Unjust Enrichment (1 Viewer)

[Currahee Chris]

Last night I finished a book titled "Unjust Enrichment"

WOW!! Pretty powerful stuff. The book was written by Linda Goetz-Holmes, a graduate of Weslley college. The book profiles the plight of Allied POWs and civilians who were captured and imprisoned and forced to work as slave labor for Japanese production plants. These men were never paid a cent for their labor even though it was required by the Geneva Convention.

Mrs. Goetz offers some brief insight into the internment of Japanese- Americans and I personally don't agree with the logic but that is me playing Monday Morning QB 60+ years after the fact- her logic was basically " they didn't suffer nearly as horribly as our people did"- true, but I am not a big proponent of two wrongs making a right either.

She did a tremendous job of narrating the infractions of the various Japanese companies that worked allied POWs to their graves. It was a very very sad and tragic story. One that after reading it, I couldn't help but feel really really enraged. Japan has always been a country that has interested me. I enjoy reading about the samurai. I have some mixed views on American policy and involvement in Japanese history but after reading this story, I am questioning some of my previous assumptions. For the time being, after reading this novel, I really don't care to learn of anything more about Japan- just the horror that our troops and our allies were put through is still embedded in my head.

The book is subtitled "How Japan built a postwar economy by using POW labor" something like that. After reading it though, I think she can make a better argument as to how the American government let down a lot of these guys!! There are very clear examples of how the Zubatsu (Japanese corporate conglomerates) and the Emperor himself were all pretty much exonerated for their crimes. Any Japanese who were tried and convicted at the Tokyo trials were freed during the late 1950's. To me, it appears to be a gross failure in American foreign policy that led to a lot of the post-war injustices like no official apology from Tokyo or payment of compensation to these POWs.

The book was written in 2000 or 2001. I am not sure where all of this stands today. I am going to do some research and try to find out.

All in all, a short and easy book to read at 145 pages though the content is very disturbing. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to discover more about the plight of these individuals.

STANDS ALONE!!
CC

 

[Louis Badolato]

Chris,

I have no ill feelings against individual Japanese people who did not participate in the attrocities of Imperial Japan, but I absolutely detest those Japanese individuals and corporations who did. Frankly, I am not an appologist who believes all cultures are equally valid. I believe that the cultures which gave rise to the horrors of the rape of Nanking or the holocaust are horribly flawed (as for that matter was our own culture to the extent that we massacred the Indians in the 19th Century). I think we needed to take a hard look at our culture and make some corrections, and to an extent I believe we have. The Japanese however, in my opinion, never took a hard look at themselves and frankly pretend they never did anything wrong and that 1938-1945 never happened. And I blame that piece of work MacArthur and our post-war government's fear of communism for failing to make the Japanese war criminals pay for their crimes and force the Japanese to recognize their own inhumanity.

 

[Rob]

Absolutely spot on Louis.Whilst we cannot blame todays generation of Germans and Japenese for WW2 atrocities,the generation that carried them out were absolute scum.

Rob

 

[sceic2]

Ah but we can hold the current generation accountable for holding their parents and grandparents accountable and to ensure that they and their children and their children's children and on and on do not repeat history.

We can hold the current Japanese generation accountable to correct their own version of history and include events and their causes and affects that Japan was responsible for and not delete at will any thing that does not make Japan responsible for its actions.

 

[Rob]

Ah but we can hold the current generation accountable for holding their parents and grandparents accountable and to ensure that they and their children and their children's children and on and on do not repeat history.

We can hold the current Japanese generation accountable to correct their own version of history and include events and their causes and affects that Japan was responsible for and not delete at will any thing that does not make Japan responsible for its actions.

Absolutely,their reluctance to apologize and warped teaching of History in their schools is a disgrace,and pressure should be kept up on them to mend their ways.The German and Italian governments have expressed remorse on several occaisions,Japenese reluctance to follow suit perpetuates bad feeling and bitterness.Their treatment of Allied prisoners was a crime against humanity,the sooner the fully accept it the better.

Rob

 

[Currahee Chris]

And I blame that piece of work MacArthur and our post-war government's fear of communism for failing to make the Japanese war criminals pay for their crimes and force the Japanese to recognize their own inhumanity.

I guess I would challenge- when did nation building become the purview of the military?? Isn't that the State Department's job?? That failure on the government's behalf should rest squarely with them, not Mac. True, Mac was a very strong personality and pretty much did what he wanted- I guess if the government didn't like it, FDR should have fired him instead of just shooting him out to fight the war is Asia. There were plenty of other capable generals who could have taken the mantle.

This is a good example of where we in the US are screwing up in Iraq- our military did their job a long time ago but Rummy kept the DOD so involved and edged the State department out. Now, with things shaken up a bit, we need to let the State department go about building that nation back up.

Leadership doesn't always present neat and tidy decisions. Unfortunately for Mac, this one wasn't easy and I cannot imagine he made it without loosing a lot of sleep. The truth is, if Japan had fallen to the Communists, we may have been looking at a Pearl Harbor 1951 with the attack coming from the Soviets instead. Look how tense things were surrounding Cuba. It's easy for us to look back now and say we were too lenient and gave the Japanese too much but, well, the world was a different place in 1945 than it is now. This was one of those "numbers" decisions and unfortunately us and our allied POWs lost this one. I'm not exonerating the Japanese at all, I am just discussing the realities of decision making at that level.

I know that since Hirohito passed, there has been a surge among Japanese academics to discuss their past. It is scorned and they do face roadblocks but they are trying. Japan is a very interesting country- they were isolationists for so long and then the West got involved with them and things were good, then bad, good, etc, etc. Their is a lesson here that is applicable as well for today- different cultures have different values and we need to really REALLY address these issues in our warfighting/ nation building strategies in the future instead of just giving them limited discussion.

 

[Harrytheheid]

For anyone who wants a flavour of the dying days of The 3rd Reich in 1945, I would recommend;
The Valhallah Exchange by Jack Higgins.
100% fiction, but a fascinating "What If". Plus it's a rattling good read as well.