WW ll Question

[DemocratSinceBirth]

If it was alien to Japanese culture to surrender, as is claimed, was there a sizable Japanese POW population?

[zeemike]

1. Easy answer no

In fact I think it was sometime in the 70s that they found one Japanese soldier still hiding on some island in the Pacific.

[LanternWaste]

2. Even though the majority did commit suicide

Even though the majority did commit suicide (only 17 POW's taken from Tarawa), one source puts the number of Japanese POW's by the end of the war at 17,000. Compare that number to the German POW populations-- 425,000. The discrepancy in the two figures is quite dramatic and (to me) is a telling illustration of the Japanese code of honor.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. When I Was A Kid We Knew An Italian Barber Who Liked America So Much He Asked Not To Be Repatriated

eom

[Captain Hilts]

8. That happened a lot at the Italian POW camps in Charleston, SC. nt

[tuckessee]

9. Once a Japanese unit was broken

it became very easy take prisoners with a little sweet talking & patience.

See the story of marine Pvt. Guy Gabaldon who singlehandedly talked over 800 Japanese into surrendering on Saipan. Many of them were Naval Landing Force troops, who were generally several degrees more fanatical than regular Imperial Japanese Army troops. It should be remembered that Saipan is where the Japanese commander had issued an unusual order commanding everyone, civilian or military, to resist to the death. http://www.wtj.com/articles/gabaldon/ It's a truly an amazing story.

The war in the Pacific quickly became a "no quarter asked-no quarter given" struggle for both sides.

The Americans were reluctant to take prisoners because of cases where surrendering Japanese pulled out gernades & Japanese were reluctant to surrender because they knew they'd probably be summarily executed.

On Guadalcanal, the beleagured 300 ambulatory IJA soldiers in the Gifu would've surrendered but they had a couple hundred wounded & sick comrades whom they knew the Americans would kill out of hand instead of transporting over hill and dale to the beach.

Another reason why Japanese POW totals are low compared to German POWS is that the US faced considerably more Germans than Japanese. All told, US forces in the Pacific probably faced little more than a 1,000,000 combatants whereas the number of Germans faced was several times higher.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. TY

I read the whole article...

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. A Google search turns up numbers as low as 5,000

and as high as 20,000+ but no definitive articles (on the first page of results, anyway)

I googled "Japanese POW's held by americans" and Japanese WW II POW"

Most of the articles relate to prisoners held by the Japanese.

It is clear that we held far more Germans, many brought to the US and held in camps here, than we held Japanese POW's.

[ChicagoRonin]

4. That's why US dropped the A-Bomb

Particularly after the casualties from fighting on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
There was serious fear that a land invasion of the main Japanese islands who result in an un-Godly number of Allied deaths, even though victory was ultimately certain (Japan had insufficient resources to either turn the tide of battle or maintain a sustained defense).

[izzie]

5. I am not sure but a lot had to do with the belief in the Emperor I

think. It was one reason they kept him around. The US, if I re-call, let rules seem to come from him and he sent the General etc. out to sign that the war was over. Since as a whole they are people who mind their ways they fell into line, if they thought the ruler and the winners wanted it. Some fighters stayed on the Island for years but most did not know the war was over. Also after WW2 the winners usually were not like the old timers who just stripped countries and took what they wanted. USSR did it the old way in east Europe but on the who the rest of us started to rebuild. It put a different light on it.

[SoCalDem]

7. They used propaganda too..

I read once that japanese soldiers were convinced that the Americans would torture them and eventually kill them anyway, so it was more fitting for them to deny the Americans the opportunity..