World War II Chronicle: October 5, 1943
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Page six features a story found in a captured Japanese diary of the beheading of an American pilot. The saying goes, “you can’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins,” but there are some things that are hard to empathize with. If I was to put together a list of truly evil human behavior, Japanese brutality to prisoners of war has to be at or near the top. Ceremonial beheading by samurai sword was pretty merciful considering the alternative of mutilation, years of torture, death marches, and hell ships that faced American fighting men in the Pacific Theater.
If you or I was born 100 years ago in Japan we would probably be brutalizing our captives too, because we would have grown up in a society vastly different than ours. Some think that previous generations of Americans or English had a hatred of Japanese which was simple racism. It goes way beyond racism when it’s your father or son who experienced what the Japanese did. To see someone you loved mutilated, brutalized, maybe even eaten… evil on a scale you can’t possibly understand unless you’ve personally experienced it. To the people looking down from their ivory tower on our greatest generation’s hatred of the Japanese: know that if you lived through what our ancestors saw, you would likely harbor incredible resentment as well…
There is a story about a running battle between a German U-boat (U-598) and American patrol bombers on page seven. The U-boat Archive has an impressive collection of the fight, with numerous scanned reports from the bomber crews… George Fielding Eliot column on page 10… The sports section begins on page 16 and features a column by Grantland Rice on the World Series.
The Cardinals and Yankees were tied at 2 going in the sixth inning when today’s paper went to press.
This Day in Baseball has the complete radio broadcast, called by Red Barber and Bob Elson, whom President Roosevelt called back from his Navy gig so he could join Barber in the booth. It’s quite stirring to listen to Elson talk about all the players from last year’s Series who are now in “the real world series.” during the introduction. Also gone is Yankee announcer Mel Allen, now an Army private. See tomorrow’s Chronicle for the Game One box score…
See also:
- Warning of Civil War Sounded in France As Resistance Flares (page three)
- D. C. Airman Tells How ‘Old 81’ Beat Fog and Flak at Kiska (page 21)
- Spot in Armed Forces For Sinkwich Urged (page 17)
Evening star. (Washington, D.C.), 5 October 1943. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1943-10-05/ed-1/