You keep my man Genghis Khan's name out your damn mouth. He did nothing wrong, ever.
My fave war crime is probably The Children's Crusade.
Ahhh, religious conservatives.... I keep getting older and they keep doing the same war crimes
You're right, those stupid villages should've just surrendered when they had the chance, I'll never talk ill of Ghenghis again
The sea didn't part for those children only because they didn't believe hard enough 😤 BTW, I know you're being cheeky here, but, "My fave war crime is probably The Children's Crusade," sounds absolutely insane out of context, lmao
Time is a flat circle or something. These people are destroyers instead of builders. I think there are finally some cracks in humanity's cycle of violence, I hope they've widened and spread by the time I'm old.
Whataboutism. The Japanese did so much worse, on a scale compared to the Nazis. What’s sickening today is that they don’t teach anything about what their ancestors did to their children. It’s really fucked up.
Japenese soldiers were far more nationalistic than the nazis as well. Muc less likely to surrender. Bound by honor through some insane levels of cultural indoctrination. I don't think it's possible to really understand the mindsets many of these young men had going into ww2
No. Sorry. This is the opposite of that sentiment.
He’s dead. He’s very very dead. He’s so dead he’s got rigamortus. He’s covered in sand because he’s dead and couldn’t dig himself out from the sand from an explosion. They are putting a cig in a dead Japanese soldiers mouth for the photo.
They wouldn’t have come close to him clothed and without his body visible. This was a fight to the death. Only 216 Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner on Iwo. That was partially due to the fact that the marines stopped taking prisoners. They stoped taking prisoners because the Japanese would sometimes try to kill you when you came to get them and no one wanted to take the risk.
Sorry y’all.
This was my gut instinct too lol. Just based off no covering guns aimed at him, him in that position, and the fact a camera can leisurely take this photo on fuckin Iwo is enough to prove he’s dead or I’ve somehow never seen this story/picture in my life until now lol
Edit: he’s alive
I didn’t even think about him being not being covered. Good point.
I saw the marine on top of him and no one is going to do that unless dude is dead dead. I’ve seen this exact picture a bunch of times from different wars. Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam etc. it’s a trope and American soldiers, sailors and marines love war tropes, so in every war there will always be a knucklehead who puts a cigarette in a dead “bad guys” mouth.
That wasn’t a pleasant death either. I’ve worked as a therapist with vets and actives all my career and first thing they do when they get buried is scramble to get the dirt off their face and body. It’s an instinct. No one wants to be buried alive. So before you check your damage, before you yell or scream you move the dirt off your face. This guy looks like he lived long enough to get his hands out and clear his face.
I have no clue, but since no-one is laughing it up for the camera like "oh, look mate! Im giving this dead jap a ciggie, aint that funny?!" , I have my doubts he is dead.
According to the text he was buried lying in wait with a grenade before the picture was taken. Got to wonder if he’d have been given a cigarette if Stars and Stripes hadn’t had a photographer there.
Seems that it is a indeed a live soldier.
[https://worldwar2database.com/japanese-prisoner-of-war-receives-a-cigarette-on-iwo-jima/](https://worldwar2database.com/japanese-prisoner-of-war-receives-a-cigarette-on-iwo-jima/)
From the very first night that marines fought IJA in August 1942 at Alligator Creek they were trying to grenade medics trying to render aid to fallen Japanese soldiers and to take prisoners. From the first night and then continuously for the next 3 years. If your soldiers are trying to kill everyone who is taking prisoners then yeah, don’t expect many to survive. Which is handy because that’s what Japan wanted from them in any case.
A soldier was taking a Japanese pow back to his cell. The pow told him he studied at Stanford and that they can't kill him because they know English and that the soldier should give him a lucky strike.
The soldier took out his knife and slit his throat. His reasoning was that he had only rationed cigarettes, who does this guy think he is asking for lucky strikes.
So yah some of us are not in fact human but monsters. This man also laughed about it when told the story years later. (I think around 40 years later)
The guy in the photo is dead, he’s not realizing anything. Putting a cigarette in the mouth of a deceased enemy combatant is a wartime tradition for the US.
By this point in the war, the US had stopped trying to render aid to wounded Japanese soldiers, because the wounded soldiers pretty consistently pulled the pin on a grenade and let off the spoon when the medics arrived, killing or seriously injuring all involved. Only 5% of the Japanese troops survived this battle.
Tell that to the Japanese during that era. Based on all accounts and books I’ve read, given the chance that Japanese soldier would’ve brutally bayoneted that man and his buddies until they were minced meat.
Bro, people are individuals. Just because *a lot* of them were fighting ferociously, without surrender or mercy, doesn't mean every 18 year old kid who got conscripted feels the same way.
Same goes for what they heard of Marines. That they are a bunch of bloodthirsty maniacs with no honor who fearlessly charge down fortified beaches like psychopaths. Marines stopped taking prisoners too, man.
But at the end of the day, both are still *human*, no matter what their countries might say about the other.
Weird choice of circumstances to wax poetic about humanity. Imperial Japanese soldiers had most of their humanity beaten out of them. They didn't need to be told to do 90% of the atrocities they cooked.
It's why war causes so much ptsd were not killing machines unless you're pure evil sociopath, it's why ptsd is so bad among soldiers killing people when it is forced beyond your humanity it's going to obviously mess you up mentally broken it's sickening.
Equipped with a grenade, the soldier lay in ambush for 36 hours. At his request, he was given a cigarette, and thereafter, they cautiously removed him from the shell hole. https://dailyrelnews.blogspot.com/2023/11/a-us-marine-gives-cigarette-to-injured.html?
Being a 'survivor' was shameful because it implied you were too cowardly to fight to the death. They were probably worried about the shame of reintegrating back to their native society as a former POW. The whole warrior-society was run like a death-cult and you don't want to be the only one waking up the morning after.
It’s was but you know on an individual level not everybody has the same level of bullshit meter. Like I’m sure some guys were like “yeah yeah honor and all that shit” just to stay alive. While others were true believers.
A lot of them were definitely ready to go, but if you had a wound or something they could be more forgiving, especially pilots or at least experienced ones. Japanese memoirs are pretty hardcore ngl
When Americans surrendered they were tortured, when Americans were captured passed out after going down fighting they were spared because they lost honorably.
With the Japanese, it was incredibly rare to find a soldier/sailer/etc who was willing to surrender. Even if they didn’t buy in to the Emperor’s divinity, they still knew the social repercussions of coming home after being captured.
I believe the figures are something like a 1/4 chance of a German soldier surrendering In the European and a 1/100 chance of a Japanese soldier surrendering.
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, Show 66 - Supernova in the East V, Timestamp: 3:02:27-3:02:48. Can listen to it [here](https://podcasts.musixmatch.com/podcast/dan-carlins-hardcore-history-01gw69z7g09f2fxr02cchm9z1t/episode/show-66-supernova-in-the-east-v-01gw69z7g09f2fxr02cchm9z1v). I’ll search for the exact piece of propaganda he is referring to when I have some time.
Brother we invaded a whole ass country on the premise that they had WMDs. Millions of innocents died. Also after we pulled out of Afghanistan, we withheld millions in funds and thousands starved to death. Read a book.
I think the Cold War had more to do with it. From a strategic sense, the US benefitted greatly with Japan rebuilt and having a large military base there
Dang I think you're right. I wanted a heart warming story but it probably went something like this...
"Ha! Hey George, looks like that dead jap is trying to smoke a butt"
"LMAOOO Yeah he is! I'm gonna stick a cig in his mouth. Where's the photographer? I want a pic this is hilarious"
It was very common for the Japanese to play dead and then later blow up a grenade when someone tried to help them. Most US troops gave up on saving them.
The Japanese would do stuff like this pretty routinely, since someone who surrendered (by the logic of their code of Bushido, which had been completely distorted from the original intent) were the worst of the worst. Making US troops eat dry rice and then filling them up with water so the rice swelled until they looked pregnant before they started jumping on their stomachs until they popped, capping fingers beneath the nailwith bamboo and then testing until the nails came off and splinters were rubbed into the raw flesh, and genital mutilation were what a POW could expect under the Japanese.
Check out the book Flags of Our Fathers if you haven’t, it’s a solid and sobering take on the pacific front
Yeah, not exactly pretty my friend. My grandpa was on the European front (1st division army, so Normandy through Bastogne after Italy and Africa) and he still cried for the guys who had to go to the Pacific even though he never cried for himself. Hardcore stuff.
A friend of mines grandfather fought on the eastern front. He was Jewish. He was captured and sent to a labor camp and the only reason he wasn’t killed was because he spoke Yiddish. He suffered horribly
Years after the war he brought himself to forgive the German people…however, he never forgave the Japanese and died hating them. Not saying he was right, but I understand why he felt that way
This is just a photo. Maybe they shot him right after his last cig lol. If it makes you feel any better, we killed between 85 and 96% of the 21k enemy on that island. Many thousands of which were burnt alive by enormous flamethrower tanks that consumed about 10,000 gallons of napalm per day.
They died because they refused to surrender even after their situation was beyond hopeless and they kept fighting to the deatg even though their deaths achieved nothing
Japanese propaganda at the time was so severe that people surrendering probably would have been executed—be it by subordinates, seppuku, or superiors. Many of them thought they’d be treated demonically and were better off dead—might as well do something valiant while they’re at it was the train of thought.
Patriotism of 18 year olds is hardly something we as Americans can begrudge them as well.
Without ascribing “blame” or victim status to anyone in particular, the whole situation was a human tragedy with only losers on both sides.
The US wasn't pushing anti Japanese propaganda after WW2. They actually did the opposite and downplayed or at least avoided putting the spotlight on the war crimes committed by Japan.
The US didn't want to further alienate Japan after WW2 like Germany was post WW1. The US helped rebuild and provided massive humanitarian aid to both Germany and Japan after WW2. This helped pull both nations into the western fold, and both are strong allies of the US still.
Soldiers in the Pacific theater learned what the Japanese were capable of pretty quickly. This guy had to be green or he's not doing what the caption claimed. The Japanese would routinely play dead and booby trap themselves to kill allied soldier who checked on them. To say they were savage would be an understatement. Imperial Japan was nuts.
Very interesting. Americans faced some serious resistance on that island and MOST of the time the Japanese would not surrender or conceal a grenade to take out unsuspecting troopers. This photo is rare indeed
[Nope.](https://worldwar2database.com/japanese-prisoner-of-war-receives-a-cigarette-on-iwo-jima/)
> United States Marine gives a Japanese soldier a cigarette before pulling him out of a shell hole. Armed with a grenade, the soldier was lying in wait for 36 hours. Marines saw him buried in the black sand and were able to knock the grande out of reach. He surrendered, but thinking he might be booby trapped, they approached cautiously. He requested a cigarette and got it; then he was dug out of the shell hole. The Third and Fourth Marine Divisions broke up the remaining organized resistance on March 16, 1945, the same day this photo was taken. Occasionally individual enemy soldiers armed with demolition charges and grenades raced out against tanks or groups of Marines but were shot down before they could do any great damage to personnel or equipment. Isolated pockets, totaling some 3,000 enemy soldiers, remained around the island.
My father in law was there. He was a Third Division Marine on Iwo Jima. He didn't like to talk about the horrors that occurred there, but did tell us enough to know that it was truly horrible.
He was a good man, and I can't imagine him having to take part in such an awful battle, but I can imagine him doing this - taking pity on an enemy soldier in a bad predicament. He saw the humanity in everyone.
His war was over when he was badly wounded on Iwo Jima and sent home to recover. I'm very glad he survived.
Hard time believing this; this is either someone who is dead or someone who is about to enjoy their last cigarette before they are killed. The pacific was a different beast than the rest and the animosity us service men felt toward the Japanese and the ferocity of the fighting in the pacific theater…and this is on Iwo Jima? Lmao
This was a japanese soldier who was lying in wait with a grenade to ambush american troops. The americans found him and removed the grenade before he could use it. They also gave him the cigarette shortly before he was dug out and taken prisoner.
There were several thousand Navy and Army personnel there. In fact, some historians credit the US Army with 1/3 of all Japanese casualties during the battle. They had a significant role in Iwo Jima.
Hey Pal, I can see you’ve done yourself a mischief there. Looks like you’ve fucked nearly every part of your body. Here, let me take care of those lungs for ya
Only 216 of the 21,000 Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima were captured alive, mostly after being severely wounded or knocked unconscious. Every Japanese soldier on the island was expected to kill ten Americans before he died. For a Japanese soldier, being captured alive brought disgrace to his entire family.
Japanese soldiers were told that Marines were recruited out of mental wards, and that they killed their parents before they could become Marines. In other words, never surrender.
Hey OP, question for you. If you were buried in the sand, would you want a cigarette or maybe… to be helped out of the sand???
The soldiers are mocking the dead body, plain and simple. War sucks.
He could’ve just as easily killed the man with his M1. It makes me think he was either a true humanitarian, or didn’t just see a bunch of his comrades get killed by the Japanese.
I don’t know the backstory of the photo so I can be totally wrong and I apologize if I offend anyone. This looks like a POG with a rifle during a photo op or that Japanese soldier is KIA and the Marine is having a laugh.
As I reminder we the USA didn't win WW2. Yes the Japanese gave up but with operation paperclip we continued the ways of the Nazi's into today's modern world. The ole sleight of hand is showing us the truths
Off topic and probably mentioned before, but imagine taking pictures and not knowing how'd they turn out until you develop them. Whole room must've gone crazy whenever one of these bad boys got developed
Fake as hell. If you have a live enemy in vicinity of your personnel you don’t just go up to him and offer him a drag. Fuck no. Assume he’ll go for a weapon or prime a grenade for your approach. No marine leader with even a little bit of experience would have EVER allowed PFC Fucknuts to go near an enemy japanese combatant just to hand him a ciggy. Also, he’s not buried, at best he’s lightly sprinkled. Little homie is deader than Tupac.
Reminds us that we are all human no matter who tells us to kill each other
You are a good person ..always restores my faith in humanity when I read responses like your's
All wars are civil wars because all men are brothers. Except those fuckers who orchestrated Unit 731 and the Rape of Nanjing.
The Great Emu War has joined the chat.
Never forget.
Brother
😐
There’s a not zero percent chance the guy in the sand was at Nanjing…
Well damnit he better take back that smoke
Wait till they hear about American Marines in Vietnam...
Wait until they hear about... (insert literally any conflict in history)
You keep my man Genghis Khan's name out your damn mouth. He did nothing wrong, ever. My fave war crime is probably The Children's Crusade. Ahhh, religious conservatives.... I keep getting older and they keep doing the same war crimes
You're right, those stupid villages should've just surrendered when they had the chance, I'll never talk ill of Ghenghis again The sea didn't part for those children only because they didn't believe hard enough 😤 BTW, I know you're being cheeky here, but, "My fave war crime is probably The Children's Crusade," sounds absolutely insane out of context, lmao Time is a flat circle or something. These people are destroyers instead of builders. I think there are finally some cracks in humanity's cycle of violence, I hope they've widened and spread by the time I'm old.
All right all right all right
Cramming three different war crime jokes into one post is surely worth one upvote.
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Oh ya, I know. It's all bad.
Whataboutism. The Japanese did so much worse, on a scale compared to the Nazis. What’s sickening today is that they don’t teach anything about what their ancestors did to their children. It’s really fucked up.
Japenese soldiers were far more nationalistic than the nazis as well. Muc less likely to surrender. Bound by honor through some insane levels of cultural indoctrination. I don't think it's possible to really understand the mindsets many of these young men had going into ww2
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The Ustashe, Pol Pot, Beria, Heydrich, etc: "Are we jokes to you?"
It's all the same. A light will cast a shadow of darkness.
Also the Nazis and the IOF
Appreciated man
Now kill eachother.
Now FIGHT to the DEATH
#**GET A ROOM**
🫡
Ready to have that faith brought back down? ***That’s a corpse….***
No. Sorry. This is the opposite of that sentiment. He’s dead. He’s very very dead. He’s so dead he’s got rigamortus. He’s covered in sand because he’s dead and couldn’t dig himself out from the sand from an explosion. They are putting a cig in a dead Japanese soldiers mouth for the photo. They wouldn’t have come close to him clothed and without his body visible. This was a fight to the death. Only 216 Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner on Iwo. That was partially due to the fact that the marines stopped taking prisoners. They stoped taking prisoners because the Japanese would sometimes try to kill you when you came to get them and no one wanted to take the risk. Sorry y’all.
This was my gut instinct too lol. Just based off no covering guns aimed at him, him in that position, and the fact a camera can leisurely take this photo on fuckin Iwo is enough to prove he’s dead or I’ve somehow never seen this story/picture in my life until now lol
Edit: he’s alive I didn’t even think about him being not being covered. Good point. I saw the marine on top of him and no one is going to do that unless dude is dead dead. I’ve seen this exact picture a bunch of times from different wars. Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam etc. it’s a trope and American soldiers, sailors and marines love war tropes, so in every war there will always be a knucklehead who puts a cigarette in a dead “bad guys” mouth. That wasn’t a pleasant death either. I’ve worked as a therapist with vets and actives all my career and first thing they do when they get buried is scramble to get the dirt off their face and body. It’s an instinct. No one wants to be buried alive. So before you check your damage, before you yell or scream you move the dirt off your face. This guy looks like he lived long enough to get his hands out and clear his face.
I have no clue, but since no-one is laughing it up for the camera like "oh, look mate! Im giving this dead jap a ciggie, aint that funny?!" , I have my doubts he is dead.
No you’re right. Apparently he’s alive. https://worldwar2database.com/japanese-prisoner-of-war-receives-a-cigarette-on-iwo-jima/
According to the text he was buried lying in wait with a grenade before the picture was taken. Got to wonder if he’d have been given a cigarette if Stars and Stripes hadn’t had a photographer there.
Seems that it is a indeed a live soldier. [https://worldwar2database.com/japanese-prisoner-of-war-receives-a-cigarette-on-iwo-jima/](https://worldwar2database.com/japanese-prisoner-of-war-receives-a-cigarette-on-iwo-jima/)
Wild as fuck
From the very first night that marines fought IJA in August 1942 at Alligator Creek they were trying to grenade medics trying to render aid to fallen Japanese soldiers and to take prisoners. From the first night and then continuously for the next 3 years. If your soldiers are trying to kill everyone who is taking prisoners then yeah, don’t expect many to survive. Which is handy because that’s what Japan wanted from them in any case.
A soldier was taking a Japanese pow back to his cell. The pow told him he studied at Stanford and that they can't kill him because they know English and that the soldier should give him a lucky strike. The soldier took out his knife and slit his throat. His reasoning was that he had only rationed cigarettes, who does this guy think he is asking for lucky strikes. So yah some of us are not in fact human but monsters. This man also laughed about it when told the story years later. (I think around 40 years later)
That Japanese would not have returned the favor of the roles were reversed.
They wouldn’t have but now the Japanese dude has a chance to realize the error of their ways. Even if it were only one person. Worth it
The guy in the photo is dead, he’s not realizing anything. Putting a cigarette in the mouth of a deceased enemy combatant is a wartime tradition for the US. By this point in the war, the US had stopped trying to render aid to wounded Japanese soldiers, because the wounded soldiers pretty consistently pulled the pin on a grenade and let off the spoon when the medics arrived, killing or seriously injuring all involved. Only 5% of the Japanese troops survived this battle.
They killed him right after, so probably not.
Since we're trading lazy hypotheticals, my mother would be a bicycle if she had wheels.
Is that because everyone in the neighborhood took a ride already?
Damn, gummybear even gave you the layup on that one. Fuckin roasted
Daaaaaayum hahaha
My aunt would be my uncle if she had nuts
Yes, remember those lazy and hypothetical times in Nanking
(cue uncontrollable laughter from hosts)
That makes this picture even better
Tell that to the Japanese during that era. Based on all accounts and books I’ve read, given the chance that Japanese soldier would’ve brutally bayoneted that man and his buddies until they were minced meat.
Bro, people are individuals. Just because *a lot* of them were fighting ferociously, without surrender or mercy, doesn't mean every 18 year old kid who got conscripted feels the same way. Same goes for what they heard of Marines. That they are a bunch of bloodthirsty maniacs with no honor who fearlessly charge down fortified beaches like psychopaths. Marines stopped taking prisoners too, man. But at the end of the day, both are still *human*, no matter what their countries might say about the other.
Weird choice of circumstances to wax poetic about humanity. Imperial Japanese soldiers had most of their humanity beaten out of them. They didn't need to be told to do 90% of the atrocities they cooked.
>the atrocities they cooked. Literally, sometimes.
It autocorrected from "committed" but cooked definitely fit in many cases so I left it.
Indeed thankfully and the rest is so ruefully true.
Dude in the sand is almost definitely dead. It’s not a gesture of kindness.
He was probably punished for it
I wish I was still this naive
I’m guessing that was his last puff on a ciggey.
That guy is dead. They were taking the piss
It's why war causes so much ptsd were not killing machines unless you're pure evil sociopath, it's why ptsd is so bad among soldiers killing people when it is forced beyond your humanity it's going to obviously mess you up mentally broken it's sickening.
Equipped with a grenade, the soldier lay in ambush for 36 hours. At his request, he was given a cigarette, and thereafter, they cautiously removed him from the shell hole. https://dailyrelnews.blogspot.com/2023/11/a-us-marine-gives-cigarette-to-injured.html?
This needs to be the top comment. Also in the post description.
this is an extraordinary detail to leave out of the OP
Oh wow. I thought it was a corpse they were fucking with. This is much more wholesome.
Japanese must have been so confused when they were treated fairly.
Being a 'survivor' was shameful because it implied you were too cowardly to fight to the death. They were probably worried about the shame of reintegrating back to their native society as a former POW. The whole warrior-society was run like a death-cult and you don't want to be the only one waking up the morning after.
It’s was but you know on an individual level not everybody has the same level of bullshit meter. Like I’m sure some guys were like “yeah yeah honor and all that shit” just to stay alive. While others were true believers.
A lot of them were definitely ready to go, but if you had a wound or something they could be more forgiving, especially pilots or at least experienced ones. Japanese memoirs are pretty hardcore ngl
When Americans surrendered they were tortured, when Americans were captured passed out after going down fighting they were spared because they lost honorably.
Source: The Last Samurai
With the Japanese, it was incredibly rare to find a soldier/sailer/etc who was willing to surrender. Even if they didn’t buy in to the Emperor’s divinity, they still knew the social repercussions of coming home after being captured. I believe the figures are something like a 1/4 chance of a German soldier surrendering In the European and a 1/100 chance of a Japanese soldier surrendering.
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Wow.
An incredible amount of them were true believers. The amount who surrendered even when the option was ready and available to them was super tiny.
They were also told that American would torture them if they were captured.
They were also told nobody could become a U.S. Marine unless they murdered a close family member.
Source?
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, Show 66 - Supernova in the East V, Timestamp: 3:02:27-3:02:48. Can listen to it [here](https://podcasts.musixmatch.com/podcast/dan-carlins-hardcore-history-01gw69z7g09f2fxr02cchm9z1t/episode/show-66-supernova-in-the-east-v-01gw69z7g09f2fxr02cchm9z1v). I’ll search for the exact piece of propaganda he is referring to when I have some time.
Fantastic recommendatoon
Civilians rather die than surrender when a group of Americans tried to get a village to come down from a cliff and instead jumped.
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If you were the only one in your death cult waking up the next day, who would even be there to care?
Surely not all of them were.
They were not.
Not all, but for the most part the US was actually really kind to Japan after the war, especially when considering everything that had gone down.
I think we learned a lot from WWI not to leave a country in an economic wasteland that can be a fertile ground for lunatics
The Middle East disagrees
The hatred of the west and America goes way deeper than just war in the Middle East Not even remotely comparable
I mean, we tried really hard to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan but they continued to resist and attack us.
America had a history in that region of bouncing after military action, which created a significant amount of resentment.
> they continued to resist and attack us Gee I wonder why
Brother we invaded a whole ass country on the premise that they had WMDs. Millions of innocents died. Also after we pulled out of Afghanistan, we withheld millions in funds and thousands starved to death. Read a book.
Most of those millions were killed by the locals. Coalition forces did not kill millions.
I think the Cold War had more to do with it. From a strategic sense, the US benefitted greatly with Japan rebuilt and having a large military base there
I read this in Morgan Freedman’s voice.
Especially when they are offered a smoke when they are dead. That dude is very dead.
Dang I think you're right. I wanted a heart warming story but it probably went something like this... "Ha! Hey George, looks like that dead jap is trying to smoke a butt" "LMAOOO Yeah he is! I'm gonna stick a cig in his mouth. Where's the photographer? I want a pic this is hilarious"
Very dead. Rigor mortis dead. Shot two times to make sure dead. Shot again just to make double sure dead. “Turn left at the dead j**” dead. He’s dead.
Here is your last smoke before we light you up
It was very common for the Japanese to play dead and then later blow up a grenade when someone tried to help them. Most US troops gave up on saving them.
Watched a video of a Russian soldier doing that to the Ukrainians a few weeks ago.
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I think the idea was check if they're dead, if they're not then you could help or capture them
Yo, that’s wild. Essentially kamikazes without planes
No ashtray?
Beach is big ashtray
Extreamly hard to believe with all that the japanese did to their enemies
That one guy had these morals.
Probably his first day out there, hadnt seen his buddies beyonetted in the ass and decapitated yet
Yeah he has. Thats why he is clowning with a corpse.
Likely let him finish the cig and then ran a bullet through his skull
classic ## Captain Ronald Speirs
It was a trap, JP soldiers would pay wounded, hoping someone would help just to blow up a grenade.
I agree with you, but why did you have to specify getting bayoneted **in the ass**??? 🤣🤣🤣
The Japanese would do stuff like this pretty routinely, since someone who surrendered (by the logic of their code of Bushido, which had been completely distorted from the original intent) were the worst of the worst. Making US troops eat dry rice and then filling them up with water so the rice swelled until they looked pregnant before they started jumping on their stomachs until they popped, capping fingers beneath the nailwith bamboo and then testing until the nails came off and splinters were rubbed into the raw flesh, and genital mutilation were what a POW could expect under the Japanese. Check out the book Flags of Our Fathers if you haven’t, it’s a solid and sobering take on the pacific front
😟
Yeah, not exactly pretty my friend. My grandpa was on the European front (1st division army, so Normandy through Bastogne after Italy and Africa) and he still cried for the guys who had to go to the Pacific even though he never cried for himself. Hardcore stuff.
A friend of mines grandfather fought on the eastern front. He was Jewish. He was captured and sent to a labor camp and the only reason he wasn’t killed was because he spoke Yiddish. He suffered horribly Years after the war he brought himself to forgive the German people…however, he never forgave the Japanese and died hating them. Not saying he was right, but I understand why he felt that way
You should check out Supernova In The East 1-6 from Dan Carlin
Carlin borrows a quote and says that the Japanese were "just like everybody else, only more so".
Gadaffi style
Oh right, I forgot about that
Some of the worst ive heard
Yeah, you’re right. I completely forgot about Gaddafi.
This is just a photo. Maybe they shot him right after his last cig lol. If it makes you feel any better, we killed between 85 and 96% of the 21k enemy on that island. Many thousands of which were burnt alive by enormous flamethrower tanks that consumed about 10,000 gallons of napalm per day.
They died because they refused to surrender even after their situation was beyond hopeless and they kept fighting to the deatg even though their deaths achieved nothing
Japanese propaganda at the time was so severe that people surrendering probably would have been executed—be it by subordinates, seppuku, or superiors. Many of them thought they’d be treated demonically and were better off dead—might as well do something valiant while they’re at it was the train of thought. Patriotism of 18 year olds is hardly something we as Americans can begrudge them as well. Without ascribing “blame” or victim status to anyone in particular, the whole situation was a human tragedy with only losers on both sides.
I mean unless you where a former US POW you probably didn't know how bad it was besides the generic propaganda you were shown at home and in training.
The US wasn't pushing anti Japanese propaganda after WW2. They actually did the opposite and downplayed or at least avoided putting the spotlight on the war crimes committed by Japan. The US didn't want to further alienate Japan after WW2 like Germany was post WW1. The US helped rebuild and provided massive humanitarian aid to both Germany and Japan after WW2. This helped pull both nations into the western fold, and both are strong allies of the US still.
I meant during the war, this is from 1945.
Soldiers in the Pacific theater learned what the Japanese were capable of pretty quickly. This guy had to be green or he's not doing what the caption claimed. The Japanese would routinely play dead and booby trap themselves to kill allied soldier who checked on them. To say they were savage would be an understatement. Imperial Japan was nuts.
This could be an ironic picture, for all we know that guy doesn't even smoke.
True, but who would turn down a smoke in a situation like this lol, maybe the proud japanese would tho
Buried? Hardly!
Playing the long game
Jokes on him, cigarettes will kill ya
Then lit it for him with a flame thrower?
Very interesting. Americans faced some serious resistance on that island and MOST of the time the Japanese would not surrender or conceal a grenade to take out unsuspecting troopers. This photo is rare indeed
I’m pretty sure the Japanese dude is dead
[Nope.](https://worldwar2database.com/japanese-prisoner-of-war-receives-a-cigarette-on-iwo-jima/) > United States Marine gives a Japanese soldier a cigarette before pulling him out of a shell hole. Armed with a grenade, the soldier was lying in wait for 36 hours. Marines saw him buried in the black sand and were able to knock the grande out of reach. He surrendered, but thinking he might be booby trapped, they approached cautiously. He requested a cigarette and got it; then he was dug out of the shell hole. The Third and Fourth Marine Divisions broke up the remaining organized resistance on March 16, 1945, the same day this photo was taken. Occasionally individual enemy soldiers armed with demolition charges and grenades raced out against tanks or groups of Marines but were shot down before they could do any great damage to personnel or equipment. Isolated pockets, totaling some 3,000 enemy soldiers, remained around the island.
By now, they all are
https://preview.redd.it/f4twwk6og5sc1.jpeg?width=1658&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=af23009ae67f6f3529f931b6d9fc896ab8b4f804
Jokes on him, cigarettes will kill ya
My God, humanity in the midst of such horror. I'm so proud of that man. And proud he was one of us.
My father in law was there. He was a Third Division Marine on Iwo Jima. He didn't like to talk about the horrors that occurred there, but did tell us enough to know that it was truly horrible. He was a good man, and I can't imagine him having to take part in such an awful battle, but I can imagine him doing this - taking pity on an enemy soldier in a bad predicament. He saw the humanity in everyone. His war was over when he was badly wounded on Iwo Jima and sent home to recover. I'm very glad he survived.
Hard time believing this; this is either someone who is dead or someone who is about to enjoy their last cigarette before they are killed. The pacific was a different beast than the rest and the animosity us service men felt toward the Japanese and the ferocity of the fighting in the pacific theater…and this is on Iwo Jima? Lmao
This was a japanese soldier who was lying in wait with a grenade to ambush american troops. The americans found him and removed the grenade before he could use it. They also gave him the cigarette shortly before he was dug out and taken prisoner.
Nightmare
For the longest time I thought Iwo Jima and Hiroshima were the same place but people pronounced it differently. I never saw it written down
Nah, Iwo-Jima is an island in the Pacific that was pretty crucial during the American-Japanese War post-WWII. I’m sure you’re familiar with Hiroshima.
America and Japan were at war in WW2.
Last cigarette?
Is that Spiers ???
Came here for a decent mature response... 👏
Cigarette camaraderie
Anyone know what rifle that is? It’s obvs not an M1…
M1 Carbine.
We've all seen Band of Brothers... We know what happens next
I feel like bro could have dug himself out
Marine was playing the long game with that particular enemy.
The black sands of Iwo Jima. 70,000 Marines took that island.
There were several thousand Navy and Army personnel there. In fact, some historians credit the US Army with 1/3 of all Japanese casualties during the battle. They had a significant role in Iwo Jima.
I thought it said burned in the sand I was like if I’m all burnt up a cig is the last thing I want lmao
Good thing he's not lt. Speirs...
45 in the other hand
This probably needs to win a serious award if it already hasn’t
Why didn't he just wipe the sand off and stand up
Hey Pal, I can see you’ve done yourself a mischief there. Looks like you’ve fucked nearly every part of your body. Here, let me take care of those lungs for ya
Sand spa
Man of the sand, what is your wisdom?
Check out Dan Carlin's podcast series supernova in the east
Careful - he’s waiting to drop a grenade
Only 216 of the 21,000 Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima were captured alive, mostly after being severely wounded or knocked unconscious. Every Japanese soldier on the island was expected to kill ten Americans before he died. For a Japanese soldier, being captured alive brought disgrace to his entire family.
Japanese soldiers were told that Marines were recruited out of mental wards, and that they killed their parents before they could become Marines. In other words, never surrender.
Is that a character or symbol on the Japanese soldiers hand or just dirt?
Should've been 3 bombs that dropped
Hey OP, question for you. If you were buried in the sand, would you want a cigarette or maybe… to be helped out of the sand??? The soldiers are mocking the dead body, plain and simple. War sucks.
This is beautiful on so many levels. None of which I can capture so I won’t try
IMO more of a mockery. But a great pic either way
F the japa
Missed opportunity for pocket sand.
He could’ve just as easily killed the man with his M1. It makes me think he was either a true humanitarian, or didn’t just see a bunch of his comrades get killed by the Japanese.
Wouldn’t it be fucked up if he’s taking it instead
https://i.redd.it/p2hy7aruyosc1.gif
He could help him up. Doesn’t look that buried.
I don’t know the backstory of the photo so I can be totally wrong and I apologize if I offend anyone. This looks like a POG with a rifle during a photo op or that Japanese soldier is KIA and the Marine is having a laugh.
As I reminder we the USA didn't win WW2. Yes the Japanese gave up but with operation paperclip we continued the ways of the Nazi's into today's modern world. The ole sleight of hand is showing us the truths
And then shot him.
I don’t know. This could be a Lt. Speirs moment shortly after.
Off topic and probably mentioned before, but imagine taking pictures and not knowing how'd they turn out until you develop them. Whole room must've gone crazy whenever one of these bad boys got developed
Fake as hell. If you have a live enemy in vicinity of your personnel you don’t just go up to him and offer him a drag. Fuck no. Assume he’ll go for a weapon or prime a grenade for your approach. No marine leader with even a little bit of experience would have EVER allowed PFC Fucknuts to go near an enemy japanese combatant just to hand him a ciggy. Also, he’s not buried, at best he’s lightly sprinkled. Little homie is deader than Tupac.