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General discussion

Did anyone catch

Mar 13, 2004 1:48PM PST

the True story behind The Bridge On The River Kwai Saturday morning on the History channel?

An amazing story. The British and Australian POWs were treated as bad as anything I've ever heard. The Nazis had nothing on the the Japenese guards and engineers when it came to brutality.

Why has it taken this long for me to hear this story?

I can't find a direct link to the show I saw this morning but there are many true versions out there.

The Thai-Burma railway was built under the worst of circumstances if the story is to be believed and I have no reason to doubt the story tellers.

It seems to me that the Aussies are always going to battle for the right people for the right reasons and getting the worst of it.

Discussion is locked

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1957 Movie
Mar 13, 2004 4:00PM PST
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Hollywood movie history...
Mar 13, 2004 10:56PM PST

That movie reminds me of another one, "The Great Escape". Hollywood took a situation and rewrote a great deal of what actually happened for better "box office". Unfortunately, many people take that fiction for history and never learn the real story of what actually happened.

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Re: Did anyone catch
Mar 14, 2004 2:13AM PST

Hi, Rick.

That story is "not just coming out," as you put it. Surely you've heard of the "Bataan Death March?" The Japanese were actually much harsher in their treatment of POWs than were the Germans, who reserved most of their atrocities for Jews and other "untermensch," while the Japanese basically mistreated anyone who wasn't Japanese. Their alliance as part of the Axis was very much a "marriage of convenience" on both sides.

-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

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Re:Re: Did anyone catch
Mar 14, 2004 3:20AM PST

Hi, DaveK,

As for Germany, it was said that, until things started goiong badly, the Lutwaffe treated their prisoners betterthan the the others. The army was known to machine gun groups of prisoners. But I never have been aware of experiments, etc. being conducted on them, unlike the Japanese, who commotted countless atrocities.

Angeline
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

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Re:Re: Did anyone catch
Mar 14, 2004 4:40AM PST

Hi Dave

We had an old M.Sgt in our unit that had survived that "Bataan Death March" and the POW treatment that followed. The stories he told were unreal. Makes you wonder where these monsters came from at that time.

George

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You might find this link interesting
Mar 14, 2004 3:10AM PST

Hi, Rick,

That is part of what was behind the controvery at the Smithsonian re: the Enola Gay exhibit.

I once heard a discussion re: why the Japanese started treating their enemies badly, after having a history of the opposite. I found a link that refers to their past:

They weren't always. In the Russo-Japanese war, 1904-1905, they went out of their way to be scrupulous in their treatment of POWs. In World War I, the German priosners they took in the Pacific and in China were well-treated. After World War I, in the multi-national military expedition against the Bolsheviks, the Red Cross singled out two nations for their humane treatment of POWs ? Japan and the United States. But in the 1920s and the 1930s, the military rose to absolute power in Japan and taught that surrender rather than death on the battlefield was dishonorable and survival as a prisoner rather than suicide was despicable. So here were more than 140,000 allied POWs who, in Japanese eyes, did not deserve to live. They were seen as subhuman. This gave prison camp commandants and guards free license for brutality. [/}

http://www.uwsa.com/issues/trade/samtrade/sam62-04.html

Angeline
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

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Re:Did not catch the story Rick. wished I did. Movie is one of my Favorites(nt)
Mar 14, 2004 4:19AM PST

.