Other than important information related to Comfort Women, the interrogation reports of ATIS from U.S. National Archives and Records Administration give other important testimonies of Japanese war prisoners, such as
– good and equal treatment of natives of occupied territories of Japan observing the Rescript of the Emperor MEIJI,
– disagreement of Hitler’s claim of German superiority,
– resentment against comparison between reverence to Emperor and idolizing Hitler,
– neither Emperor nor Japanese nation likes war
and etc.
Reading these testimonies, it is quite absurd to claim that Comfort women system was the same crime as the Holocaust of Nazi. Quite contrary, these testimonies are indeed qualified to be nominated as International Memory of the World Register of UNESCO.
The followings are the main descriptions of 21 Japanese interrogees, surrendered in RABAUL, Philippine, Sumatra in Indonesia, Shanghai and Indochina.
Attitude to Allied Nations;
● PW had no idea why there was anti-English movement. There was no doubt that a feeling of friendship had existed between ENGLAND and JAPAN. Certain people in the latter country had started anti-English campaign for patriotic reasons.
● PW had seen some American PsW in MANILA. They were not working. He also heard that the Australian PsW in RABAUL. Japanese troops often complained that the Australian PsW received better treatment than the Japanese soldiers. He had never seen white PsW doing coolie work.
● The Rescript of the Emperor MEIJI was being observed as regards treatment of captured enemy soldiers and natives. They were treated well and as equals.
PW did not know why the Chinese disliked the Japanese. The neighbors should be friends.
Attitude to Axis Nations (to Germany and Hitler);
● PW had never heard any assistance from Germany.
● PW had never heard of the German theory of racial superiority. He definitely did not accept Hitler’s precept that the German was a superior being to the Jap. It was definitely a mistake on the part of Hitler to put himself in the same category as the Emperor.
● Each country is fighting for its own ends and high officers were well alive to the fact that Germany would never allow Japan to hold all the rubber and oil resources she had acquired. If Japan and Germany were successful in the present war, such success would simply lead to a further war for division of spoils.
Political conditions;
● PW said he that he personally did not like war. Foreigners all seemed to have the idea that Japan was a warlike country but the opposite was true.
● He could not believe that the Emperor liked war.
● USA had refused to sell materials. TOJO had no choice, as Japan with her increasing population, could not have existed.
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