My buddy just gave me a book, "Blood and Bushido", it is about Japanese atrocities at sea. I have not read it yet, but he said it had stuff about submarine sailors shooting survivors of sinkings.
He told me about the book, and talked about the some of the bad stuff the book mentioned.
I differed with him. I said Allied forces shot people in the water every chance they got. I have seen newsreels of B-25's and, I think they were Beufighter's, shooting people in the water, and the news reel guy exclaiming "Great Shot".
I have also read of an instance where a US sub commander surfaced his boat, ordered everyone topside, and told them to shoot everyone in the water. It turned out to be over a thousand japanese soldiers from transports previously sunk. There was pictures of it in the book. Everybody standing topside shooting at dudes hanging on to floating stuff.
There was also the instance of a U Boat CO who order the shooting of a crew in the english channel, or near abouts, to keep from being counterdetected. He was hung after the war.
I have also seen one of America's greatest aces, Hero, say, on TV, that he deliberately killed a man jumping out of his airplane, and his reasoning was, "He was just too good, he would probably kill a less experienced pilot"
I personally do not have a problem with any of this. If I was the US commander, I would have shot all of them so some marine would not have to duck their bullets. If was was the U Boat commander, I would have shot them so they would not give away my position, If I was the pilot, I would have done it too.
I am not sure why I am writing this. I think my friend, who is lifetime military, thought I might be nuts. Or a potential war criminal.
I served on Boats, and nobody in the water is worth not bringing the boat back. I served in the Infantry, and no village is worth not bringing the company back.
I guess I didn't realize that this thinking was not standard, or criminal, now, I guess.
I'll go ahead and read the book........
_________________ DEEP THOUGHTS BY KIDS:
"If we could just get everyone to close their eyes and visualize world peace for an hour, imagine how serene and quiet it would be until the looting started. Age 15 "
Deep Thoughts,
Jack Handy
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