My mother told me she was so glad that the war finally ended. She told me she had difficult time understanding the surrender speech of the emperor. After the war people of Japan had the strong determination and will power to rebuild the nation with peace in mind.
You don't see too many grim faces. Looks like they are happy the death and destruction is at an end. That fellow doing the art was quite talented. Wonder how he made out in the post war years.
I served in the US Army during the Pablo crisis in Korea and Vietnam conflict (1968-72). While in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had a curfew and was off limits to off duty military personnel at night. In 1969 I saw a few Japanese World War veterans in haggard uniforms, suffering from PTSD.
What were those vets doing? Do you think they were going insane due to atrocities they committed? That’s really cool that you got to Live in Japan with the army
Good stuff, keep them coming! I have been to Japan many times on business, but only in the last 2-3 decades. My father was in Japan during the Korean war, he had lots of stories to tell me about then.
Interesting to see the various expressions on their faces. Some seemed happy, others seemed sad, others seemed too intimidated to look at the camera for very long, if at all. But I would imagine most of them were just glad the damned war was over.
This video tells me what my mother who would have been 13 at the time saw in Tokyo where she was going to school during the duration of the war. She never talked about WWII only telling me most of her family died during the war either fighting in the military or dying in bombing raids in Japan.
Ironically, the atomic bomb probably saved her life. The allies forecast 5 million Japanese Civilian casualties during an invasion, the Japanese themselves forecast 10 million.
@@andrewemery4272 There's very little evidence to support the notion that the two bombs were the deciding factor. I'm of the opinion that they did not need to dropped on the heads of women, children, old people and animals.
@@barryguerrero6480 You see, you care about the 40,000+ deaths in one day at Hiroshima, but you don't give a hoot about the 100,000 deaths in one night during the fire-bombing of Tokyo. Why? Because you find prosing about a single bomb 'sexy', but the 100,000 deaths in Tokyo does not thrill your ego.
@@andrewemery4272 You're wrong, and how dare you make any assumption about me, when you know absolutely nothing about me. I also think the use of napalm on civilian targets through low elevation bombing was a war crime. Plain and simple. I don't know you. But SHOULD I ASSUME that if you were to first meet somebody in a room, and they happen to express the opinion that the two atomic bombs shouldn't have been used on civilian targets, that you would then turn to that person and say to them, "why? - because you find prosing about a single bomb 'sexy' (there were two!), but the hundred thousand deaths of Tokyo civilians doesn't thrill you?"? . . . Would you say something so utterly stupid to somebody you didn't know, in the flesh?
@@barryguerrero6480 I think we all have you assessed fairly. You're a Snowflake who jumps on a trendy bandwagon, but in reality cares nothing for lives.
Thank you for saving this piece of history. 1:36 man in center with dark hat and light lapels. 2:10 again on a different street and he just called someone to follow him. 3:44 The youth have various cap insignia which is likely their school insignia. 3:05 a curious cap insignia for an adult.
My dad was sent to Japan I believe in 1946. What a historic, though awkward, moment. The trauma these people must've went through during the firebombing. Considering the propaganda they were probably being told about Americans. They're probably relieved we're not going to try to eat them.
I read an account from a Japanese citizen who said towards the end of the war, the population was fatigued. They saw the writing on the wall and just wanted a return to normalcy. Of course, not all agreed, but the prevailing attitude around the beginning of 1945, especially after the fire bombings, was a desire for the war to end. That's evident in the behavior of the people shown here.
Great video, Thank You. Yes, showing the human everyday side of the common people of Japan, dealing with the largest national reality check ever. Way beyond their wildest imagination just four years earlier.
20 years later, Japan organised the Olympic games, built massive scales of expressways, highways, bullet train 🚅 railroads, advanced international standards airports, seaports, modernized the whole country and it's cities and becomes the second largest economic nation in the world. 70s /80s was the golden era of Japan
With much help from America. It did not want it to fail and become pro communist. Once on it's own the older generation gave all they could into the rebuilding of Japan. Working many hours.
LIVED AND WORKED IN jAPAN JANUARY 1969-AUG 1974 YOU ARE CORRECT - THE GOLDEN AGE FORJAPAN AND FOR ME & MY FAMILY FAMILY LIVED IN YOKOHAMA KIDS (3) AT YOKOHAMA INTL SCHOOL & ST MAURS - YAMATE- CHO YOKOHAMA ME- WORKING - TOKYO SAKURADA BUILDING, NISHI -SHIMBASHI - TOKYO WIFE - LOVING EVERY MINUTE WE MISS LIVING IN JAPAN AND THE PEOPLE WE MET ALL SPEAK JAPANESE WE ARE ORIGINALLY FROM THE U K J MAY VANCOUVER CANADA
Starting around minute 1 it shows a large movie theater. The Hibiya Movie Theater. A big crowd is milling around in front of it. I'll bet they are there to see a movie. I have read that when the war ended, "everyone went to the movies." They wanted to escape from the relentless misery. They wanted some relaxation. In a similar story, a woman decided to re-open her sewing school, the Do-Re-Mi school of dressmaking. Dressmaking was considered frivolous so she had to shut down during the war. She put up announcements on billboards around the neighborhood. She was hoping a few women would show up. The morning she opened up there was a long line of people around the block. Everyone wanted something frivolous back in their lives.
Actually a third of Japan was occupied by the Australians and the commonwealth countries in their force. The Australians also ran the war crime trials.
Australia has a good relationship with Japan after the WWII Cowra Breakout of Japanese POWs expecting to be slaughtered as a kind of ritual suicide - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowra_breakout thinking that 'Regaining honour was only possible through death' ... they couldn't believe it when some survivors weren't killed and were treated kindly by local Australians - 'There was my Mum calmly pouring tea and being the perfect hostess, as always, and chatting away to these strange looking gentlemen, all dressed alike, in their maroon coloured prison clothes, and all wearing old felt hats which we later suspected they had found in our shearing shed. They finished their meal and thanked my mother, and then they just sauntered off down towards the creek, where they were resting when the army arrived to recapture them' - anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/world-war-ii-1939-1945/resources/cowra-breakout-1944#2 'the sixty years since the breakout have seen Cowra develop into a ‘Centre of World Friendship’. The town’s residents boast a very positive relationship with their old enemies, the Japanese' - anzacday.org.au/cowra
My dad was in a ship preparing for the invasion of Japan he was British merchant navy went in the war at 14 . People say dropping atomic bombs was awful but most of these people would have been killed without them . Because they were fanatics that would have kept fighting , most of these guys look happy the wars over and they survived and didn’t have to die for the emperor. And yes there were rapes by occupation forces, but they expected much worse and I would think were pretty happy things went back to normal
Note how few women there are on the streets- in this early film-they had been told that the American soldiers would do terrible things to them-many were still hiding in the countryside
And indeed, tens of thousands of rapes were reported committed by US forces in the 45-46 period. US forces acted on fewer than 400 of those complaints, but did eventually impose crufews on US military which saw the rape numbers drop.
@@d.pierce.6820 John Dower, in his book "Embracing Defeat" uses Japanese sources to estimate 50 to 300 per day in the 1945-1946 period, so dude is correct. The occupation army was composed of low quality troops, with bad discipline. The combat troops were discharged quickly, and the shitbags remained. There's a reason the US Army was utterly unprepared to fight the North Koreans in 1950, because the Occupation Army in Japan was garbage. Source- Dower, "Embracing Defeat, pg 130, note 16, pg 579.
В воспоминаниях Владислава Микоши и Бориса Соколова описано это время. Советские операторы-документалисты попали в Токио как раз в тот момент, когда старая власть уже не распоряжалась, а новая власть ещё не появилась. И, в результате, снимать на камеру можно было всё! Но это был не август, это было 3 сентября - только после подписания Акта о капитуляции Японии иностранную прессу пустили в столицу
Though Japanese people knew that Imperial Japan had accepted the unconditional surrender, their life had not changed at all. I cannot find any hostilities among Japanese people who were shot by US cameraman.
I think I read somewhere that the average Japanese knew the war was unwinnable towards the end. Their war started much earlier than the one in Europe, easy to imagine them being tired of it.
maybe advance party for planning of logistics, quarters and camp areas, who is the civilian government n charge of certain areas, etc....before the landing of large occupation forces.
Some advance Allied personnel were already there before the occupation troops arrived. U.S. troops first entered Tokyo, Japan on August 30, 1945 when General Douglas MacArthur landed at Atsugi airdrome, near Tokyo. The film crew itself was part of that advance contingent. The Jeep probably belonged to them.
At least you dont subject us to those annoying numbers that Periscope films has going by at the bottom of the screen at 100mph.They probably add them to the movie to make them seem more authentic.
During the Tokyo air raid, my aunty was running towards the shelter with her neighbor and suddenly a P-51 started strafing and saw her neighbor's arm flew off. When I was stationed at camp Zama, a Japanese worker told me his story when he was 5 years old. Right before the war ended, he was playing at nearby Sagami river with five of his friends and saw the P-51 coming towards them. The plane flew so low and close that they could see the pilot's face. Being kids, they waved at the pilot. The plane made a turn and came back strafing, bullets missing the kids by inches. I heard quite a few stories as such. While B-29's were dropping bombs, the P-51 escorts were free to roam around and expend their bullets. My coworker was a B-29 crew and on his first mission he was shot down by an anti air gun and parachuted to safety with his crew and was a POW for several month until the end of the war. He married a Japanese and drove a Mitsubishi car saying "can't go wrong with Mitsubishi that made a zero fighter." Well general LeMay who implemented the fire bombings of Japan targeting civilians certainly understood that it was a war crime but he thought there were no innocent civilians and said they were just bystanders...
Unfortunately yes there were some service personnel who did things that were wrong. Some were motivated by rage at having had friends killed savagely by the Japanese, who didn't really recognize the laws of war at all including in treatment of prisoners - not to mention civilians -- see the 'rape of Nanking', for example, the Japanese are estimated to have killed from 3 to 10 million including outright genocide in a sort of Asian holocaust.
We don't excuse the shooting of children but understand it. The US government presented them as little better then animals. You also have the war crimes committed by the Japanese. I knew WW2 vets that refused in the 1980's to ever buy a Japanese car.
Really? What happened to American flyers when they were shot down and captured in Japan? What happened to the civilians in Singapore? What happened to the comfort women from all over SE Asia? What happened to the US soldiers during the Bataan death march and to those prisoners that survived it? What happened to the Chinese in Nanking? What happened to the Americans at Pearl Harbor? Freaking cry me a river about firebombing being a war crime. Total war in WW2 was participated in by ALL sides. Civilians = war plant workers, they are not exactly innocents.
@@jeep146 Had an Uncle, a vet of the fighting in New Guinea, who would never own a Toyota. I, personally, have never owned any other brand. Different times!
@@theoztreecrasher2647 I just finished reading a book on how the Japanese treated POW. They were brutal almost sadistic. So I can understand the hatred. The Japanese even today try to ignore the war crimes during the war.
"Catastrophic famine in Japan was avoided in 1946 because MacArthur (to his eternal credit) insisted and demanded that the US provide food relief. This resulted in the Harris mission and an investigation by Herbert Hoover, both of whom agreed with the Supreme Commander. US Army food that had been accumulated for the invasion was released to the Japanese, as were Japanese military reserves, and food was imported from the US, despite the worldwide food shortage. Along with quick action by the occupation forces against outbreaks of typhus and cholera, and improvements in public health, millions of lives were saved."
Those are called monpe. They are traditional. Farm women still wear them. As I recall, the government actually ordered all women to wear them during the war. I did not know why, so I just asked the Google AI in Japanese. It tells me the government ordered this in 1942 because it is easier to fight fires or flee wearing monpe compared to dresses or kimono. That makes sense. The women I know who still wear them say they are quite comfortable. They are made of cotton.
Some of the worst bombing in March was in the older part of the city, further to the east (and slightly north). Parts of this film is a bit to the west -- badly damaged, but not carpet bombed.
For a defeated and nuked populace, they sure don't look downbeat. They're even smiling a lot. So much for all that Hiroshima guilt we took upon ourselves.
My Dad, a retired kamikaze pilot, had 4 aborted missions to his credit. On September 2, 1946 he flew his final mission against the 250 allied ships in Tokyo Bay and missed all of them.
How amazing. Considering what the Japanese did to other countries and the millions they slaughtered, they lost but still ended up with a functioning society. Those who counties they ruined took considerably longer to recover. So no wonder so many are smiling. They got away lightly.
Tokyo Japan looked like Shanghai after the Sino-Japanese War in 1937. You would have easily mistaken they were Chinese. Finally, the Japanese got a taste of their own doing.
@@treystephens6166 Different scenarios. The Japanese people enjoyed prosperity under the imperialist gov't, and immigrated to Manchuria, China - a region larger than Japan itself. On the other hand, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, only the privileged class enjoyed the oil rich.
That does not mean they were in the military. The government decreed that all men had to wear "civilian uniforms." Which were like army uniforms without insignias. The other reason everyone is wearing a uniform is that in the days after the war ended, the army opened up their warehouses and distributed clothing, rations, pots, pans, medicine and everything else that could be used in the civilian economy. It was a tremendous help. It probably saved many lives from starvation and disease. Even though many of the goods ended up in the black market. So, anyway, many people got uniforms. Many had lost their worldly goods in the bombing raids, so they needed clothes.
This is something I have never seen. Thanks for it.
My mother told me she was so glad that the war finally ended. She told me she had difficult time understanding the surrender speech of the emperor. After the war people of Japan had the strong determination and will power to rebuild the nation with peace in mind.
I’m impressed with the orderly queues for there newspapers ,even among the devastation around them .
I would think it may be for toilet paper.
You don't see too many grim faces. Looks like they are happy the death and destruction is at an end. That fellow doing the art was quite talented. Wonder how he made out in the post war years.
Outstanding archive video.
I served in the US Army during the Pablo crisis in Korea and Vietnam conflict (1968-72).
While in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had a curfew and was off limits to off duty military personnel at night.
In 1969 I saw a few Japanese World War veterans in haggard uniforms, suffering from PTSD.
What were those vets doing? Do you think they were going insane due to atrocities they committed? That’s really cool that you got to Live in Japan with the army
😮😮
@@mikloridden8276thats lazy slandering . Not all soldiers committed atrocities.
@@SeanHogan_frijoleIf they were in the IJA, there's a high possibility that they did
@@SeanHogan_frijole Most of them did. Read some history.
Good stuff, keep them coming! I have been to Japan many times on business, but only in the last 2-3 decades. My father was in Japan during the Korean war, he had lots of stories to tell me about then.
My dad was too.
Had a Uncle in the US Navy to see the devastation of Nagasaki after the surrender and he said it bothered him (PTSD) worse than fighting the Kamikazes
. despite the eerie silence i was still struck by the eternal beauty of the japanese ordinary folk...
Interesting to see the various expressions on their faces. Some seemed happy, others seemed sad, others seemed too intimidated to look at the camera for very long, if at all. But I would imagine most of them were just glad the damned war was over.
This video tells me what my mother who would have been 13 at the time saw in Tokyo where she was going to school during the duration of the war. She never talked about WWII only telling me most of her family died during the war either fighting in the military or dying in bombing raids in Japan.
Ironically, the atomic bomb probably saved her life. The allies forecast 5 million Japanese Civilian casualties during an invasion, the Japanese themselves forecast 10 million.
@@andrewemery4272 There's very little evidence to support the notion that the two bombs were the deciding factor. I'm of the opinion that they did not need to dropped on the heads of women, children, old people and animals.
@@barryguerrero6480 You see, you care about the 40,000+ deaths in one day at Hiroshima, but you don't give a hoot about the 100,000 deaths in one night during the fire-bombing of Tokyo. Why? Because you find prosing about a single bomb 'sexy', but the 100,000 deaths in Tokyo does not thrill your ego.
@@andrewemery4272 You're wrong, and how dare you make any assumption about me, when you know absolutely nothing about me. I also think the use of napalm on civilian targets through low elevation bombing was a war crime. Plain and simple. I don't know you. But SHOULD I ASSUME that if you were to first meet somebody in a room, and they happen to express the opinion that the two atomic bombs shouldn't have been used on civilian targets, that you would then turn to that person and say to them, "why? - because you find prosing about a single bomb 'sexy' (there were two!), but the hundred thousand deaths of Tokyo civilians doesn't thrill you?"? . . . Would you say something so utterly stupid to somebody you didn't know, in the flesh?
@@barryguerrero6480 I think we all have you assessed fairly. You're a Snowflake who jumps on a trendy bandwagon, but in reality cares nothing for lives.
Thank you for saving this piece of history.
1:36 man in center with dark hat and light lapels. 2:10 again on a different street and he just called someone to follow him. 3:44 The youth have various cap insignia which is likely their school insignia. 3:05 a curious cap insignia for an adult.
The happiness on the kids faces was probably because they knew the war was over and didn't have to become Kamikaze pilots
My dad was sent to Japan I believe in 1946. What a historic, though awkward, moment. The trauma these people must've went through during the firebombing. Considering the propaganda they were probably being told about Americans. They're probably relieved we're not going to try to eat them.
I read an account from a Japanese citizen who said towards the end of the war, the population was fatigued. They saw the writing on the wall and just wanted a return to normalcy. Of course, not all agreed, but the prevailing attitude around the beginning of 1945, especially after the fire bombings, was a desire for the war to end. That's evident in the behavior of the people shown here.
Great video, Thank You. Yes, showing the human everyday side of the common people of Japan, dealing with the largest national reality check ever. Way beyond their wildest imagination just four years earlier.
20 years later, Japan organised the Olympic games, built massive scales of expressways, highways, bullet train 🚅 railroads, advanced international standards airports, seaports, modernized the whole country and it's cities and becomes the second largest economic nation in the world. 70s /80s was the golden era of Japan
Only to accommodate the filming of James Bond in “you only live twice” 😂😂😂😂
@@douglasb50461967
With much help from America. It did not want it to fail and become pro communist. Once on it's own the older generation gave all they could into the rebuilding of Japan. Working many hours.
LIVED AND WORKED IN jAPAN JANUARY 1969-AUG 1974
YOU ARE CORRECT - THE GOLDEN AGE FORJAPAN AND FOR ME & MY FAMILY
FAMILY LIVED IN YOKOHAMA
KIDS (3) AT YOKOHAMA INTL SCHOOL & ST MAURS - YAMATE- CHO YOKOHAMA
ME- WORKING - TOKYO SAKURADA BUILDING, NISHI -SHIMBASHI - TOKYO
WIFE - LOVING EVERY MINUTE
WE MISS LIVING IN JAPAN AND THE PEOPLE WE MET
ALL SPEAK JAPANESE
WE ARE ORIGINALLY FROM THE U K
J MAY VANCOUVER CANADA
1950 - 1972 was the golden age of the USA. It's been feasting on the carcass ever since
Starting around minute 1 it shows a large movie theater. The Hibiya Movie Theater. A big crowd is milling around in front of it. I'll bet they are there to see a movie. I have read that when the war ended, "everyone went to the movies." They wanted to escape from the relentless misery. They wanted some relaxation. In a similar story, a woman decided to re-open her sewing school, the Do-Re-Mi school of dressmaking. Dressmaking was considered frivolous so she had to shut down during the war. She put up announcements on billboards around the neighborhood. She was hoping a few women would show up. The morning she opened up there was a long line of people around the block. Everyone wanted something frivolous back in their lives.
So so interesting thank you
Actually a third of Japan was occupied by the Australians and the commonwealth countries in their force. The Australians also ran the war crime trials.
Australia has a good relationship with Japan after the WWII Cowra Breakout of Japanese POWs expecting to be slaughtered as a kind of ritual suicide - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowra_breakout
thinking that 'Regaining honour was only possible through death' ... they couldn't believe it when some survivors weren't killed and were treated kindly by local Australians - 'There was my Mum calmly pouring tea and being the perfect hostess, as always, and chatting away to these strange looking gentlemen, all dressed alike, in their maroon coloured prison clothes, and all wearing old felt hats which we later suspected they had found in our shearing shed. They finished their meal and thanked my mother, and then they just sauntered off down towards the creek, where they were resting when the army arrived to recapture them' - anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/world-war-ii-1939-1945/resources/cowra-breakout-1944#2
'the sixty years since the breakout have seen Cowra develop into a ‘Centre of World Friendship’. The town’s residents boast a very positive relationship with their old enemies, the Japanese' - anzacday.org.au/cowra
My dad was in a ship preparing for the invasion of Japan he was British merchant navy went in the war at 14 .
People say dropping atomic bombs was awful but most of these people would have been killed without them .
Because they were fanatics that would have kept fighting , most of these guys look happy the wars over and they survived and didn’t have to die for the emperor.
And yes there were rapes by occupation forces, but they expected much worse and I would think were pretty happy things went back to normal
Americans raped women in England and France; both countries were Allies.
Im amazed to see live young men at that stage of the war
Different country, culture, language, .... but the expressions on their faces all spell RELIEF.
No sound, no descrption.
Note how few women there are on the streets- in this early film-they had been told that the American soldiers would do terrible things to them-many were still hiding in the countryside
And indeed, tens of thousands of rapes were reported committed by US forces in the 45-46 period. US forces acted on fewer than 400 of those complaints, but did eventually impose crufews on US military which saw the rape numbers drop.
@@iatsd tens of thousands? what is your source?
@@d.pierce.6820 John Dower, in his book "Embracing Defeat" uses Japanese sources to estimate 50 to 300 per day in the 1945-1946 period, so dude is correct. The occupation army was composed of low quality troops, with bad discipline. The combat troops were discharged quickly, and the shitbags remained. There's a reason the US Army was utterly unprepared to fight the North Koreans in 1950, because the Occupation Army in Japan was garbage.
Source- Dower, "Embracing Defeat, pg 130, note 16, pg 579.
@@picklerick8785 an excellent book-I was just looking at it to see what was said in there about rapes. I missed that estimate,though.
What were they told then about the Australians, who occupied a third of Japan?
Many of them are smiling, must be because the war is finally over? Very interesting. I have never seen this footage. Is there more?
В воспоминаниях Владислава Микоши и Бориса Соколова описано это время. Советские операторы-документалисты попали в Токио как раз в тот момент, когда старая власть уже не распоряжалась, а новая власть ещё не появилась. И, в результате, снимать на камеру можно было всё! Но это был не август, это было 3 сентября - только после подписания Акта о капитуляции Японии иностранную прессу пустили в столицу
Though Japanese people knew that Imperial Japan had accepted the unconditional surrender, their life had not changed at all. I cannot find any hostilities among Japanese people who were shot by US cameraman.
I think I read somewhere that the average Japanese knew the war was unwinnable towards the end. Their war started much earlier than the one in Europe, easy to imagine them being tired of it.
A little sound or commentary would be nice
Meanwhile Godzilla lurks in Tokyo Bay...
MRL ............Raymond Burr lies in wait in the U.S.
@@dannycalley777730 years ago he thought it was over…
Too cool!
Is there sound?
i saw a jeep passing by in the background....so occupied by the time of filming.
maybe advance party for planning of logistics, quarters and camp areas, who is the civilian government n charge of certain areas, etc....before the landing of large occupation forces.
Advance party, likely, not in force.
Some advance Allied personnel were already there before the occupation troops arrived. U.S. troops first entered Tokyo, Japan on August 30, 1945 when General Douglas MacArthur landed at Atsugi airdrome, near Tokyo. The film crew itself was part of that advance contingent. The Jeep probably belonged to them.
I thought I saw two Americans in the crowds?
9月２日の降伏文書調印前の東京の風景、秋雨前線か、温暖化は始まっていない。
No audio....
Who produced the film?
The very young men and children in uniforms are pupils and students who used to have school or university uniforms in a military style.
My mother attended all female school in Osaka during the WWII and she told me the part of school schedule was for military training.
画質が綺麗にされているせいで連合軍進駐前の光景に思えない笑
東京にも若い人が結構いたんだな。みんな兵隊に行くか、地方に疎開していたかと思った
At least you dont subject us to those annoying numbers that Periscope films has going by at the bottom of the screen at 100mph.They probably add them to the movie to make them seem more authentic.
They add them, because they make money selling the originals without the running numbers on their website.
During the Tokyo air raid, my aunty was running towards the shelter with her neighbor and suddenly a P-51 started strafing and saw her neighbor's arm flew off. When I was stationed at camp Zama, a Japanese worker told me his story when he was 5 years old. Right before the war ended, he was playing at nearby Sagami river with five of his friends and saw the P-51 coming towards them. The plane flew so low and close that they could see the pilot's face. Being kids, they waved at the pilot. The plane made a turn and came back strafing, bullets missing the kids by inches. I heard quite a few stories as such. While B-29's were dropping bombs, the P-51 escorts were free to roam around and expend their bullets. My coworker was a B-29 crew and on his first mission he was shot down by an anti air gun and parachuted to safety with his crew and was a POW for several month until the end of the war. He married a Japanese and drove a Mitsubishi car saying "can't go wrong with Mitsubishi that made a zero fighter." Well general LeMay who implemented the fire bombings of Japan targeting civilians certainly understood that it was a war crime but he thought there were no innocent civilians and said they were just bystanders...
Unfortunately yes there were some service personnel who did things that were wrong.
Some were motivated by rage at having had friends killed savagely by the Japanese, who didn't really recognize the laws of war at all including in treatment of prisoners - not to mention civilians -- see the 'rape of Nanking', for example, the Japanese are estimated to have killed from 3 to 10 million including outright genocide in a sort of Asian holocaust.
We don't excuse the shooting of children but understand it. The US government presented them as little better then animals. You also have the war crimes committed by the Japanese. I knew WW2 vets that refused in the 1980's to ever buy a Japanese car.
Really? What happened to American flyers when they were shot down and captured in Japan? What happened to the civilians in Singapore? What happened to the comfort women from all over SE Asia? What happened to the US soldiers during the Bataan death march and to those prisoners that survived it? What happened to the Chinese in Nanking? What happened to the Americans at Pearl Harbor? Freaking cry me a river about firebombing being a war crime. Total war in WW2 was participated in by ALL sides. Civilians = war plant workers, they are not exactly innocents.
@@jeep146 Had an Uncle, a vet of the fighting in New Guinea, who would never own a Toyota. I, personally, have never owned any other brand. Different times!
@@theoztreecrasher2647 I just finished reading a book on how the Japanese treated POW. They were brutal almost sadistic. So I can understand the hatred. The Japanese even today try to ignore the war crimes during the war.
Sad that as soon as they get the Ginza rebuilt, Godzilla will come along and destroy it.
Most seem happy the war is over.
"Catastrophic famine in Japan was avoided in 1946 because MacArthur (to his eternal credit) insisted and demanded that the US provide food relief. This resulted in the Harris mission and an investigation by Herbert Hoover, both of whom agreed with the Supreme Commander. US Army food that had been accumulated for the invasion was released to the Japanese, as were Japanese military reserves, and food was imported from the US, despite the worldwide food shortage. Along with quick action by the occupation forces against outbreaks of typhus and cholera, and improvements in public health, millions of lives were saved."
But also many black market flourished as well.
I'd love to read a translation of that paper the girl was handing out.
Not many MacDonalds paunches amongst the locals there, yet!
05:39 ....That guy, there, the one staring, glaring at the cameraman, he's got some unfinished business with the Americans!
Surprised at how many women were wearing trousers.
Those are called monpe. They are traditional. Farm women still wear them. As I recall, the government actually ordered all women to wear them during the war. I did not know why, so I just asked the Google AI in Japanese. It tells me the government ordered this in 1942 because it is easier to fight fires or flee wearing monpe compared to dresses or kimono. That makes sense.
The women I know who still wear them say they are quite comfortable. They are made of cotton.
@@JedRothwell thank you for the explanation.
Het lachen zou ze snel vergaan. Op een verschrikkelijke manier trouwens.
All those proud IJA soldiers now with their world flipped. Thank God.
So Tokyo wasn't the totally bombed-out hulk that I've always been told? Interesting!
You saw one tiny little clip. You need a bigger sample to draw a conclusion.
Some of the worst bombing in March was in the older part of the city, further to the east (and slightly north). Parts of this film is a bit to the west -- badly damaged, but not carpet bombed.
Fantastico Japan... Respect from Vietnam.... Allahu akhbar
So who was filming these people, there seems to be no resentment. Most seem to be wearing military hats.
物の哀れ!!!
It looks similar to Mao's China.
Not sure about bearing the unbearable, most of them looked relieved that they didn’t have to die for the emperor.
For being a fanatical people, They don't seem very concerned.
I wonder if we’ve been told the whole truth. 🧐
because the people weren’t the fanatics, it was the imperial army.
For a defeated and nuked populace, they sure don't look downbeat. They're even smiling a lot. So much for all that Hiroshima guilt we took upon ourselves.
no obese
The same with films in the states from the same time period. Interesting isn't it? I notice it between cultures these days.
My Dad, a retired kamikaze pilot, had 4 aborted missions to his credit. On September 2, 1946 he flew his final mission against the 250 allied ships in Tokyo Bay and missed all of them.
I'm not buying it.
@@j.dragon651 Oh come on Dragon, be a devil. 🙂
Japan's MOST FOOLISH MISTAKE - PEARL HARBOR. America's SMARTEST military operation - HIROSHIMA and NAGASAKI.
How amazing. Considering what the Japanese did to other countries and the millions they slaughtered, they lost but still ended up with a functioning society. Those who counties they ruined took considerably longer to recover. So no wonder so many are smiling. They got away lightly.
Tokyo Japan looked like Shanghai after the Sino-Japanese War in 1937. You would have easily mistaken they were Chinese. Finally, the Japanese got a taste of their own doing.
The civilians didn’t do that.
@@treystephens6166 A country cannot indulge in militarism and imperialism without the support of the general public.
@@eagleswatch6905 I don’t think they had much of a choice. It’s kind of like the Iraq 🇮🇶 War 2003-2022 🇺🇸
@@treystephens6166 Different scenarios. The Japanese people enjoyed prosperity under the imperialist gov't, and immigrated to Manchuria, China - a region larger than Japan itself.
On the other hand, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, only the privileged class enjoyed the oil rich.
@@eagleswatch6905 I mean Americans were being patriotic in that pointless war.
every male , every age , is in uniform
That does not mean they were in the military. The government decreed that all men had to wear "civilian uniforms." Which were like army uniforms without insignias. The other reason everyone is wearing a uniform is that in the days after the war ended, the army opened up their warehouses and distributed clothing, rations, pots, pans, medicine and everything else that could be used in the civilian economy. It was a tremendous help. It probably saved many lives from starvation and disease. Even though many of the goods ended up in the black market. So, anyway, many people got uniforms. Many had lost their worldly goods in the bombing raids, so they needed clothes.
Supuestamente "agosto-septiembre 1945", pero en el video hay carteles que dicen "febrero de 1945". En qué quedamos?
Walk down any city street. I'd only start looking around for the DeLorean if the newspapers were showing dates of 1980. 😉😊
I guess about this time the Japanese are thinking that attacking the American Pacific fleet at Peral Harbor was not such a good idea after all!!!