DISCUSSION RE. MY TREATMENT OF JAPANESE

I hope everyone will join this discussion!  It's a timely one since "The Emperor" with Tommy Lee Jones as MacArthur, opened this last weekend at the movies.

My newest book, The Unsurrendered was discussed and reviewed by the husband and wife moderators on the audio podcast:

http://streetwraith.net/baysideblogstories

The sites where the book can be bought are:

http://tinyurl.com/aowbn7x;   http://tinyurl.com/b99nkap;   http://tinyurl.com/b340014

The male moderator who read the novel had a strong negative response to my treatment of the Japanese in the book.  He loves everything Japanese and felt that I dealt to harshly with them.  He also stated that I did so without proper documentation or proof.  I won't bother listing my references here, which were many, but I would like to counter his opinion and defend my position.  I did list my references in the book.

I gave several instances in the book where the Japanese were very cruel in their treatment of innocent civilians in Northern China (Nanking, in particular) and in the Philippines, where most of my story takes place.

I will say that in addition to other non-fiction books listed in my references, I also listed Time-Life Books.  This is an almost irrefutable source.  There are a great deal of instances that are considered by historians to be absolutely factual and I did not list them to be inflammatory.  I listed them because they are factual.  Just to name a few:

1.  Nanking, China.  When the Japanese invaded it, it is a known fact that they killed almost every living civilian in this Northern China village.  They raped the women and burned the village to the ground.  They continued on this rampage among many parts of southern and northern China.

2.  Philippines:

   (a) The Death March.  This horrifying incident occurred before newsmen eyes after the Americans surrendered on Bataan.  The Japanese butchered over 10,500 men during this approximately 65 mile walk to Camp O'Donnell.  They did so by playing games with their swords, making a contest between Japanese soldiers to see how many POW heads could be chopped off with one huge swipe of a sword.  They also killed any POW who tried to drink water or take food or water from a civilian.

    (b)  Palawan.  They killed all of the POWs in this camp except for three who managed to escape.  They did so by the express order of the Imperial Headquarters of Emperor Hirohito.  He sent a telegram ordering all POW camp commanders to murder all of the prisoners in the Philippines so they couldn't testify against the Japanese.  The camp commanders herded them all into a building and set it on fire.  The telegram was sent to every POW camp, but the Americans managed to save the others from such a fate.  The telegram was intended for the civilians interred at Santo Tomas Internment camp also.

   (c)  Manila.  The Manila Massacre was one of the atrocities outlined in great detail in a Time-Life Series of Books published in the 1950's.  A naval garrison sent by the Imperial Headquarters set fire to Filipino homes surrounding the capital, which ultimately destroyed much of Manila. Before it was destroyed, however, the Japanese troops marched through the city, raping and murdering innocent women and children, killing babies even.  They murdered 100,000 innocent civilians.

   (d)  The Hell Ships.  These were ships where POWs were shipped from the Philippines to camps in Japan where they labored in factories and mines.  These were outlined by a historian, Linda Goetz Holmes.  Ms Holmes was paid by the U.S. government to research how the POWs were treated in these camps.  She likens them to the German concentration camps.  None were given warm clothing, they were given one blanket for every 5 prisoners, they even had a medical unit set up which did experiments on prisoners which could have competed in cruelty to Mengele.  The Hell ships carried men to Japan but only about a third of them even lived through the trip because of no food, no air, and no water.  I never even discussed the Hell Ships in this book.

   (e) Asian Democide.  Professor R. J. Rummel who was a well known author of books about atrocities during warfare and also studied The Holocaust, referred to the Asian Democide, where there were 3- 10 million civilians murdered by the Japanese before & during WWII.  The number is so wide varied because the Japanese destroyed as much evidence as possible before the American Occupation.

I could go on and on, listing more incidents, but these are some of the ones which are irrefutable.  I am not saying that every commander or emperor is responsible for every cruelty visited upon the enemy, but I am saying that Emperor Hirohito was personally responsible for many of them. I didn't even touch on the Hell Ships and barely touched on The Death March in this book.

It is a known fact that 9 out of 10 JAPANESE POWS died in captivity.  9 out of 10.  In comparison, only 2 out of 10 POWs died under German command.  The Nazies treated their POWs much more humanely than the Japanese.  Our area WWII POW Veteran's group who were held by the Germans said that they were very lucky to have been German rather than Japanese POWs.

I don't have any idea how MacArthur dealt with Hirohito in the movie.  I just know that in real life, he let the Emperor escape death.  However, he demanded that he not be treated as the "Son of God" any longer by his subjects.  He strongly suggested that he wear normal clothing and go about talking to his citizens as a normal human being.  This was probably a punishment worse than death to Hirohito. MacArthur found that the Japanese destroyed proof of many of these atrocities.

The moderator also claimed that I did not develop Carla's or Jacob's characters enough.  I spent chapter after chapter doing so.  I think I did a pretty good job, but that's my opinion and I would like my readers' opinions.  How will I ever grow as a reader without it?  I can tell all of my readers that I take constructive criticism very well, and my writers' group members would agree with me.

I would like some of my readers to participate in this discussion.  I don't, of course, think I portrayed the Japanese too harshly, but that is my opinion.  However, my viewpoint is based on months of tedious research from many sources.

Please tell me what you think!  Thank you.  

Joyce