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Originally Posted by Iriemon  War crimes happen on all sides, I agree. It is a function of the terrible stress placed on men in wartime.
But you cannot compare the examples of American war crimes, limited, isolated incidents, with the government sanctioned and systematic slaughter that occured by the Germans and Japanese. |
It is true that most Allied war crimes are "isolated" (for example the murdering of unarmed Germans in Chenogne or in Utah was not part of a specific policy).
You can compare that to German soldiers killing Allied POWs/civilians during the battle of the Bulge, there was no order asking for that, it was commited by individuals.
However, there was a policy according to which Japaneses who surrendered should not be taken prisonner.
Then, the bombing of Dresden, which had no military importance, was not "limited" and was "government sanctionned".
So was the deportation of millions of people who wanted to flee from USSR (if you call it a war crime), or letting thousands of POW die from starvation.
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Death rates of POWs held by Axis powers
* Chinese POWs held by Japan: > 99% (only 56 survivors at the end of the war)[64]
* US and British Commonwealth POWs held by Germany: ~4% [63]
* Soviet POWs held by Germany: 57.5% [65]
* Western Allied POWs held by Japan: 27% [66]
[edit] Death rates of POWs held by the Allies
* German POWs in East European (not including the Soviet Union) hands 32.9%[65]
* German soldiers held by Soviet Union: 15-33% (14.7% in The Dictators by Richard Overy, 35.8% in Ferguson[65])
* Japanese POWs held by Soviet Union: 10%
* German POWs in British hands 0.03%[65]
* German POWs in American hands 0.15%[65]
* German POWs in French hands 2.58%[65]
* Japanese POWs held by U.S.: relatively low, mainly suicides according to James D. Morrow[67] or according to Ulrich Straus high as many prisoners were shot by front line troops.[46]
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