenance and health. This understanding of “civilized” war — western war — gave the Americans an awful shock when they realized the Japanese had no intention of doing things that way.
