A fascinating read as usual The Japanese were notoriously cruel to POWs - an extended and long winded double tap, if you like.
I don't know how useful the Geneva convention is. Men at war - and those giving orders - don't seem to be held accountable and after the job is done and the end is achieved, well, who seems to really care? It's almost impossible to bring them to account and even then it happens again, and again, and again. Men in charge seem to laugh in the face of morality and legality, like that evil fucker in Israel.
Of course I feel outrage, but then a whole bunch of people would turn a deaf ear. I want to be persuasive, so I'm measured.
When I read up for this blog, I came across some pictures of Japanese war crimes. I don't understand that level of calculated depravity.
Anyway, I really appreciate your comment. Some comments may not be so positive :)
Oh you're a far better person, and writer, than I am. I just rant.
Side note, one of Australia's biggest stories of it's nation making is the POW camps on the Burma railway in 1943. Then there is stories of the Japanese in Malaya at that time with A Town Like Alice (Nevil Shute) and more recently, Richard Flanagan's Narrow Road about a man haunted by memories of his love affair with his uncles wife and his expereinces on the railway as a prisoner. Both great books if you fancy.
I'm older than you, probably by a generation. I grew up in the shadow of WWII. The Japanese atrocities were very much a part of my consciousness. I try to let it go, but that's hard. I can't fathom how they could be so cruel, without reason. There was no profit to their cruelty. Just plain sadism.
There, I ranted.
When I'm trying to reach people who may not agree with me--even one person--I try to build my case slowly so that maybe reason will penetrate bias. Probably a futile effort, but I have to try to do something about what I see.
As for being a good writer: you are fluent, and expressive and effective. I am jealous, actually :)))
BTW: The books sound great. Thanks for the recommendation.
At least some of them do face justice. The International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda have all indicted, convicted, and sentenced war criminals. Khieu Samphan is serving a life sentence in Cambodia
It's all about who they are and whose backing them and what the vested interest is though. Gah, I'm such a cynic.