PEARL HARBOR & THE JAPANESE ATROCITIES: What the Left Does Not Want You To Know

Have you heard about Japanese Imperialism and Atrocities?

Today, on the 68th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor attack, it is time to recount the facts.
In the United States, we admire the Japanese culture. Therefore, for many is hard to believe that the Japanese committed atrocities and shared the same expansionist ambitions as the leftist/fascist dictators Hitler and Mussolini. (Yes, leftists, communists and fascists share the same ideologies: collectivism (reject individual freedom), big government, authoritarianism, Darwinism, suppression, censorship, indoctrination, etc.)

Academia, Hollywood and the media love to vilify the United States by constantly talking about the U.S. expansions, the so-called Japanese internment camps and other perceived injustices. The left’s revision of history consists of hiding the facts and the context of many historical events. One of those is the atrocities committed by the Japanese during their Imperial expansion.

Japanese Imperialism

Pearl Harbor was not the first attack perpetrated by the Japanese. Japan was one of the major countries part of the Axis Powers (along with Germany and Italy). The Axis Powers had already been very active pursuing their global territorial expansion before World War II. They dominated large parts of Europe, Africa, East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean.

JAPANESE EXPANSION – 20TH CENTURY
BEFORE THE PEARL HARBOR ATTACK
– 1904: Japanese Empire fought against Russian Empire due to their rival imperial ambitions over Manchuria (Northeast China) and Korea. (Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905)
– 1931: Japan invades Manchuria (Northeast China)
– 1932: Japan attacks Shanghai, China in 1932
(Shanghai War of 1932)
– 1933: Japan attacks Hopei, China (First Battle of Hopei)
– 1936: Japan and a Mongolian coalition unsuccessfully attack Inner Mongolia, China
– 1937: Japanese regular and allied Inner Mongol forces finally capture Inner Mongolia
– 1937: Japan invasion China
(Second Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945)
– 1938-1940: Japan occupies several Chinese East coastal provinces
– 1938: Japan fights with the Soviets in the Korea border
(Battle of Lake Khasan)
– 1939: Japan fights with the Soviets and Mongols
(Soviet-Japanese Border War)
– 1940: Japan occupies North Indochina
(Vietnam/French Indochina Expedition)

JAPANESE ATTACKS AMERICANS
In the mid 1930s, before the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese:
– attacked schools and hospitals of American missionaries
– strafed 5 Americans on an outing in Shanghai
– bombed an American church in Chungking & destroyed it in the 9th bombing
– attacked the American gunboat USS Panay which was sent to rescue people in the Yangtze River: aboard were journalists, diplomats, and crewmembers. It was escorting 2 oil tankers filled with refugees from Nanking, China. Japanese planes bombed the vessel and fired at survivors in the water who were trying to reach the banks of the river. (In the 1930s, the United States had a treaty with China allowing American gunboats to travel deep up the Yangtze River to protect its trade route from pirate attacks.)

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

December 7, 1941 – Pearl Harbor Attack
In 1941, the Nazis were advancing in Europe; Japan in the Pacific.

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor Naval Station, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu:
The Japanese raid killed 2,400 U.S. soldiers and civilians, and wounded another 1,200 Americans, sank/damaged 21 vessels of the Pacific Fleet and about 75% of the planes.
They torpedoed and sank the unarmed U.S. army-chartered steam schooner SS Cynthia Olson: 33 members of the crew and 2 army passengers were killed

Pearl Harbor Victims | USS Arizona Victims

The Japanese attacks continued:
– 12/11/1941: sank the freighter SS Lahaina: 4 crewmembers were killed
– 12/17/1941: sank the merchant marine ship SS Manini: 2 sailors killed
– 12/18/1941: sank the merchant marine ship SS Prusa: 9 crewmen killed and a radio operator. The Japanese forces also attacked the SS Samoa (15 miles from California)
– During the week of 12/19/1941: attacked the lumber schooner SS Barbara Olson, oil tankers LP St. Clair, SS Agwiworld, SS H.M. Storey, SS Larry Doheny (within 20 miles of the California and Oregon coastlines)
– 12/20/1941: attacked the oil tanker SS Emidio: killed 4 crewmen
– 12/23/1941: sank the oil tanker SS Montebello
– 12/24/1941: fired at the steamship SS Dorothy Philips
– 12/25/1941: torpedoed lumber carrier SS Absaroka
– 12/27/1941: chased the oil tanker SS Connecticut (near the Columbia River)

JAPANESE MILITARY EXPANSION CONTINUES:
December 1941 – more Japanese attacks in the Pacific:
– 12/7/1941: Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand (in Singora and Patani), Malaya (in Kota Bahru)
– 12/10/1941: American island of Guam, British islands of Tarawa and Makin, and sank both British battleships HMS Prince of Wales of the Malay Peninsula and the HMS Repulse off the Malay Peninsula.
– 12/23/1941: Wake Island surrendered to Japanese forces
– 12/25/1941: Hong Kong surrendered

Early 1942 – Japan continues its attack close to California, Oregon, and in the Pacific:
– fired at the Ellwood oil fields off the coast of Goleta, California
– shelled the Goleta oil fields, sink a freighter in the North Pacific, sink the previously targeted Larry Doheny and H.M. Storey and launch seaplanes that would drop incendiary firebombs over southwest Oregon forests.
– occupied Manila
– occupied New Guinea
– attacked British, Dutch, and American squadrons (Battle of Java Sea)
– attacked Dutch East Indies
– attacked Singapore

JAPANESE BRUTALITY & TORTURE The leftists want us to forget about Japan’s atrocities to the Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, and Americans. Japanese common atrocities: – beheadings, disembowelments, cutting throats, rapes – casual shootings, bayonet stabbings, rifle butt beatings – deliberate refusal to allow the prisoners food or water – slicing off a woman’s breasts and a young man’s genitals – hacking off a prisoner’s hands and legs – hammering cartridges into the eyes of Russian troops – a pilot was beheaded, his flesh sliced up and cooked (a common Japanese practice during the war) – the Nanking Massacre (aka the Rape of Nanking): hundreds of thousands of civilians in Nanking (former capital of China) were murdered and 20,000-80,000 women were raped by Japanese soldiers – slaughters in Java, Borneo and other cities in China – shot 300 to 400 people in Singapore – hundreds of civilians were burned alive at Fort Santiago – still more were shot at the German Club, where soldiers shot or bayoneted women and children fleeing the flames – mercilessly murdered hospital patients at the Red Cross building – followed the order of killing Filipinos in groups in order to save ammunition – 22 Americans were beheaded by a single commander (in the Gilberts) – Japanese guards bayoneted 90 (at Ballale)

Japanese guards forced horrified Filipinos to view murdered POWs

The Death March of Bataan (Philippines, 1942)

In Bataan, province of the Philippines (1942)
About 70,000 Filipino and American troops surrendered to Japanese forces in the Philippines during World War II. The Japanese forced them to walk almost 60 miles for days in the scorching heat through the Philippine jungles. This later became known as The Death March of Bataan and recorded in history as one example of Japanese war crimes:
– 650 American died
– 5,000 to 10,000 Filipino died
– 400 men of the Filipino 91st Division were massacred
– during the march, many POWs were bayoneted, beaten or tortured where they fell
– some prisoners who possessed Japanese yen were beheaded
– water and food was not given to prisoners for days while keeping them continually marching in the tropical heat
– when they were allowed to drink, it was from rice paddies full of dung
– no bathrooms were provided
– malaria and dysentery ravaged the prisoners
– Japanese soldiers defecated and urinated next to the wounded in field hospitals
– some Americans were forced to dig a trench to bury alive sick Filipinos
– when the prisoners were finally placed in crammed, hot railroad cars the men racked by dysentery relieved themselves on other prisoners
– immediately killed anyone who fell down, was unable to continue or protested

Puerto Princesa Prison Camp in the Philippines (December 1944)
– the Japanese burned 150 American prisoners alive when they saw American Liberator bombers coming to the rescue

Wake Island
-Japanese beheaded several soldiers on the Nitta Mary
-98 American contractors were lined up on the beach and machine-gunned and bayoneted
-the Japanese extermination plan: poisonous smoke, poisons, drowning, decapitation…total annihilation without a trace

JAPANESE TRICKS
The Japanese used the “white flag” trick:
– a wounded Japanese soldier stabbed to death a surgeon trying to save his life
– a drowning Japanese sailor shot his American rescuer
– Japanese surrendered in pairs, the first concealing the second, who had a grenade

JAPANESE RACISM
The Japanese detested other Asians. Their racism was obvious even before Pearl Harbor:
– In 1923, Japanese mobs tortured and killed 6,000 Koreans in Japan, because they thought the Koreans helped cause that year’s earthquake.
– Japanese militarists in Asia killed more Asian than Americans ever did: 15 million to 35 million Chinese alone
– Japanese in China during the war adopted the “three all” policy of “kill all, burn all, destroy all”

JAPANESE FANATICAL “HONOR DEATH”
Japanese soldiers were asked to engage in gyokusai (glorious self-annihilation) and sacrifice themselves without a thought for their Emperor:
– As early as 1908: commanders who surrendered their units were executed
– In Saipan, 1944: Japanese military told the civilians that Americans would rape and torture them. So, when Americans took Saipan in the summer of 1944, the civilians threw their children and themselves to their deaths at Marpi Point cliffs. Those who hesitated were shot by Japanese snipers. The Americans tried unsuccessfully to stop the mass suicide. The U.S. Navy rescued many from the sea who had survived the fall.
– At Okinawa, 1945: Kamikaze pilots (like human-guided missiles) plunged themselves into more than 250 ships, killing 7,000 Americans, sinking 30 ships and inflicting severe damage on 11 U.S. carriers.

SPIES FOR THE JAPANESE EMPIRE
Even before Japan started its militaristic expansion, many Japanese became involved in espionage, sabotage, or fifth columnist (clandestine) activities.
In Southeast Asia espionage activity started prior the Japanese military attacks:
– Philippines: It was well known the massive Japanese espionage activity in the country prior to the war. Japanese businesses were near every important bridge, electrical plant, and public utility, American military bases and communications stations. Japanese owners of huts near Camp Murphy in Manila had enough dynamite to blow up the city. A brewery had concealed a radio station that guided in Japanese warplanes. Even the Japanese consul and his staff informed Tokyo of warship movements, airport constructions, size of Philippine armed forces, number of American troops and aircraft.
– Dutch East Indies: Japanese fishermen took notes and pictures for the Japanese Empire.
– In Macassar: Japanese residents posed as guides and interpreters in order to spy.
– In Malaya: spies reported on military strengths, troop dispositions, landing sites. Spying was done by Japanese editors, diplomats, plantation owners, mining firms.
– In Hong Kong: local Japanese responded to the call to spy for the Emperor: barbers, bar staff, etc. There was a legion of spooks reporting from Hong Kong.

In the United States:
The tradition of doho (unbending loyalty to the Emperor regardless of residence or citizenship) was followed by many.

INTERNMENT CAMPS
Americans are still trying to find a balance between personal freedoms and national security.
The Left loves to equate the so-called Japanese internment camps with Hitler’s gassing camps. However, they fail to mention the facts and historical context.
– Imperial Japan demonstrated for decades that they believed that the end justified their means. They did not care about human rights and treaties. They only cared about their expansionist conquests.
– Many Japanese responded to the call of loyalty to the Japanese Empire and participated in espionage and subversive activities. It was hard to determine who was or wasn’t participating with the Empire.
– Democrat U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to relocate West Coast Japanese, Europeans and others as a security measure in case Japan decided to invade mainland United States. On 3/18/1942, Roosevelt created the War Relocation Authority (WRA) to oversee the relocation program.
– The relocation camps were never intended to be “internment” camps.
– There was a real threat from a potential fifth column or spy network.
– Western state governors could not provide proper security for the Japanese, or from saboteurs among them.
– Canada issued similar orders for Japanese living in British Columbia.
– U.S. and Canada were concerned about the Japanese invasions of the West Coast and the role of the fifth column.

Did you know?
Of the people interned during the war, there were not only Japanese, but also Germans, Italians, Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians, etc.

SOURCES
– Stanley L. Falk, Bataan: The March of Death (New York: W.W. Norton, 1962), 122-23.
– John Wukovits, Pacific Alamo: The Battle for Wake Island (New York: New American Library, 2003), 242.
– Lord Russell, The Knights of Bushido: A Short History of Japanese War Crimes (London: Greenhill Books, 2002), 233-37, 253.
– Irish Chang, The Rape of Nanking (New York: Penguin, 1998). Bergamini, Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, passim.
– Larry Schweikart, America’s Victories: Why the U.S. Wins Wars and Will Win the War on Terror (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2006).
– Michelle Malkin, In Defense of Internment: The Case for ‘Racial Profiling’ in World War II and the War on Terror (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2004).
– Carlos Romulo, I Saw the Fall of the Philippines (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1943), 34.
– Tony Matthews, Shadows Dancing: Japanese Espionage Against the West, 1939-1945 (NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1993), 28.
– Burl Burlingame, Advance Force – Pearl Harbor (Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute, 2002), 175-177, 293-303, 328-330.
– Ladislas Farago, The Broken Seal: The Story of “Operation Magic” and the Pearl Harbor Disaster (NY: Random House, 1962), 93.
– The California State Military Museum
– National Museum of the US Air Force
– Naval History
– U.S. Navy
– National Archives, here
– Library of Congress
– Dept. of Defense
– National Park Service: Pacific War
– Japanese attack map in Pearl Harbor
– Pearl Harbor Memorial – USS Arizona Memorial
– Arizona Memorial Museum Association (AMMA)
– Photos: Pearl Harbor from space: here, here, here
– Photos: Arizona Memorial Museum Association (AMMA)
– Videos: USS Panay: Cameraman Norman Alley talks about filming the Japanese attack on the USS Panay on December 12, 1937, original newsreel

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