Has anyone read book of, or seen film, the railwayman?

cant beat the Bernard Cribbens version imo, Sally Thompsett and Jenny Aggutter superb!

Saw a documentary on it TB. He was dead by this time but his wife told his tale. Watch Whale Wars, the Japanese have never changed, a cruel nation.

The Knights of Bushido by Lord Russell is worth a read .

yes very good film

Deltâ  • July 11, 2014 5:34 PM BST
cant beat the Bernard Cribbens version imo, Sally Thompsett and Jenny Aggutter superb!

I agree Delta

I can't remember where the Japanese come in tbh

I think the Japanese were encouraged to think and act like this
They treated their own soldiers very brutally

Hopefully this is one value they will learn from us, there are rules, even in War

As for animal cruelty, sadly we have a long way to go on that one

They were taught never to surrender, it was considered a disgrace, why our prisoners
were treated inhumanely
but they treated the native population just as bad????????

funnily they have some good values, but they need to rid themselves of these bad ones

We are judging them by cultural values which are very different and finding them wanting of course as they did with us. Of course they were beastly but walk a mile in their shoes. Their culture was one of subservience of the individual to the collective and devotion to the Emperor. Outdated concepts of honour were incredibly important and informed many of the decisions they made. They couldn't understand why we would lay down arms and giv up. We were lower than low and treated accordingly.

read the book.  war does awful things to people. not just the japanese who have committed war atrocites but what they did was awful just the same.

war does awful things to people..yes it does, the longer it goes on, the more we lose our humanity
sadly we return to what we are

I agree eternal. Like a few I went through the judo/karate/kendo phase when I was younger where one sees
the code of Bushido, etc......it is not bad, honesty

They did not understand honourable surrender which we have. Once an army having fought its best, has no hope of victory,
soldiers can surrender honourably, if fighting on only increases their own casualties....we confused them over that.

The Japanese are a strange race, who became isolated, which makes them unique in some ways, they are worthy of study.

But their behaviour sadly did disgrace them at times in WWII, although they showed commendable courage,
I hope they have learnt from that.

They even had great trouble surrendering themselves, they knew they had lost, but could not bring themselves to surrender.
After the Atom bombs, their Emperor stepped in and overruled that, he ordered a surrender.

Also when they attacked Pearl Harbour without warning that was a dishonourable act
which is what annoyed the Americans so much

although is there any honour in war??

Because when we attacked Iraq, on the basis of a lie, I thought that was  a dishonourable act as well
aside from the terrible human tragedy we precipitated

with regard to torture, no nation is exempt from its barbarity, the americans still use torture today. Even when showing repeats of lucille ball.

Saw film last night, excellent if harrowing stuff.

The lesson was to forgive, which is something you do for yourself not the other person

nicole kidman imo has grown immensely in her acting.

paris - read the book - it's even better as is the norm with books over films, even tho they made a good attempt on this occasion.

I saw Railwayman.  It was ok, not great.
Dishonourable act - 334 USA aircraft firebombing Tokyo with incendiary bombs, 9th March 1945, about 100,000 civilians killed.

lomax wouldve agreed with that anyway.

Railwayman is a great book, dont know about the film but they usually change a few/loads of facts in the adaption process - braveheart, in the name of the father, pearl harbour - the list is endless, and that fcks me right off

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is another great story about the war in the Pacific, highly recommended if you havent come across it, also being made into a film by Angelina Jolie apparently and not sure how i feel about that!

Not me -