1. Were the Japanese trying to bathe Louie and Phil when they had them take their clothes off and splashed them with water?
2. Were the Japanese going to kill the prisoners in the river if they hadn't seen the American plane fly over?
3. So, the Bird just escaped the coal mine before American forces came?
I have read the book and have answers for some of the questions you asked!
1) Not sure sorry.
2) Yes they were going to, a lot of prisoners died of starvation and dehydration due to camp officers abandon the camp and they being locked up or they were killed. A order was given to kill the prisoners.
3) Yes again, in the book they stayed at the POW camp for a couple of weeks after the war and the officers left pretty quickly after it was said that the war was over.
Hope that helped :)
1. Pretty sure yes. We are set up to beleive they are about to be executed (which is what they think is happening as well) but they are only being washed. A bit of drama.
shareexactly.
to my knowledge, and there is confusion among the kiddies these days on this, there was no move to execute allied POWs after the actual Japanese surrender.
What there WAS, was very much a plan to kill all the prisoners, on news of an Allied landing on Japanese main islands.
Which presumably meant the "Olympic" landing on Kyushu.
the moment news broke of a major Allied landing and beach-head being established, they were to be rapidly disposed of.
It's another argument why 'other means' to expedite the war's end, were greatly preferred to D-day style landings and fighting across Japan metre by metre.
When news of war's end came and was confirmed, a lot of Japanese camp commanders just disappeared, or wandered off in shock, some of the low-rank guards in camps outside of Japan approached POWs and actually asked them to give them character references..."ah-so, you will say I was your very good friend??"
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