Interesting photo...

Bootie

Bootie

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March 16, 1945: A U.S. Marine approaches a Japanese soldier on Iwo Jima, Japan during World War II. The Japanese soldier was buried for 1 1/2 days in this shell hole playing dead and ready with a live grenade inches away from his hand. The Marines feared he might be further booby trapped underneath his body after knocking the grenade to the bottom of the shell hole. Promising no resistance, the prisoner is given a cigarette he asked for and was dragged free from the hole.

pacific091sJPG_950_2000_0_75_0_50_5.jpg
 
After all we are all human and it is good to see good even in a bad situation
 
2054172 said:
After all we are all human and it is good to see good even in a bad situation
Click to expand...

Thing is, I heard (from interviews with Iwo Jima vets), that most of the Japanese that were captured were interrogated and then executed, at least by front line troops. The reason the vets gave was that they could not spare any troops to chaperone the prisoners back to the rear and they couldn't just send them back by themselves as they couldn't trust them. As this one was photographed and it's probably already in the american rear i would hazard a guess that this one survived
 
This is one of my favourite pics from our photo section..:)

Marines waiting for Japs to run out of burning cave, Okinawa 1945

Okin-cave-45.jpg
 
Another fact is that the Japanese tortured a lot of their prisoners and therefore the Marines weren't very inclined to let them live in the first place - if they caught a survivor at all. One trademark of teh Japanese soldier was the near absence of any fear of death and his complete dedication to the 'Tenno' (emperor in Japanese). Now think what would have happened had the Japanese had better equipment and more manpower...
 
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