How did 'Iggy' die?
I didn't quite catch it in the film o.O
shareIt was explicit in the book. He was tortued and mutilated. That is how they found him. Don't really want to go into gory detail though.
MovieChat Forums > Flags of Our Fathers (2006) Discussion > How did 'Iggy' die?
It wasn't shown in the film, but I read it up on wikipedia.
It was highly disturbing and the concept still haunts me (I read it over a year ago).
while doc was out helping the wounded soldier, the japanese silently captured iggy and tortured him in a cave. the details, which are so gruesome i'm not gonna post them here, can be found on his wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Ignatowski
a new life awaits you in the off-world colonies!
Well, being that nobody else really wants to go into detail, nor do I, but to save people from reading a whole Wikipedia article (though I would still recommend it), he was captured from a foxhole, as seen in the movie, and was taken into a cave. He was severely beaten, had his skull smashed in, ears, genitals, tongue cut off, and was reportedly hung and stabbed by multiple bayonets repeatedly.
share*beep* Japs. Whats wrong with just shooting a prisoner? I know Germans and others did terrible things to some prisoners but the Japs did this to nearly all there POWs.
The worse thing was they had a camp, can't remember the name. Were they used POWs, mostly Chinese, but some Allies including American, British and Russian, and they used them for human experiments. They also used Chinese woman, children and infants.
Here's the link, its horrific. I wouldn't read if your of a nervous disposition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731
R.I.P Heath Ledger 1979 - 2008
the Germans did the exact same to their captives (mainly twins and handicapped I was told). Worst thing is that so many people say it's horrible and inhumain, but everyone leaves out the part where the Americans and the Russians took all that research (and even some researchers) back home for their own benefit.
What about Guantanamo? don't blame Japan because they're not he only ones
shareRIIIIGHT....Soon as you can show me a Hajji with his whang cut off & his eyes gouged out & then vivisected while still alive I MIGHT entertain that notion of yours...otherwise I shall quote Megatron & say:
"You're a idiot starscream!"
nm
[deleted]
Ah...the Infamous & 0h so cliched' "laundrylist of wrongs":
NATURALLY We're the only country who's EVER done such things...
Too Bad eh???
Oh and...How are Korea & Grenada & Taiwan & the Philippines NOW??? How are OUR 'Native Americans' since you seem to CARE so much? To hear you say it, that was the FIRST time EVER in the history of humankind that nomads came into conflict with settled folks;
Oh and:
YOU'RE an idiot too! Goodbye....
NM
was there a valid point you were trying to make? or are you trying to say that since a wrongdoing has been made before any and all repeats by the U.S. are justified? and if that is your opinion, why arent you in afghanistan right now helping out those that have enlisted?
shareTo kavlas2000:
American history no doubt has many incidents of atrocity that any civil American should be ashamed of. However, these incidents were carried out by disturbed individuals that do not represent the United States or it's military. The My Lai incident in Viet Nam to name one, for example, was a horrible act that was not condoned or supported by the United States or the Military. There are others that space nor necessity allow for in this post.
If you will study the history of Japan and their invasion of Nanking, (Google "Rape of Nanking") and study the Nazis of Germany (Google "Holocaust"), you cannot find anything similar in American history to rival these wholesale systematic doctrinal acts of Japan and Nazi Germany. Where did the United States ever line hundreds of civilians up in rows along side of a river and behead them and make the civilians in the next row dump the body in the river and then assume the position for their own execution? Where did Americans systematically run through a city pulling out the females and raping them by the thousands only to cut off their breast and insert bamboo poles into their vaginas and then bayonet them? When did American soldiers ever take babies from their mothers and and gouge out their eyes and behead them and bayonet them in front of their mothers that they would soon rape? When did the American military, not just a crazy demented soldier but units of soldiers bind civilians hand and foot and dump them in a grave to be buried alive? These things and many more atrocities were carried out by the Japanese Army in Nanking in 1937, only 4 years before they bombed Pearl Harbor. Japan would have treated the Americans the same way had they destroyed our Navy in the Pacific and landed on our shores. I have no regret in my heart for dropping the bomb on Japan. It stopped the Japanese barbaric empire and changed their way of life. Japan today is one of our greatest allies and a thriving democracy.
Even to try to equate Abu Ghraib to these events is absurd. I must stop. There simply is no more room and I'm realizing that your comments really don't deserve the effort.
Ok since you are so meticulously interested in history can you please point out to us when did the US forces kill every single POW , dissected him alive and remove their organs , rape women and children , sank ships full of POW's, massacred several POW's , accepting that mutilation is nothing out of the ordinary and should be done on any hostile soldier ? The atrocities performed by the Japanese and the Nazis in WW2 cannot be compared to the interoggations performed in Guantanamo or Abu Dhabi or anywhere else, unless we have a "Final Solution" plan under way . And get your facts straight about the Gulf War, Cuba,Panama, Vietnam.
If you do so with actual facts and not neo communistic propaganda i would be more than glad to oblige .
Judging from your nickname you're Greek and judging from your ancient and modern history you should by no means should be able to comment on other nations entering other's sovereignties.
Well my facts are straight, my opinions as well. And in my view, it all boils down to this. The US had as much business in Iraq, as Japan had in Australia in WW2. Respect and mercy towards fellow human beings are a must, and should not be weighed against what someone's neighbors, ancestor, politicians, bosses, employees, supporters have done. And its not neo-communist propaganda, it goes further back than the Corinthians. I think it is at least ignorant to weigh atrocities to support whomever has the softest approach towards torture, intolerance, pain and murder or condemn the one with the harder approach, it is not a contest and there are no winners in this. There is no taking back of hiroshima and nagassaki, there is no taking back of the holocaust, there is no taking back of japanese atrocities in the pacific theatre, and it saddens me that after such recent catastrophes, instead of discussing how such conducts can be avoided we are debating who has the softest hand in torture and mass murder. Then again, you sure told me off, so i wont bother any further.
share "I have tried so hard to block this out. To forget it. We could choose a buddy to go in with. My buddy was a guy from Milwaukee. We were pinned down in one area. Someone elsewhere fell injured and I ran to help out, and when I came back my buddy was gone. I couldn’t figure out where he was. I could see all around, but he wasn’t there. And nobody knew where he was.
A few days later someone yelled that they’d found him. They called me over because I was a corpsman. The Japanese had pulled him underground and tortured him. His fingernails... his tongue... It was terrible. I’ve tried hard to forget all this."
Many years later, in researching my father’s life, I asked Cliff Langley, Doc’s co-corpsman, about the discovery of Iggy’s body. Langley told me it looked to him as though Ralph Ignatowski had endured just about every variety of physical cruelty imaginable.
"Both his arms were fractured," Langley said. "They just hung there there like arms on a broken doll. He had been bayoneted repeatedly. The back of his head had been smashed in."
Other eyewitness reports further indicated that Ignatowski had been tortured in the cave by the Japanese for three days, during which time they also cut out his eyes, cut off his ears, smashed in his teeth, and cut off his genitalia.
I wonder how much of this is true. I believe the report of the doc. The others I find questionable. Each adds more gruesome stuff.
What happened with all those bodies? Were they all searched for, picked up and sent home?
And why were the Japanese so overly brutal in their wars? Like its sth personal.
---
Lincoln Lee: I lost a partner.
Peter Bishop: I lost a universe!
**What about Guantanamo?**
If i had the choice between being stripped naked, and humiliated, or having my genitals, ears, tongue all cut off, my finger nails ripped out, my teeth bashed in, hung, and stabbed repeatedly until mercifully God let me die... which do you think i'd choose?
Insert Signature Here
but everyone leaves out the part where the Americans and the Russians took all that research (and even some researchers) back home for their own benefit.
Although the data obtained by the Nazis was obtained through evil and inhumane means, it was still viable data. Much of what we now know about hypothermia came from Nazi experiments. If information has already been obtained, regardless of the means, and that information can be used to save lives, what is the point of destroying it rather than using it? share
[deleted]
I sincerely hope you die as painful as Iggy did.
sharefor some people personal and religious integrity carries more weight than torture. the bible among other sources is full of people called martyrs.
share"What about Guantanamo? don't blame Japan because they're not he only ones"
That's an insult to the men were unlucky enough to get taken alive by the Japanese in WW2, Guantanamo is a summer camp compared... *beep* moron.
Edit: Another thing to take into account is that the orders for dealing with POW's for the Japanese was get as much information as possible from them by torture then excecute them, these were not isolated/rare.
You are beyond being idiot. they played rock music to get some info.and you compare this to Iggy and the rest.What is your real name TOJO?
share[deleted]
Ever heard of making the best of a bad situation?
shareEver heard of making the best of a bad situation?
shareWith the exception of one or two, none of the Japanese scientists and doctors from Unit 731 were ever brought to trial, owing to a deal done with the USA, through General Douglas MacArthur, in which it offered immunity from war crimes in exchange for scientific data to give the US some germ warfare advantage over the communist Soviet Union.
After the war these men, about thirty five of them, held top positions in Japanese medical and scientific institutions. These were men who tortured and murdered men, women AND children.
They were monsters. But so were the men who let them go unpunished.
There's a reason that people say that "war is hell" and it's not just because it's hellish for the warriors. The rules that society usually imposes upon its population about what is proper and allowed are suspended. Men and women act like savages. What was once criminal becomes standard operating procedure. Don't for a minute think that any paticipating nation in any war or conflict has been immune due to the "noble" nature of their cause. War might be necessary, but it is never noble.
"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul."
I agree with your post except for one thing: war is never necessary. It is an illogical extension of politics and violence. War is only necessary for cowards.
shareTell that to Poland, France, Belgium, et al, in 1939. One of the primary functions of government is to protect its sovereignty and its citizens up to and including warfare. What you are referring to, I believe, is war of aggression, not defense. That certainly is "an illogical extension of politics and violence."
"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul."
I agree with your post except for one thing: war is never necessary. It is an illogical extension of politics and violence. War is only necessary for cowards.
If you're an American I pity you.
Utah! Get me two. share
As opposed to modern day practice at Abu Ghraib?
shareHow about the Vietnam war? Ever though about that?
shareI think the problem is when people focus on countries and nation identities rather than humanity. All the examples quoted on this thread show one thing; humans, no matter where they are from or when they were living, are capable of appallingly inhumane things. To my mind, William Golding explored this issue perfectly in Lord of the Flies - given the appropriate circumstances, the 'beast' inside can come out. This film also makes the point that many soldiers say "I did things I cannot believe I did".
Luckily, history also shows that humans are capable of incredible acts of kindness and love, even to enemies.
I cannot believe there are people today that are stupid enough to compare Abu Ghraib to Unit 731 and the Holocaust. AG is a place where enemy soldiers are tortured for information that could save american lives. I'm sorry they are being tortured to some extent, but they knew the risks involved when they decided to start killing for a dictator or when they decided to become terrorists. Besides, being waterboarded and smacked around is not even in the same universe as being herded into gas chambers by the thousands, disected while still alive, raped, forced to watch your family slaughtered, etc. The men in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib are soldiers and criminals and terrorists, not innocent civilians. You cannot be nice to an enemy who is out to destroy you. I wish we lived in a world where the correct course of action to be taken against enemy soldiers was to bake them cookies and hold hands while we dance through the candy forrest together, but that's not how it works.
shareRing a bell?
"Every jackass thinks he knows what war is. Especially those who’ve never been in one. We like things nice and simple, good and evil, heroes and villains."
Even after watching this movie, jackasses insist on saying "Americans are always the good guys. Japs are evil!" (So we're allowed to torture people & rape young girls, but they're not) Hilarious. Carry on, jackasses. Carry on.
Pipe down you tedious cretin. You don't seem to have grasped the full implications of moral equivalence in a debate so just stop polluting the internet with moronic asides.
shareGermans experimented on Soviet POWs, and that wasn't done just by the SS. The Luftwaffe was also heavily involved.
After the war both Soviets and the Americans jumped on that research. Note how the commanders of 731 all walked away from punishment because the US wanted that research. Also note how the US never went after the imperial family. Not just Hirohito, who gave the order to kill Chinese POWs, but also never touched any other member, including prince Asaka, who gave the order that triggered the Rape of Nanking.
Also you're displaying a total lack of knowledge about what went off in Japan pre-war, how fascism took over and how children were drilled into believing that the Japanese were the chosen people. It's pretty common for Americans (and other westerners) to not know about that. Heck, most people don't even have a clue how Hitler gained power, so it's not a surprise that they know absolutely nothing about the rise of fascism in Japan.
The really sad thing is, that the Taishô years, the emperor before Hirohito, saw a growth in civil liberties and democracy in Japan. But when he died it was eventually all stomped by the military and their willing goons among the civilians.
These stories surface because the Japs lost (as did the Germans). American soldiers did unspeakable things as well, but as the US won the war, these stories are either refuted or unspoken of. You may safely assume that Americans raped, tortured and killed civilians and soldiers in enemy territory, even if they would be punished by their superiors if found out.
share[deleted]
Nice *beep* spoiler. I was just trying to read up on this film when I saw this topic title.
sharegah another argument about how evil one nation is over another...what many Japanese soldiers did during WWII to numerous ppl (mostly the Chinese lets not forget) were horrible and unforgivable and should not be forgotten...case closed...horrible acts by the way which were committed cause of racism, hatred, violent indoctrination and ultra-right wing militarism and nationalist ideals.
should it be used as justification for I dunno racism or hatred? No, time has passed, you werent there, ppl have died, alot of things have changed...even the veterans can come together in peace nowadays and somewhat respect each other...
I have no point.
It still disgusts me every time I think about Iggys death. For those who don't know , the japs bayoneted him numerous times, smashed his head in and cut off his tongue, fingernails and had his cut off genitals stuffed into his mouth before executing him. Japanese soldiers were really horrible in those days. Just horrific.
share[deleted]
[deleted]
You can see it in Letters
share[deleted]