Is it true that veterans of WWII in Japan who came home were looked at as cowards, but US vets heros?

Question

The Japanese thought it was more honorable to die for one's country than the US did.

US honor was to come home alive.

Answer 1

Unfortunately more Japanese military took their lives because they lost the war. Many took their lives rather than be taken prisoner because it would have been a dishonor to surrender. There are stories of Japanese soldiers hiding out in caves and jungles because they didn't believe the war was over and they would not surrender.
Here are some stories about the Japanese holdouts of WW2:

Answer 2

I don't think so much. You have to remember that most of the returning veterans came home from Indo China, Mainland China, Korea, etc. These guys didn't have the same experience of defeat that the boys we faced did.

And truthfully we killed most of the Japanese we faced, so there were not a whole lot of these guys with stories to tell about fighting the Americans.

This has resulted in some ugly postwar behavior in Japan. The Japanese, unlike the Germans, have not really taken full responsibility for the atrocities they committed. In large part, the surviving Japanese veterans participated in these atrocities in China, etc, etc., so one can imagine why they have resisted accepting that responsibility.

Answer 3

The Japanese attitude can be attributed to the Japanese psyche at the time. The Japanese military was a strict adherent to the "Code of the Bushido" (Code of the Warrior). One of its teachings is that "country and honor are heavy as a mountain... and life is as light as a feather". Western psychologists who studied the Japanese way of thinking in WW II explained the following: The Japanese soldier is expected to die for the nation and the Emperor. Being captured alive is dishonorable. Losing a battle is dishonorable. Honor can only be redeemed in such situations if the Japanese soldier takes his own life by committing "hara-kiri" (suicide by stabbing the abdomen). This is the reason why the Japanese soldiers always fight to the death, or kill themselves rather than be captured in battle. This also explains the reason why Japanese soldiers behaved so brutally on captured Allied POW's, because they view the Allied soldiers as like themselves who should have fought to the death rather than surrender. By allowing themselves to be captured alive, the Allied soldiers had lost their honor in the eyes of their Japanese captors and therefore had deprived themselves of any honorable treatment. The Japanese behavior, although barbaric by western standards, is the acceptable military code of conduct for the Japanese.

The same way of treatment still applied to returning Japanese soldiers after WW II, that is... having lost their honor in their failure to fight to the death in defending their nation and their Emperor. Hence, their treatment as cowards...

Answer 4

The Japanese culture used to be very arrogant (some would argue that it still is) Under the code of Bushido (the warrior's code) surrender to the enemy was unthinkable, a disgrace upon one's entire family. Honorable death by ritual suicide was preferable to surrender. When Japan was forced to surrender to the U.S. as a nation, the entire populace was humiliated beyond the understanding of most Westerners. We humbled a gloriously proud people, whose leaders had simply bitten off more than they could chew. Japanese soldiers fought just as bravely as American soldiers, there were just more Americans with better supply lines and slightly better weapons. We were still forced to nuke them (twice) to avoid having to invade the home islands, which surely would have cost the lives of hundreds of thousands more Americans. IMO the Japanese have nothing to be ashamed of (except the wanton rape and torture of civilians in China).

Answer 5

Very interesting question, and yes I have the same thing, I will attempt to look up more of a definative answer for you soon as I am better at this site.. if you can do a search, maybe your info is available on line. I have a book here someplace called the people's almanac parts 1/ 2 and maybe a third that makes reference to many kinds of very unique things.

Answer 6

I couldn't say if that's true or not, but it sounds possible. Japanese society has got a history of "honor suicides" being the right thing to do if one has shamed one's family. American society has a decent basis in Christianity, in which suicide is a mortal sin.

Answer 7

How can you be a draft dodger and a Vietnam Vet? If you dodge the war that means you didn't fight. Liberals like to spit in the faces of our soldiers.

Answer 8

yep....strange isnt it, just goes to show you how different the peoples of the world are

Answer 9

That's true.

Answer 10

No, they just lost, and losing sucks balls