editorial on Ethiopian castration of Italian prisoners of war

[ballcollar (imported)]

World War: Receive Kindly and Protect

(from Time Magazine, April 7, 1941)

Last week Haile Selassie, who began to think he might soon again be Negus (Emperor of Ethiopia) in fact as well as name, set up field headquarters at Burie, 150 miles from Addis Ababa. Next day he issued a proclamation to his native troops which was a bald-faced misrepresentation even if issued for laudable ends.

"I charge you solemnly to receive kindly and protect those Italians who may surrender to you without arms and not to retaliate with the cruelty that they inflicted upon our people, but to show yourselves to be honorable, humane soldiers.

"Do not forget that when the valiant Ethiopians made the Italians prisoners in the Battle of Aduwa [1896] they handed them over to the Emperor without doing them any harm, thus earning for Ethiopia honor and a good name."

The "harm" to which the Negus referred was castration. For centuries the Ethiops have taken unmanning for granted: 1) to supply eunuchs for the harem trade; 2) as punishment for criminals; 3) as an expression of triumph over a slain enemy. After emasculation, the natives often made trophies of the virilities. Contrary to the Negus' claim, there were numerous castrations at Aduwa. Says one authority: "In an attempt to minimize the savagery of the victorious army, it is claimed that only 30 white prisoners were castrated. The truth is that only 30 survived and returned to Rome; innumerable others were reckoned among those killed in action; a few . . . lived but to have preferred, in shame, to remain in Africa."

The Italians also showed the League of Nations gruesome photographs to prove that castration was practiced by Haile Selassie's troops in the Ethiopian war five years ago. On the other hand, the Italians themselves were not simon-pure: the cruelties of the troops of Rodolfo Graziani, whose colonial career last week ended in military unmanning, are famous.

Best guess: the British had heard that atavistic instincts had again got the best of many an Ethiop patriot. So Haile Selassie was asked to try to stop it. For if the conquest of Ethiopia were accompanied by numerous atrocities, victory would turn into a moral defeat.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... z1NaoZzENN

[Sweetpickle (imported)]

I had wondered for years if "unmanned" wasn't an old euphemism for castrated. I have seen it used in connection with American Indian

warfare.

[XtheUndead (imported)]

"Unmanned" generally refers to complete removal of the package, not just the testicles.

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

I had heard that the Japanese castrated many if not all the P.O.W.'s they had. Given that people were so so squeamish about this subject and not likely to discuss it, I can believe that castrations did occur. Especially when one looks at the numerous other brutalities and war crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial forces, I think it is plausable that they could very well have castrated P.O.W.'s and even after the war, the surviving P.O.W.'s would have felt too much shame to openly accuse the criminals.

Anyone else heard tales or rumors along this line?

[SplitDik (imported)]

I had heard that the Japanese castrated many if not all the P.O.W.'s they had. Given that people were so so squeamish about this subject and not likely to discuss it, I can believe that castrations did occur. Especially when one looks at the numerous other brutalities and war crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial forces, I think it is plausable that they could very well have castrated P.O.W.'s and even after the war, the surviving P.O.W.'s would have felt too much shame to openly accuse the criminals.

Anyone else heard tales or rumors along this line?

While I'm sure there was a lot of genital torture in prison camps, I don't that a high percentage of survivors were castrated. Despite it being an embarassing subject, there would still be a lot of medical literature or declassified military reports. It would have been important at the time to document the torture, as they were preparing war crime trials and such.

One thing I've always found weird is that many torturers don't focus on the genitals. It seems really logical to me, but in many cases they seem to focus on other areas. I guess people that get off on torturing have sexualized the entire concept of torture and don't need it to be overtly sexual. But if I was interrogating someone, I think I'd go straight to a vice on the testicles -- pretty simple and about the most pain you can inflict without doing obvious torture (i.e. blinding, amputating fingers, breaking bones).

[halfwaySD (imported)]

I have a masters in History and my area of expertise is WWII Pacific. Being a former Marine myself, it was an area of history I felt very drawn towards. I have read many, meaning 50 to 100, accounts of Marines looking to recover the body of their dead buddy and when they find the body, they see the Marine was tortured, castrated, cock and balls, and usually the genitals were forced into the Marines own mouth while he was tortured more and finally killed. This was done mostly to have a terrible psychological effect on the Marines who recovered the body, and to make the Marines fear capture since they knew what would happen to them.

[moi621 (imported)]

No Mistresses.

No accepted brothels.

No cyber relationships.

Now it is unacceptable to castrate one's prisoners of war, as a traditional regional custom.

When is the PC crowd of the left going get out of genitally related stuff.

Moi

Am I the only true freedom lover on Board?

BTW Military History magazine had an article about Japanese treatment of POW's. In the Russo-Japanese War as thoroughly trashed Czar Nicky2's forces in all but the most inland battles, Japan felt deceived by Teddy's Nobel Prize winning Peace. Japan had treated Russian POW's exceptionally well and won by any military standards. This experience aided their decision to treat POW's more Japanese style then western style as the west would never accept Asian nations as equals per their experience.

[SplitDik (imported)]

I have a masters in History and my area of expertise is WWII Pacific. Being a former Marine myself, it was an area of history I felt very drawn towards. I have read many, meaning 50 to 100, accounts of Marines looking to recover the body of their dead buddy and when they find the body, they see the Marine was tortured, castrated, cock and balls, and usually the genitals were forced into the Marines own mouth while he was tortured more and finally killed. This was done mostly to have a terrible psychological effect on the Marines who recovered the body, and to make the Marines fear capture since they knew what would happen to them.

Sure but those are the one they killed, often in battle. They were also dead. The question is whether POWs who survived were actually castrated as a standard practice. Like were there 50,000 or so eunuchs that returned to US?

All that I've read about Japanese POW camps mention a lot of brutal conditions, especially starvation, things like having maggots in festering wounds, beatings, but I haven't heard much about castration of those that weren't otherwise being killed.

I can see why there would be some hesitancy to publicize this sort of thing, but I also think there would be medical and war atrocity records that would have noted if this was common.

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

Sure but those are the one they killed, often in battle. They were also dead.....

I can see why there would be some hesitancy to publicize this sort of thing, but I also think there would be medical and war atrocity records that would have noted if this was common.

You may be right, but I think you may be incorrectly assuming that something of such great magnatude like that would actually surface and become known within a relevant time frame. I note that at the time of many other great events, disasters and atrocities, nobody even spoke of it in the public media. For example, ask people around you who was General Shiro Ishi and what was Unit 731? Who was John Rabe? Some people know about them, most don't and the sad fact is that only recently are any of the facts surfacing, in a time when most people don't care about this history. More recent examples, are the massive killings that took place in Rawanda, while the world media obsessed over relatively small numbers of murders in the former Yugoslavia, more people died in one day in Rawanda than the whole decade in the Balkan theater, yet at the time it was happening... nobody knew or cared.

So far, I have heard only the stories of some people who are so old that their recolections might not be that accurate, but then again, there was clearly no limit to the cruelty the Japanese showed, and their strong hatred for non-Japanese, and especially tall white men, leads me to believe that it is entirely possible, even probable.

[Sweetpickle (imported)]

I agree with Split, I used to buy up old medical texts (as a form of porn) and the WWII era stuff had lots of information on treating wounds and diseases but no special emphasis on genital wounds.

I expect mutilation of bodies as a form of terror was more in style. I think the US has gone through periods of collecting ears.