re: #624 calcajun

Final comment—in all fairness, I have a hard time believing that out of garrisons of 20,000 men or more, that sometimes less than 200 Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner because the rest fought to the death. I recall seeing an old Marine training film where the instructor said, “if you have to take any chance to take a Jap prisoner, you don’t take him.” I know that many fought to the death or participated in suicidal charges, but I am convinced that many more wanted to surrender and get “three hots and a cot” than were actually taken prisoner—they were either murdered or never given a chance to surrender.

After what Japan did, in many cases (such as Mindanao) it would have been impossible to order prisoners taken. Japan’s atrocities put her enemies into a killing rage when they were discovered, and in many cases that meant that any Japanese encountered would be killed without mercy.