@thekyivindependent_unofficial Torturing POWs is a very old and very, very ugly "tradition." It has a way of forcing troops facing the side that does this to fight to the bitter end without regard for the odds.

In WWII this happened on the Pacific Front. Japan's Bushido warrior code had always discouraged surrender and not to surrender themselves (no quarter asked) was their right. It's only no quarter given (refusing to accept surrender of enemy troops or executing them if they do) that is a war crime.

In WWII however, Japan's no-quarter ethos came with a side order of contempt for anyone ELSE that surrendered. They accepted surrender of opposing troops, only to treat them as subhuman and fair game for anything. The torture and executions were as bad as anything Netanyahu does and rose all the way to large scale human vivisection. This on top of things like the Bataan Death March.

After such well publicized brutalities as Bataan, it was quickly understood by US troops that surrender to the Imperial Japanese Army was no longer an option. As a result, they became rather disinclined to accept the surrender of Japanese soldiers, even though many of them were draftees in a war of aggression same as Russian soldiers in Ukraine today. As for Japanese troops, they were told lies that what Japan did to Chinese and US POWs would be done to them by China and the US if they surrendered. Few who believed this would want to surrender even if out of ammo and with an arm or leg blown off.

The result the war in the Pacific quickly degenerated into no quarter asked or given on either side. In once case, Japanese soldiers in some fortified island defense hellhole threw in the towel, attempted to surrender-and were told "get back in there and fight" by US troops! That is HARD no-quarter given.

This went all the way to the war's nuclear endgame. Even then it was assumed Japan's warlords would fight to the death, and the US battle plan was 7 more nukes to blast a corridor from the sea to Tokyo-and march US troops through the nuclear contamination! Somehow, the rest of Japan's government was finally able to reel in the warlords and end the war before that could happen.

#WWII #history