70 year old tree and POW question--why did they take the life of the man that saved his life?

Question

Was Vaughn a POW for the non US side?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22363459/?GT1=10645

Answer 1

Japan executed POWs, they did not sign the Geneva conventions and the military traditions taught that some one who surrendered was not worthy of respect.

POWs were considered lower than dirt, so killing them for fun or as punishment was often times considered acceptable.

Answer 2

Now you know why THE bomb(s) were used on Japan!!

You reap what you sow!!

"where Iwatake was drafted during the war." so that would make him a Japanese citizen, regardless of where he was born or even if Hawaii was even US soil during WW2, (depends upon when Hawaii became US Government territory).

There is no evidence in the link that he knew the U.S. pilot was going to be murdered, and nothing he could do about it anyway, (even the fact that this guy had lived outside Japan he would have been treated with a certain amount of suspicion by the fanatical Japanese military.) and no common enlisted man would dare contradict a Japanese Officer.

Answer 3

It was common knowledge during WW II that if the Japanese mainland was to be compromised by the enemy, all POWs would be executed. That's why the Japanese beheaded the guy. One aspect in the decision to use the atomic bombs in 1945 was to save the POWs. It was known that such a weapon would destroy communications and the chaos after wards would disrupt the executions. Some POWs were executed anyway. About 95,000 American soldiers and civilians were held in Japan at the start of the war. The civilians were captured from China and the Philippines mostly. Of that 95,000 number, only 35,000 survived the Japanese cruelty.

Answer 4

Vaughn was a POW of the Japanese. The Japanese man the story is about is interesting. They never said if he was born in Hawaii or Japan. If he was born in Hawaii he was a traitor. If he was born in Japan, he was a war criminal for not helping Vaughn from being beheaded.

Answer 5

Surrender or capture was considered cowardly by the japanese, and thus any enemy soldier captured alive was generally held in contempt. Of course there were exceptions but relatively few Japanese soldiers surrendered willingly during the war. For this reason, US soldiers had no problem just shooting them all, and did not trust their surrender very much.

The Pacific War was extremely brutal and savage, and being taken prisoner was about the last thing you wanted to have happen to you if you were an American.

Hopefully these naval officers were tracked down and hung. Many were after the war.

Answer 6

The japanese killed a lot of POW's during the war, it didn't matter to them if someone had saved someone else's life or not.