Forgive me if I'm missing something.
So at the end when they were invited to swim in the river in celebration and everyone said that's it and they knew they were going to be killed. Then they get out there and plane drives by. Yea the war is over!!!
So did the Japanese invite them out to swim and let them know the war was over? How did the prisoner's know the war was over?
Guess I should have read the book
the prisoners knew the war was over when they looked up and saw American planes flying overhead and not being shot at...
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The plane had a red light that was flashing in morse code, alerting them that the war was over. I'm not sure why they didn't have a character point that out.
shareIt was announced that the war was over a few minutes earlier. That's the whole reason they allegedly were going to bathe. Was no one paying attention?
sharePreviously one of the prisoners had said if the war ended and the allies won they would all be killed. So it was only natural for us to believe that's why they were putting them in the river was to kill him.
shareI am confused about that too.
The film made a point of showing the Japanese had machine guns ready on the POWS, who were different nationalities, bathing in the river in a remote Japanese mining area. As the war had been declared over, we can assume they were indeed going to be executed and washed into the river.
A US bomber in formation tipped it's wings and flashed lights I assume to acknowledge it had somehow seen, identified and recorded the POWS, which seems unlikely.
This was probably more a reason for the Japanese to continue their plan and execute all the prisoners rather than just leave and let them go and identify them?
As mentioned, they had already been told the war was over - this was why the Japanese were planning to kill the abused and tortured prisoners who were witnesses to and victims of war crimes and could easily have been disposed of regardless of the planes.
Interesting take.
I assumed as the war was over and part of the agreement was the release of POWs, that the Japanese were quickly trying to show mercy and consideration for their captives. Plus, they simply looked filthy, which wouldn't due of the US Army rolled in.
They alluded to this with the air drops, but I'm fairly certain the Japanese eventually just abandoned the POW camp all together, leaving the American's to be rescued without confrontation.
In short, the theory that they would be executed was derived from an assumption of Japanese defeat. No one imagined the Japanese would unconditionally surrender. I'm sure no one in that POW could even conceive an atom bomb...
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