I am watching The Great Raid now and they are liquidating POW's in Japanese concentration camps in the Philipines, using gasoline and placing them in air raid shelters that they dug the previous few days. Was this an accurate event that actually happened or Holywood coming into play? It seems that in order to perform that action Japan would have no shortage of fuel supply and certainly no hesitancy to do this. Does anyone know Japan's fuel stock toward the end of the war?

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Hence the saying: One may know how to conquer without being able to do it- Sun Tzu

Good question. I live in the Philippines and never thought to consider that angle on using fuel to kill prisoners and relate it with the fuel supply.

Off hand, I've never found any references on fuel being used to kill prisoners on any of the books I've read here. From the vets I've met, I've never come across one who spoke of fuel being used.

Mostly, it was torture, the brutally inhumane living conditions, lack of food, ill health that took the lives of the POWs. Though the Imperial Japanese Army had a bad record on handling POWs, almost everybody overlook the fact that a few months after the fall of Bataan, the Japanese did start releasing Filipino POWs because of the overcrowded conditions. Those that were released were soldiers who were gravely ill, a majority of whom died at their homes after being released. I think the number of those who died would be far greater if those who were released was included in the POW tally. The Japanese policy of releasing POWs was changed when the guerilla operations in the countryside grew.

I decided to call up a vet I know and asked him about your question.
Again, he doesn't recall seeing fuel used on prisoners. He said The Imperial Japanese troops usually use fire to raze entire towns in retaliation for guerilla activity.

I asked this question with my Dad and he essentially said the same thing. Bayonet, sword, shootings were the norm.

Of course, I understand that different conditions could exist in different POW camps. It's possible that fuel was indeed used in that particular POW camp and not in the other POW camps in the Philippines.

"Does anyone know Japan's fuel stock toward the end of the war?"

Probably depends upon whether we mean the home islands or possessions. The fuel shortage in the home islands was critical. At Okinawa, there was enough oil to send Yamato on a one-way sortie against allied forces, and enough gasoline for one-way missions of suicide aircraft, and not much more.
The fuel situation in parts of China and the Philippines might well have been otherwise.

JT

There is a book called "Ghost Soldiers" which the movie is based on. The book is about soldiers on the Bataan Death March, and the soldiers that came to rescue them. Alternating chapters follow the lives of men in each group. The opening scene depicts a gruesome scene.

The Japanese had made American POWS dig air raid trenches (that were covered with wood). One day, the air raid sirens go off so the POWS rush to their assigned trenches. But no bombers or planes could be heard. The Japs poured gasoline over the trenches and lit them up. POWS that tried to run were shot. However, one trench was near the edge of a cliff that had some sort of ravine in it running down to a beach. The Japs didn't know that the Trench connected to this. Several POWS managed to escape this way and tried to hide on the beach. I think that all but two were shot when a patrol came looking for them. The two that survived managed to make it out and this is how we know this story.

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I think it's time for me to get a copy of that book then watch that movie. Thanks for the info.

If you haven't already, give this site a read...

Massacres and Atrocities of WWII in the Pacific Region

I'm sure you'll find plenty to get "disturbed" about.

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"Danger Will Robinson!"

Mussolini, I saw that in the movie is that also the way the book describes the event?

Skunk works, the first one on that list (the rape of Nanking) was in my opinion the worst attrocity of World War Two in total. If you haven't already you should read the book Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang, only once mind you because of he absolute horrific descriptions in the book. When you read it, you're eyes will be open to the absolute lowest that mankind can sink to.

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Hence the saying: One may know how to conquer without being able to do it- Sun Tzu

I have the book, and as you say...read it once.
Another "1" read is Prisoners of the Japanese, by Gavan Daws.

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"Danger Will Robinson!"

The book was very heartbreaking, as was another book of PoWs of the Japanese, Give Us This Day by Sidney Stewart. Has several chapters on the Hell Ships and what befell th poor souls during those trips.

I've quit reading books about PoWs, I can't take the horror.

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Best Regards,
JW