(July 26, 2011 at 11:06 pm)Minimalist Wrote: I read a book one time...wish I could remember the name...but it was excerpts from captured diaries/journals of Japanese soldiers during the war. The vast majority of them were dead and the diaries were found when G2 went over the bodies. The concept of suicide was so deeply ingrained that it led to some almost comical incidences. In addition to being told that it was desirable to die for the emperor they had also been threatened that they should never be captured. Since modern weapons, particularly artillery, could knock people out without killing them, one began to read things such as:
"The Americans are coming over the ridge....the sergeant says it is time to die." Then the diarist would describe how they would all take a grenade and prepare to blow themselves to bits. Usually the writer would pen some heroic sounding thing like "gloriously we die so his majesty may live."
Meanwhile, they wouldn't actually shoot at the advancing Americans. A bizarre little book. Reminded me of "Letters From Iwo Jima" when that came out a few years ago.
That does sound interesting. I remember reading about their training and how capture was considered highly dishonorable. It wasn't just for soldiers, though. Civilians were fed propaganda to the point that they would kill themselves to avoid capture. The suicides after the Battle of Saipan come to mind.
