The Japanese were never truly, “held to account,” after WWII. The fact that neither they, nor Russia had ratified the Geneva Accords, made finding a legal basis from which to prosecute, extremely difficult. The ensuing cold war and Japan’s geographical relationship with respect to Russia, necessitated their future cooperation.
The Far-Eastern culture, like the Native American people, evolved independently from the Euro-Asian peoples for the vast majority of history. Their entire ethos, especially when it comes to warfare, is impossible to accurately judge by our (western) standards. If we were to hold them to our standards of justice, another problem would be: where would you start? By our standards, the vast majority of common soldiers, officers and politicians would be guilty of numerous crimes. We couldn’t prosecute everyone.
The response of the U.S. Soldiers and Marines to the Japanese cruelty was to become equally brutal and cruel. This is not to say that we weren’t justified in responding in kind… hell no! But certainly, if we aggressively prosecuted uniformed soldiers on the Japanese side, some of the tactics that our soldiers employed in response, would surely be brought to light… and the American people who were not there, and did not experience it first hand, might not have understood. The ultimate act of dropping Two Atomic Bombs on the Japanese was of course the most vivid example of our ability to respond to inhumanity in kind. The nation was more than ready to forget the horrible depths, which the Japanese brought us to, in order to fight them. I think as a whole, the nation did not want to confront these issues… opting to just forget instead. I can’t say I blame them.
The Japanese employed a perverted, “Bushidō,” ethos to the war (“way of the warrior”)… attempting to take this anachronistic, samurai code into the 20th century. Bushidō holds one’s honor above all else. Defeat to them was an unspeakable, ultimate shame. This warrior code required an honorable death in battle or victory as the only two acceptable outcomes. Dishonor could only be remedied by, “seppuku:” a ritualized form of suicide. Thus, when the Japanese took American prisoners, they were worse than dead to them. Killing their prisoners, according to Bushidō, was like doing them a favor. A swift and painless death was to the Japanese, the best thing that they could do for their prisoners. Therefore, is it possible to judge these things by our standards?
The Bushidō code did not explain everything however… there were things that certainly fell outside that code during the conflict. In those cases, some were prosecuted and some, executed… and most, unfortunately were never held to account.
You see the inherent difficulties with respect to the Japanese: a) we needed them for the cold war; b) It is difficult to apply western standards of justice to a completely different culture, especially since they did not ratify the Geneva accords; c) we were forced to sink to their level at times and no one wanted to be reminded of that.
Some 60 years have passed since then and we have all come to realize that war is hell. I was not there, therefore I haven’t the need to forgive or the right to judge… merely the responsibility to learn from the lessons therein.
