watching The Great Raid

[davemchine]

Just saw the scene in the hospital. Holy crap! Thank god we aren't faced with such challenging situations.

Dave

[davemchine]

Still watching. The things people are willing to do to others. Almost unbelievable.

Dave

[cbelt3]

That was a helluva (true story) movie. Early on in my career I I worked with some guys who saw action in the Pacific. They told stories of the incredible brutality of the Jap soldiers.

That is, IMHO, caused by objectification of other human beings. They were, to all accounts, amazingly civil, compassionate, and polite to their own people. But 'everybody else' was a 'thing'.

[SteveO]

>That is, IMHO, caused by objectification of other human beings.

Army 101...the other guy is not a person, he's the ENEMY. Problem is it cuts both ways, esp. for the soldier who isn't able to process it all...and comes back and has to try and reconcile what he's done with the mores of society, 10 commandments, etc.

I don't have the answer, just a lot of sad questions. And respect for guys who have to deal with this.

[Paul F.]

SteveO;

In the case of the Imperial Japanese Army, the "problem" went far deeper than that... it was, and to an extent, still IS deeply rooted in their culture. If you're not Japanese, you're not human. It may be less extreme than that today, but there is still a deep undercurrent.


Back to the subject;

One of the officers in the Alamo Scouts that carried off the Great Raid was a long time member of our local gun club, and has a shooting bench dedicated to him (bench number 6). Lt. Bill Nellist was pretty well known around here as being a great shooter, great shooting coach, and all around great guy.
He only talked about his experiences in the Pacific with a few people.
I only met him a couple times before he passed away.

I also discovered that he was a projectionist at a local movie theater (that a good friend of mine managed for a couple years) before WWII, during the depression.
http://www.minortheaters.com/minor_histo...rview.html

For anyone interested, I highly recommend the book "The Great Raid on Cabanatuan: Rescuing the Doomed Ghosts of Bataan and Corregidor", by WIlliam Breuer.

I haven't seen the movie yet.. but have heard from members of the Nellist family that they
"done pretty good"... except for changing some names, and maybe over dramatizing some parts.