Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyLingo
Wow... after reading up on this, I can only ask, "Why?"
Why the brutality? Why the complete disregard for human life and decency?
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Chang explores this in her book. The Japanese military establishment taught the soldiers to believe that the Japanese were a superior race favored by God and that the Chinese were subhuman; no better then rats or dogs. The Japanese had also been dominated by the Chinese in a cultural sense for 2000 years (writing systems, government, inventions, etc.) and so that played into the dynamics to a certain degree. I.e., this fed into the Japanese people's eagerness to demonstrate their superiority. Another factor is simply that they had just finished a brutal campaign and the Japanese had lost quite a few fellow soldiers. When the commanders not only allowed, but encouraged the soldiers to have their way with the local populace, they let loose with a vengeance.