"Destroy the Japan" What did the U.S. war correspondent seeAugust 8 at 11:17
There is a person who recorded the battle between Japan and the United States while being on the battlefield during the Pacific War 80 years ago. Time magazine reporter Robert Sherrod. He was shocked to see Japan soldiers charge at the Americans without risking their lives, and how they take their own lives when they realize they can't win.
Sherrod's report of Japan soldiers shocked the American public, eventually leading to a relentless and fierce attack. What did Japan soldiers look like in the eyes of American journalists at the time? Traced from the vast amount of documents left by Sherrod.
(NHK Special "New Document Pacific War" Coverage Team Sena Murayama)
* In order to faithfully convey the facts of the wartime, the discriminatory expressions used at that time are posted in the original text.
Extensive coverage of Japan people on the battlefield
Syracuse University in New York. It is known for having a graduate school where aspiring journalists study. This is where Robert Sherrod's materials are held.
The materials were donated by Sherrod himself in 1964 and amounted to 42 boxes. It includes not only articles published in Time magazine, but also manuscripts in the draft stage and copies of letters sent to friends.
In a letter Sherrod sent to an acquaintance in January 1944 during the Pacific War, he wrote:
"I think we Americans – the Army, the Navy, the people – entered this Pacific War with a misunderstanding, and we had no idea about the strength of Japan people,"
he said in the U.S. at the time, in war movies made to raise the spirit of war, with strong and courageous American soldiers. They were often portrayed as inferior Japan soldiers, and many people thought that the war with Japan would end soon.
However, Sherrod had witnessed the shocking appearance of Japan soldiers on two battlefields the year before. This experience greatly changed his view of Japan people.
Self-determination witnessed "difficult to understand in the Western mind"
At the age of 34, Sherrod first confronted Japan soldiers at the Battle of Attu in May 1943. It was an American island that formed part of the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific, and the operation was to retake the island from the Japan forces that occupied it.
On May 5 (Japan time), the Americans landed with more than 11,12 troops, cornering and largely annihilating the Japan garrison. The victory or defeat was already obvious. Japan army received no reinforcements or supplies, and it seemed that the battle would soon be over. However....
Sherrod's manuscript
: "1 to 2600,800 Japs (sic) charged and died, brandishing military swords and flags, spitting insane words like crazy."
"Not only that, but many Japs, estimated to be more than 1000, committed suicide, who could have killed Americans but died by pressing grenades against their own abdomens and blowing their internal organs to death,"
said an upset young officer who saw a large number of grotesque corpses. This is not normal military service.'"
On May 2 (Japan time), more than two weeks after the landing, the Battle of Attu ended. The surviving Japan of the 5 or so soldiers, armed with a meager weapon, launched an all-out attack on the American troops, prepared to die.
The May 28 manuscript
, "Almost all Japan remaining on the island united in a last-ditch desperate effort to kill as many Americans as possible before they died. At least half of Japan committed suicide. The violent spectacle is hard for the Western mind to understand."
Exploring the Minds of Japan Soldiers
A Japan soldier who looked in Sherrod's eyes as "fixated on death." On the other hand, he also records another side. It is a Japan soldier who was wounded and captured by the Americans.
When the captain said, 'You are a prisoner of war of the United States and you will be treated best according to international law,' a stocky little Jap jumped up and saluted, With a big smile on his face, he persistently asked for a handshake from the soldiers who captured him" "Most people are ordinary people who are glad to be alive"
Japan soldiers who repeatedly charge and commit suicide,
and Japan soldiers who rejoice at meals. The discrepancy seems to have caught Sherrod's attention.
The U.S. military collected and translated Japan soldiers' diaries to find Japan secrets and morale, and Sherrod also read them with enthusiasm. And I am surprised that no complaints or complaints are noted.
"In all the misery and disappointment, Japan people don't complain, the Japs say, 'Why aren't you sending reinforcements?' or 'It's another blunder. In this frozen trench there is no food or blanket.'" "
I don't even show evidence that I can think with my head, and I never raise my voice to my superiors. Because it goes against established authority,"
Sherrod uses the discriminatory word "Jap" to describe Japan as "gullible and dedicated little soldiers."
He wrote:
"It's not easy to control the Japs."
Tarawa of fear
Sherrod witnessed the Battle of Attu and tried to convey the appearance of the Japan soldiers, but he was unable to fully fulfill his wish. Censorship deleted the part about the Japan soldier's diary, and the manuscript was published a month later. In the meantime, the great victory on Attu was reported, and Sherrod's article was buried.
On the other hand, the U.S. government was also concerned about the lack of a sense of crisis among the Japanese people about the war against Japan. There were strikes in the defense industry, and the bonds issued to raise money for the continuation of the war were not selling as well as expected. Therefore, in order to change the consciousness of the people, he announced a policy of actively reporting on the struggles of American soldiers on the battlefield in the media. In November 1943, Sherrod was again able to accompany the Marines in a major operation centered on the Marines.
The stage of the operation is Tarawa Island, a small atoll near the equator. Japan occupied it with a garrison of 11 men.
This battle would have a major impact on Sherrod's and the American public's view of Japan.
U.S. troops rushed to the island with 1,8600 troops on November 11 (Japan time 20). Prior to the landing, naval gunfire and bombing from the air attacked Japan positions. It is said that the flames of the bombing erupted to a height of more than 21 meters.
Sherrod, who was watching on the ship, wrote, "I don't think a single person could survive such bombardment." However, this carelessness led to a tragedy that was later called the "Tarawa of Fear."
November 1 manuscript
, "I jumped out of an amphibious vehicle into the water, which was neck-deep. At that time, we would be bombarded with a barrage of machine gun fire. Hundreds of bullets flew in. The Japs weren't dead."
The amphibious vehicles were stranded on the reef and American soldiers had to walk across the shallow water to the shore. Underwater soldiers became easy targets. Japan soldiers had established strong positions underground and survived the bombing.
With heavy casualties, the Americans landed, but Japan stubbornly resisted.
"
Every five minutes dozens of Marines were killed or wounded, and Jap snipers were rarely seen as they hid on palm trees or cautiously under dirt-covered palm logs. Machine guns were strafed by American soldiers from gaps in the fortifications and from behind the beach. The lieutenant gnashed his teeth, 'I can't see them, so how can I shoot them?'" The
second day
of the landing"In the morning, at low tide, a tragic scene emerged, with U.S. Marines lying on the mudflats of the reef. Some were grotesquely curled up, but they all fell as they charged forward. Some had fallen with their arms outstretched toward the shining sun just below the equator. The giant, fearless, thick-necked Colonel David Shoup, who commands the Marines on the island, said calmly: 'We are in a very difficult predicament.'"
From the afternoon of the second day, the tide gradually reversed. American reinforcements bombed Japan's positions from the air, destroying them one by one from point-blank range and burning them with flamethrowers.
Over time Japan the defeat of the army became apparent. However, the Japan soldier jumped under the tank with depth charges and tried to accompany as many American soldiers as possible. And Sherrod sees the same scene again as on Attu Island.
Written
on November 2, "The Jap counterattack began on the third night at the rear of the island, after which some 1 Jap bodies were left in a row, piled up. The two officers said they saw many Japs commit suicide with grenades and rifles. The total number of suicides is estimated to be in the hundreds." In this battle, 1,11 Japan troops were almost annihilated, while the Americans also suffered more than 24,3 deaths
and more than 300,2 wounded. After witnessing a terrible battle, Sherrod concludes:
"Japan must be destroyed here so that they can never stand against our children again. Hundreds of thousands of Americans may die in the process. But that's the only way."
The Hatred of the American People
The Battle of Tarawa was the first battlefield to be accompanied by a film crew to film the entire tragic battle, under the government's policy of actively reporting American soldiers on the battlefield. However, due to the unexpected casualties, the U.S. government is struggling to determine how far it will be made public.
Sherrod has been asked directly by President Roosevelt.
December 12 Letter
to his boss: "The president said, 'What do you think of this Tarawa video?' It's pretty horrible. There are a lot of dead bodies in the picture.' I replied as a matter of course: "War is a terrible thing, Mr. President."
In March
28, a film documenting the Battle of Tarawa was released as a documentary film, With the Marines at Tarawa. It showed countless American soldiers lying on the beach, burned bodies.
As one American citizen put it:
Voices
of American citizens: "The bodies of American soldiers are floating in the waves, and we are simply devastated. Japan his dislike for the people became so intense that he felt he had to kill the Japs. We must end the war" (Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, The War: An Intimate History, 1944–3)
Sherrod later served in the Battle of Saipan and was shocked once again that not only Japan soldiers but also civilians chose to die instead of surrendering.
"What the Americans saw at the end of the battle was mind-boggling, so unbelievable, that in order to understand it, all Westerners' notions of human thought processes had to be abandoned. In the northernmost part of Saipan, a large proportion of civilians in the Japan had committed suicide calmly and intentionally. Hundreds, if not thousands Japan of people chose to die as the Emperor's shield is affectionately called,"
and Sherrod continued to tell the story of Japan who witnessed suicide attacks by commandos and served in the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa.
During this time, the Japan to the American people has changed from being "tiny and weak" to "being destroyed."
What are Sherrod's thoughts?
Sherrod portrays Japan people as incomprehensible beings to be annihilated. That may have been his role in reporting on the war. On the other hand, the way he interviews the officer who interrogated the Japan soldier and reads the diary of the Japan soldier shows his attitude as a reporter.
Sherrod continued to be involved with Japan after the end of the Pacific War. In 1952, when Japan regained its independence after the occupation of the United States and other countries, he began living in Tokyo as a correspondent, covering the recovery from the burnt fields and soaring prices. He died in 1994 at the age of 85.
Wanting to get closer to Sherrod's thoughts, he visited his second son in Pennsylvania, USA.
The second son, who inherited his father's name, had eyes very similar to his father and greeted me with a Japanese, "Konnichiha." When he was a teenager, he and his father lived in Tokyo as a family.
He says he remembers very little from his father telling him about the Pacific War. On the other hand, I sensed a strong commitment to the job of a reporter.
Second son, Robert Sherrod Jr
.: "I think my father wanted to be a real reporter. But if you're going to write about American soldiers, you have to have the same experience as them.' 'Telling the truth' – this was very important to my father. It was the same at home, and if I exaggerated something, they would scold me,"
Sherrod said, wondering how he perceived Japan. When I asked, I got a slightly surprising answer.
Second son, Robert Sherrod Jr
.: "My father used to speak of a Japan saying: 'Duty is very strong, but death is lighter than a feather' (I think it refers to the soldiers' imperial decree, 'Righteousness is heavier than mountain, and death is lighter than Konoge.'" I remember him saying that a lot. Life is very important for Americans, but...
However, what I can say is that my father himself was a bit similar to Japan man who had a strong feeling for his mission. I guess I didn't like it very much, though. I don't think my father hated Japan people. I just wanted to tell the truth."
Robert Sherrod, a reporter who wanted to tell the truth and continued to document the reality of the battlefield. Tracing what he left behind, I can see the human psychology of an incomprehensible being transformed into an object of hatred. It may not be the same as what is happening around the world 80 years later.
Social Program Department Director
Sena MurayamaJoined
Okinawa
Bureau in 2015 Belongs to the Tokyo Metropolitan Area Bureau from 2021
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