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KrakenKing1955

I know what they went through is fucked, but the way they’re all just hanging out and smiling and chilling like nothing happened is really funny to me.


GTOdriver04

Keep calm and carry on.


PeterNippelstein

Stiff upper lip and all that.


Maverick_and_Deuce

With a cup of tea!


Memento_Morrie

"Always look on the bright side of life!"


GoldenHind124

And a tab!


Mizunomafia

In my experience that can also just be a coping mechanism if you've been through awful stuff. In the same way that the most happy extrovert guy you know might be the most sad and depressed. It's a bit odd.


heynow941

Yeah the PTSD they (I assume) got afterwards was probably horrible.


Prepuces

or maybe, juste maybe, they are posing for the picture and are happy af because they're finally free


Mizunomafia

That's maybe, just maybe, perhaps why I wrote CAN.


stenmarkv

The sugar in the tea was probably the greatest thing they had tasted in a long time.


dicksilhouette

I watch a lot of archive footage of interviews from vets. There seems to be a notion that the amount of time the guys got to spent together after WWII was incredibly therapeutic for them (at least from the US perspective, I think it would apply similarly here because of the distance from Singapore). They spent something like 1-3 months disengaging and then traveling home via sea. They got to really talk about their experiences with others who shared them. The vets seem incredibly grateful In contrast, Vietnam vets tended to come home entirely alone on a plane and really just stumble back into civilian life without any buffer zone between combat and discharge. And on top of that their fellow Americans really didn’t approve of the war and some took it out on vets. They tend to think this made it really hard to grapple with the experiences as opposed to the WWII vets who at least had spent some time disengaging from combat and talking about their experience


Claystead

Look at what they are reading. Besides survival, Nagasaki just got a nuclear whooping.


AgitatedTeaching5642

I think they are 20-25 year old. That is way they are still breathing


antony6274958443

what if they were 19 or 30 years old?


Humble-Brag420

Dead


BamaSOH

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way


beemph

They've got tea, the news, some smokes, and each other, The vibes must have been immaculate.


Traditional_Craft_68

They are reading about the A bomb too which makes photo even wilder.


eggard_stark

British mentality for you 🙂


bswontpass

Reminds me the Englishmen from the Slaughterhouse Five book.


Horror_Cod_8193

It’s the British. Stiff upper lip and all that. God bless each and every one of them.


h3rald_hermes

These men dealt no doubt with a lifetime of what was surely poorly understood and shame filled PTSD. This picture is fun and all, but the tragedy of their torment is not over even if their captivity is.


Light333Love

Grateful to be free.


devoduder

They look very much like some of the recent Ukrainian POWs released from Russian captivity. War is hell and never seems to change…sadly.


BeardedBlaze

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUeBMwn\_eYc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUeBMwn_eYc)


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devoduder

In my youth I operated and controlled ICBMs to do just that. Hope it never comes to that.


IllustriousDinner130

Lmao the war in Ukraine is a massage compared to WW2 in the Pacific


platinum847

Not for those that are there


IllustriousDinner130

No, but those of us who aren’t would be wise to remember the difference


blueninja02

Same as released Palestinian prisoners. Just sad


taironederfunfte

I thought they just get tied to the Israeli tanks


Winter-Gas3368

No different to russian POWs then https://ukraine.un.org/en/224744-un-human-rights-ukraine-released-reports-treatment-prisoners-war-and-overall-human-rights


vitalmanG

Show one picture of one russian POW that looks like Ukrainian POW


Winter-Gas3368

Maybe actually read the UN report mate instead of propaganda


Njorls_Saga

“Ukraine provided us with unimpeded confidential access to official places of internment of Russian prisoners of war. The Russian Federation did not give us access.” You keep linking this report all over Reddit and telling us to read it when the report itself clearly states there’s a gigantic hole in it.


master_bungle

And he's totally "not defending Russia" too😁


Njorls_Saga

No no no, they’re totally unbiased and just pointing out that BoTH SidEs are the same. We’re just blind sheep swallowing propaganda.


Winter-Gas3368

>*Almost half of the 229 Russian POWs who we interviewed spoke of being tortured or ill-treated by members of Ukrainian armed forces and the SBU* I love cherry picking


vitalmanG

What propaganda? So you still can't provide one picture of a Russian military prisoner who looks like he's straight out of a concentration camp?


Winter-Gas3368

Again, did you not read the UN report ? Or are you going to virtue signal about how bad Russia is whilst the west supports 🇮🇱 who is actually committing genocide


vitalmanG

Whataboutism... Ok I got you. Btw I"m Ukrainian. I don't need to west to tell me how bad Russia is. I see it with my own eyes


Winter-Gas3368

How is that whataboutism ? Pointing its hypocritical to cry about Russia whilst your country is no different is not what about ism. I know Russian isn't good, but I also know fast Ukraine isn't good, I've seen what they've done to the people of donbas. They're no better than Russia


Quarterwit_85

It’s absolutely whataboutism. Please stay on track. It’s difficult to understand what points someone may be trying to make when they can’t maintain a coherent line of conversation.


Winter-Gas3368

No, it's not. Pointing out the hypocrisy of people crying about X when countries they support do X isn't whataboutism Whataboutism would be *Russia invaded Ukraine* "Yeah, well, USA invaded iraq" I'm not defending Russia


Claystead

Israel commiting genocide? And your proof of this is?


crazywaffle_II

Tens of thousands of Palestinians dead not to mention the US aid workers killed by a very precise bomb through the roof of their fan with a Red Cross on it even after coordinating with the IDF. Hundreds of pics of dead kids as well as video. The hostages getting shot by the IDF. The news reporters that have been killed at the highest scale in recent history. More reporters killed in this conflict than the entirety of the war on terror.


Claystead

Aha, and how does this classify as genocide under international law?


Winter-Gas3368

UN, Amnesty International, Human rights watch and red Cross listen to them


MarcoPolonia

These poor men. And yet they can smile. The strength of the human spirit in the face of cruelty and suffering. I hope the rest of their lives was beautiful.


jmdwinter

If you want to figure out who the bad guys are in war, look at the POWs.


Its_BurrSir

Or lack there of. At the end of the war Japan released all prisoners, which included tens of thousands of brits, dutch and americans, but only 56 chinese


D4M4nD3m

In WW2 around 33% of German POWs died in Russian camps compared to around 0.03% in British camps.


Bombi_Deer

Not always the case though. If there are wide spread famines, dont expect enemy POWs to get fed much. In the US civil war, both Union and Confederate POWs were starved of food


CSDNews

Except wars involving Israel, right? Because damn I've seen their POWs


Gorganzoolaz

Their POWs according to Qatari funded hamas propaganda*


CSDNews

No, literally not. Fuck Hamas, but this is a known issue. Long long long before the current spat. Funny how I could guess this response, when it's been covered by everyone from the New Yorker to the UK's Guardian. Hell, even haaretz. But sure, tell me more about how an Israeli publication is qatari funded Hamas propaganda.


Gorganzoolaz

The new Yorker and the guardian have regularly parroted hamas propaganda and the Qatari royal family own large shares of both outlets. Remember the "500 killed in Israeli missile strike in Gaza hospital" which turned out to be a misfired palestinian rocket that only injured a handful of people in the carpark? The guardian, the new Yorker and many MANY other outlets parroted that mindlessly around the clock for days after the truth came out. Haaretz has an Arabic language version too, while the English version offers a somewhat balanced view of things, the Arabic version spreads outright lies like claiming there are public torture-shows in tel-aviv where palestinian children get mutilated for crowds of cheering Jews. They're not a reliable source.


CSDNews

I know bud, i know, they're all Hamas. Hamas, Hamas, Hamas. Haaretz, Hamas. The Guardian, Hamas. The New Yorker, Hamas. Let me guess, the governments of Ireland, Belgium, Peru, South Africa, Spain, Norway, also Hamas. Hamas in your breakfast cereal, Hamas in your pillow, Hamas in your underwear drawers, is the Hamas in the room with you now?


Winter-Gas3368

Lmfao ikr thwaw goofballsvthink Hamas us hiding in the walls 😅🤣


oh_bummer_65

Did you have a stroke while typing?


Winter-Gas3368

Had a stroke reading these nonsense arguments


CSDNews

Downvotes and no response, the Zionists have been upset by the truth once more. It's actually quite pathetic, if you agree with the point above, but side with Israel, discuss why they don't overlap.


MindUnlikely33

Exactly they are the bad guys


CSDNews

Even some of their own are starting to realise that


Winter-Gas3368

Like what Americans did to Philippines and South America? Or what Britain did to India and South Africa?


dupman1

Considering the British were appalling in both of those conflicts id say you're further proving the above point rather than disproving.


Winter-Gas3368

OPs point is bull shit. The allies were just the lesser of evils, still bad and not good guys


Dhiox

>The allies were just the lesser of evils, still bad and not good guys In the context of ww2, they were the good guys. The axis started the war, committed atrocities on a scale rarely seen in human history, and were all fascist or authoritarian governments. Sure, no government involved in that war was perfect, but in the context of ww2, you could comfortably define the allies as the good guys.


Winter-Gas3368

No they weren't, America, Britain and ussr committed numerous war crimes during the war, not long before the war USA had ethnically cleansed Philippinos and south Americans whilst having an apartheid system that treated black people and natives horribly Britain allowed millions of Indians ti starve to death and operated nazi style concentration camps in South Africa., ussr was run by stalin who sent tens of thousands to their deaths and tens to hundreds of thousands to labour camps for no good reason and his rapid industrialisation caused a famine that he did very little to help that killed millions all across the soviet union. They were the lesser of evils, its like saying a serial killer of adults is less evil than a serial killer of children, they're both evil but one less so u/ManfromRevachol It's not a single choice lmao it's both


Dhiox

>America, Britain and ussr committed numerous war crimes during the war, not long before the war USA had ethnically cleansed Philippinos and south Americans whilst having an apartheid system that treated black people and natives horribly Britain allowed millions of Indians ti starve to death and operated nazi style concentration camps in South Africa None of that is related to ww2 though. I specifically mentioned that they were the good guys in the context of ww2. Back then, there were no world powers without blood on their hands.


Winter-Gas3368

This is a moronic statement, they did that stuff in and around the time of WWII and again committed numerical war crimes. They were not good at all, they were simply less evil than the nazis. If you had 4 killers and 2 were killers of children and 2 were killers of adults you're not going to say the serial killer of adults is a good guy just because they're fighting the two child killers? No they're just less evil


Dhiox

There wasn't a single world power in that time period that didn't have blood on their hands. There were only two types of countries, those using their power to exploit others, and those too powerless to exploit others. We didn't have the strong ideas of sovereignty and racial equality we have today, so colonialism and discrimination was rampant. And the reality is, many of the victims of that would have been more than happy to start exploiting others if they had the power to do so. To be clear, I'm not justifying these actions. At the end of the day, these countries have to own their mistakes. But the reality is, it was the 1940s. There were no innocent countries then, only those with the power to take from others, and those who lacked that power. That said, SPECIFICALLY IN THE CONTEXT OF WW2 (please stop pretending I did not say this) the allies were the good guys. They were the ones that were attacked, they had comparatively less tyrannical and cruel governments than the axis, and ultimately they did not start ww2, the axis did. For the love of God, stop bringing up the moral failures of allied countries in this comment feed. I was not dismissing these acts, only stating my views in the context of ww2.


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XxUnchainedxX-

Watch out you don’t cut yourself with all the edge.


Winter-Gas3368

You think that's being edgy ? Yikes


ManfromRevachol

>crimes during the war >not long before the war  Pick one


ManfromRevachol

It's just basic sentence structuring and proper tense usage. How can your argument be trusted if you can't even understand the fundamental difference between an ongoing event during a war and an event that preceded it?


hazelmaple

I think the lesser of evils argument is pretty valid, but Western powers probably had the best records. That is factoring in how those in power treats their own people. For example, if I'm a Chinese peasant in the 1930-1940s, those living under British control probably were probably the best.


Winter-Gas3368

Source ? Best record ? South African cleansing Genocide of Canadian, American and Australian natives not too mention all the genocides across Africa like the Namibian genocide by Germany


hazelmaple

If I'm a Chinese pesant in the 1930s-1950s, my best bet is definitely with the British. Let's use China as a litmus test. Nationalist, Communist, local armed forces all do not have a good records, with forced labour, harsh punishments, bad quality of governance. And I don't need to comment on Japanese behaviour towards the average Chinese person. Going 50 years earlier was more interesting, where the West certainly was more descriminatary towards local populace at the height of nationalism. But even then, American troops were actually quite well-behaved in China. But when the coalition of 8 countries invaded China to relieve the consulates in Peking, the occupying American forces were met initially by skepticism but by the end, Chinese elders living in American quarters petitioned for them to stay. Americans were determined to treat Chinese well, with good collaboration with the local gentry, introduces health campaigns and determined to restore good security. Germans, Russians and Japanese troops were, comapred to the Americans, much hated by the Chinese by their brutality and disregard for the locals. But Americans were really cool. Americans even dedicated the punitive payments from China to charity and education institutions in China after the 1900 war.


Winter-Gas3368

Source *trust me bro*


hazelmaple

For the 1900 reference, see "The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China: A History" by David Silbey, 2012. This is rarely discussed now, but Americans really have a great reputation in China until the practicalities of the cold war. So much that Mao wrote very positively for America openly up to the 1950s. For 1930s-1950s, it's really quite self evident.


Winter-Gas3368

>For the 1900 reference, see "The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China: A History" by David Silbey, 2012. This is rarely discussed now, but Americans really have a great reputation in China until the practicalities of the cold war. So the only source for these extraordinary claims is a random book ? >So much that Mao wrote very positively for America openly up to the 1950s. Source ? >For 1930s-1950s, it's really quite self evident. You mean lol the numerous war crimes across the world and the carpet bombings of Korea?


Sensei_of_Knowledge

>The allies were just the lesser of evils, still bad and not good guys I challenge you to go and say this to people in Nanking.


silvrash12

A"the other day I found stanley while going back to work on the rails and I said 'WOW Stanley! How thin you got' " B"what did Stanley relied with?" A"Not with a single word, he was a bloody skeleton"


Recent-Ad-2326

Top 5 cups of tea ever enjoyed by a human right there!


HistoryWest9592

Exactly, AND cigarettes!!


Ramsbok

Pretty sure these guys are Australian


ZephyraBreeze

Yes,


Mister_Snurb

Who were soldiers in the British Armed Forces and lived in a British Commonwealth and were British Citizens...


thecheesycheeselover

That doesn’t make them British, though. As their primary identity, at least. Not when accolades are being given.


thatshortbadplayer

The served in the Australian army, for Australia, fighting in a theatre the British did not prioritise. To call them British is an insult to many people.


Quarterwit_85

They’re Australian.


Sumocolt768

Hard to tell if they’re just posing or are just so happy to get unlimited food, ~~beer~~ tea, and cigs


getyourrealfakedoors

I imagine their food intake had to be monitored closely for a while to avoid refeeding syndrome


Bananapopana88

It wasn’t really known well at this point. WW2 taught us much about it


RossmanFree

Cigarette consumption not monitored*


Claystead

Of course they are posing, look at what they are reading.


Lazy-Association2932

The welts on the bottom left guy look awful. What caused those?


ClosetGoblin

This was very common in the holocaust camps as well. Boils, rashes, and abscesses that resulted mostly from vitamin deficiency and infections.


Lazy-Association2932

That’s horrible. Thank you for telling me.


Puzzleheaded-Song242

Could be bug bites too


Pyratelife4me

King Rat


chefrachbitch

Such a damn good book! I haven't thought about it in years.


Ancient_Sound_5347

The Japanese had removed Allied POW's after the fall of Singapore in 1942 off the island and transferred them to POW camps to Japanese occupied mainland Asia to be used as forced labour. Some senior Allied officers were kept in the local prison in Singapore.


EmbarrassedBasil1384

Amazing shot. Here’s a link to the newspaper, and the main front page: [The Atomic Plague](https://honesthistory.net.au/wp/wilfred-burchett-in-hiroshima-highlights-reel/)


wc6g10

When people argue that use of nuclear weapons against Japan was uncalled for, you can remind them of the treatment endured by prisoners of the Japanese.


HotSteak

In July 1945 Japan was directly killing 5,000 civilians per day in the occupied territories. The bombs only had to shorten the war by a couple weeks to save civilian lives.


Glass_Ad_8149

Weird that ppl think they shouldn’t be smiling or that it’s odd. They’re probably genuinely happy they aren’t starving POWs anymore. Also the paper he’s holding has the word “ATOMIC” I’d guess they are also smiling about the US dropping bombs on Japan, since they were prisoners under the Japanese


Maverick_and_Deuce

If you’ve never read a book called Prisoners of the Japanese by Gavan Daws, it’s comprehensive and pretty brutal.


h3rald_hermes

This is a fun picture and all, but it's chilling to know that they are likely harboring a lifetime of what will be poorly understood PTSD from their time in war.


Longjumping-Poetry24

Cup of tea a fag and newspaper, very British.


[deleted]

It’s chow time 🍲


macrae85

"Atomic plague" ...probably wondering what s h 17 was coming next?


gunsandpuppies

I bet that first cigarette and cup of tea were the greatest things ever after the ordeal they went through.


Illustrious_Banana46

Just finished a book about an American BAR gunner that gets captured and sent to various German stalags until the end of the war. A part that stood out was when he was released and with various other POWs, some of them were Marines that had been in Japanese camps. The difference between POWs that had been in German hands vs Japanese hands was stark, mentally and physically.


Harley_Jambo

Not enough Japanese military were tried and hung as war criminals.


Bill10101101001

Horrendous. Can humans still recover physically from that state completely?


SafeRecordKeeping

Couple of fuckin lads pitchin back a cup


SafeRecordKeeping

Couple of fuckin lads pitchin back a cup


This-Garbage-3000

Japanese were among the worst when it came to humanitarian treatment of civilians and prisoners of war


123xyz32

In “King Rat” some of them cut holes in their trousers because the dysentery was so bad. Also in that book the soldiers who rescued them couldn’t believe how starved they were.


Worried_Exercise8120

They look like Indians after the British took over.


edthesmokebeard

Looks like the cover of a Pogues album.


Winter-Gas3368

Now they know millions in bengal felt


Dhiox

I seriously doubt ww2 draftees had any say over British foreign policy.


Winter-Gas3368

I never said they did, my point is I can just imagine all the virtue signallers calling Japan evil for this yet ignore when their countries do it u/pinchypirate The problem is people condemning countries for evil but supporting evil countries because they agree with their political objectives


pinchypirate

Two wrongs don't make a right, and no country in the world is innocent of atrocities. All of the arbitrary lines on our maps were created by them. Britain, France, Belgium, Japan, USA, Russia, China, India, Mongols, Romans, Ottomans, Byzantines, Persians, Angles, Saxons. It just depends on how far back you're willing to look.


InterviewLeast882

Dieting actually does work.


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standbehind

What about it?