thedrifter
04-01-03, 06:50 AM
04-01-2003
‘You Americans … You’re Not Like the French’
By Raymond Perry
As the fortunes of the Empire of Japan declined in 1943 and 1944, a decision was made to move nearly 100,000 prisoners of war from the Philippines to China, Formosa, Korea and Japan. The Japanese did this without marking their ships with red crosses to denote a prisoner transport as required by the Geneva Conventions.
It was the height of the American submarine campaign against Japan, and our submariners unwittingly sank some of the prison ships.
On Sept. 7, 1944, U.S. submarine torpedoes sank the cargo ship Shinyo Maru which went down with 750 American prisoners. One month later, a U.S. Navy submarine torpedoed the freighter Arisan Maru which sank with nearly 1,800 prisoners, of whom only seven survived. U.S. Navy carrier pilots in September 1944 bombed the Fuku Maru in Subic Bay, which sank killing all but 63 of 1,200 British and Dutch prisoners aboard. Those who survived have told various parts of these horrific stories in books.
Nearly 60 years after the event, one common aspect of their stories remains striking to read: Even as they scrambled for their lives, the doomed prisoners cheered the attackers.
It happened again in a different war 30 years later. During the Vietnam era, hundreds of American prisoners of war in North Vietnam were imperiled when the massive B-52 bombing raids under Operations Linebacker I and II took place in 1972. But they also cheered, even though they knew they might die in the bombing campaigns. In his book on captivity, Chained Eagle, Lt. Cmdr. Everett Alvarez, Jr., our longest-held prisoner of that war, described the response of the prisoners as B-52s in Operation Linebacker II began their campaign against North Vietnam: They cheered.
Today, with seven U.S. servicemen and women confirmed as Iraqi POWs, and another 18 soldiers missing in action, we are likely to see this extraordinary phenomenon take place once more.
It is very clear that Saddam Hussein will use captives as shields to protect his palaces, his poison factories, or even near his military forces. He may believe they will cause some hesitation in our attack or that we may choose not to attack a given target at all.
Not so long ago, I visited a friend, a veteran of the World War II Bataan Death March, who carried a friend most of the way on that horrible 60-mile march. He was a “Guest of the Emperor” at the medical experimentation Camp 731 in Manchuria for part of his captivity. He is now in his 80s, with terminal pancreatic cancer, triple vision in one eye from a rifle butt hit, and now weighs about 140 pounds. Diarrhea from recent chemotherapy has reduced his weight.
When asked how he is doing he replied, “I get up in the morning, I look in the mirror, and say I got two feet on the ground and the world by the tail.” He weighed 96 pounds on his release from captivity in 1945 and was blind from malnutrition then. I asked him what he thought had the Japanese used him as a shield. He responded, “If it ends the war sooner paint the bull’s-eye on me, I’ll make sure it hits the right guy!”
Those of Saddam Hussein’s ilk will never understand this. Our captives are not victims, they are citizens of a free and courageous nation, and as such they chose to put themselves in harm’s way. Sure, they really don’t want to be a shield, who would? But then they knew full well that such things happen. If they must serve that way then they will do it right. Paint the bull’s-eye on them and they will make sure that they stand close to Saddam.
Re-a-a-l close.
We must fight this war as well as we are capable of doing. If a given target is not really needed to win then we should not strike it. But, if it is necessary to win, then we must strike it and take it out, regardless. If our captives are there, so be it. We must be ready to mourn them as casualties.
As he closed his book, Everett Alvarez, Jr. described the out briefs conducted by the North Vietnamese just prior to the POWs’ release. In a grudging compliment to these prisoners and their ability to stand up to them, several said, “You Americans, you’re not like the French.”
When the bombs fall near them, the captives in Iraq will cheer as their predecessors in World War II and Vietnam did. They will cheer so loudly that the Special Republican Guard won’t be able to hear the bombs screaming in. If they perish in the blast, we will mourn their passing.
Well done, good and faithful soldier, well done.
Lt. Raymond Perry USN (Ret.) is a DefenseWatch Contributing Editor. He can be reached at cos1stlt@yahoo.com
Sempers,
Roger
‘You Americans … You’re Not Like the French’
By Raymond Perry
As the fortunes of the Empire of Japan declined in 1943 and 1944, a decision was made to move nearly 100,000 prisoners of war from the Philippines to China, Formosa, Korea and Japan. The Japanese did this without marking their ships with red crosses to denote a prisoner transport as required by the Geneva Conventions.
It was the height of the American submarine campaign against Japan, and our submariners unwittingly sank some of the prison ships.
On Sept. 7, 1944, U.S. submarine torpedoes sank the cargo ship Shinyo Maru which went down with 750 American prisoners. One month later, a U.S. Navy submarine torpedoed the freighter Arisan Maru which sank with nearly 1,800 prisoners, of whom only seven survived. U.S. Navy carrier pilots in September 1944 bombed the Fuku Maru in Subic Bay, which sank killing all but 63 of 1,200 British and Dutch prisoners aboard. Those who survived have told various parts of these horrific stories in books.
Nearly 60 years after the event, one common aspect of their stories remains striking to read: Even as they scrambled for their lives, the doomed prisoners cheered the attackers.
It happened again in a different war 30 years later. During the Vietnam era, hundreds of American prisoners of war in North Vietnam were imperiled when the massive B-52 bombing raids under Operations Linebacker I and II took place in 1972. But they also cheered, even though they knew they might die in the bombing campaigns. In his book on captivity, Chained Eagle, Lt. Cmdr. Everett Alvarez, Jr., our longest-held prisoner of that war, described the response of the prisoners as B-52s in Operation Linebacker II began their campaign against North Vietnam: They cheered.
Today, with seven U.S. servicemen and women confirmed as Iraqi POWs, and another 18 soldiers missing in action, we are likely to see this extraordinary phenomenon take place once more.
It is very clear that Saddam Hussein will use captives as shields to protect his palaces, his poison factories, or even near his military forces. He may believe they will cause some hesitation in our attack or that we may choose not to attack a given target at all.
Not so long ago, I visited a friend, a veteran of the World War II Bataan Death March, who carried a friend most of the way on that horrible 60-mile march. He was a “Guest of the Emperor” at the medical experimentation Camp 731 in Manchuria for part of his captivity. He is now in his 80s, with terminal pancreatic cancer, triple vision in one eye from a rifle butt hit, and now weighs about 140 pounds. Diarrhea from recent chemotherapy has reduced his weight.
When asked how he is doing he replied, “I get up in the morning, I look in the mirror, and say I got two feet on the ground and the world by the tail.” He weighed 96 pounds on his release from captivity in 1945 and was blind from malnutrition then. I asked him what he thought had the Japanese used him as a shield. He responded, “If it ends the war sooner paint the bull’s-eye on me, I’ll make sure it hits the right guy!”
Those of Saddam Hussein’s ilk will never understand this. Our captives are not victims, they are citizens of a free and courageous nation, and as such they chose to put themselves in harm’s way. Sure, they really don’t want to be a shield, who would? But then they knew full well that such things happen. If they must serve that way then they will do it right. Paint the bull’s-eye on them and they will make sure that they stand close to Saddam.
Re-a-a-l close.
We must fight this war as well as we are capable of doing. If a given target is not really needed to win then we should not strike it. But, if it is necessary to win, then we must strike it and take it out, regardless. If our captives are there, so be it. We must be ready to mourn them as casualties.
As he closed his book, Everett Alvarez, Jr. described the out briefs conducted by the North Vietnamese just prior to the POWs’ release. In a grudging compliment to these prisoners and their ability to stand up to them, several said, “You Americans, you’re not like the French.”
When the bombs fall near them, the captives in Iraq will cheer as their predecessors in World War II and Vietnam did. They will cheer so loudly that the Special Republican Guard won’t be able to hear the bombs screaming in. If they perish in the blast, we will mourn their passing.
Well done, good and faithful soldier, well done.
Lt. Raymond Perry USN (Ret.) is a DefenseWatch Contributing Editor. He can be reached at cos1stlt@yahoo.com
Sempers,
Roger