WWII photos showed POW abuse by Japan

[The Straight Story]

WWII photos showed POW abuse by Japan
TERENCE SUMNER KIRK | 1916 - 2006
By DOMINGO RAMIREZ JR.
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER


BURLESON -- The stark photos of malnourished U.S. Marines graphically depict Terence Sumner Kirk's life in Japanese prison camps during World War II.

It was a four-year existence that Mr. Kirk didn't want the world to forget.

Risking a certain death sentence if he was caught by Japanese soldiers, Mr. Kirk built a pinhole camera from scraps of cardboard and used smuggled-in photo supplies to snap priceless photographs of prison life so the horrors could not be forgotten.

"He placed the photographs in oilcloth and buried it in the latrine," said Roger Mansell, director of the Center for Research Allied POWS Under the Japanese in Los Altos, Calif. "He feared that if Japan would be invaded, they would kill everyone in the prison and no one would know about them. He hoped at least someone would find the photographs."

Mr. Kirk and other surviving Marines, however, walked out of the Fukuoko No. 3 prison in Japan in 1945 after soldiers there announced that the war was over.




http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/14562718.htm

War sucks. It is ugly, the people initiating it suck, and yet we have still not learned those lessons.

[Catch22Dem]

1. Yeah, they did some pretty gueusome shit then

I've seen some photos of some pretty sick shit in Japanese WWII prison camps. Having said that, I lived in Japan for 4 years and it was just a wonderful place with wonderful people. War brings out the worst in everyone.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. The guards at Abu-Ghraib must've found them inspirational.

[The Straight Story]

3. Pretty much my point

Sure, the japanese did sucky things - and we hated em for it. So why do we go off half cocked being assholes to other people???

Wrong is wrong. They were wrong. And now we are wrong (extent may not be as bad, but wrong is still wrong).

[MadMaddie]

4. Because the leadership in the Administration and the Military..

have lost their way....intentionally....

America is supposed to be better...but if criminals are running the show...the results are of no surprise...

[The Straight Story]

5. I like the way you said that, pretty much sums it up.

We should be better - but our leaders suck and do not represent 'we the people'.

Damn shame.

[MadMaddie]

6. It is a damn shame...

:hi:

[bklyncowgirl]

7. My father told me that during WWII American soldiers were pissed at..

the way we treated Japanese and German prisoners.

The rules were to adhere to the letter and spirit of the Geneva convention. In the meantime, of course our guys knew that the Germans and the Japanese were starving & torturing their fellow Americans.

Most of them did not understand why the were required to treat prisoners with respect but treat them well they did.

We were a civilized nation then--despite having been attacked. What has happened to us?