Baibars_1260
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Agree entirely and the similarities are significant .
The soldiers in the army of the Empire of Japan (EoJ) fought according to the Code of the Bushido. This Code or Rules of Engagement ( ROE) meant that in war enemy civilians were legitimate targets. It was recommended that civilians be targeted both with heavy weapons ( arial bombing and artillery), and above all by individual action by soldiers on the ground once the territory fell. Primarily Chinese (and to a lesser extent Korean) civilians were targeted during the EoJ conquests of Manchuria, Korea, and much of South East Asia. The attacks had a familiar pattern:
Phase 1. Heavy artillery bombardment ( or coastal naval shelling) and air strikes causing very high civilian casualties which put an immense strain on the defending forces providing relief to civilians.(Examples: Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Singapore)
Phase 2: Infantry and ground troops actions against the civilian population who had survived the bombardment but were unable to flee the area. Under the Bushido Code the EoJ troops were free to loot, rape and massacre, the surviving civilian population at will. There would be spectacular public massacres of civilians by beheading, bayoneting, and machine gunning (after the women were publicly raped) which was meticulously documented in photographs and cine films ( the "video" of the era) .
Similar to the EoJ India has now developed its own Code ( Dharam Yudh or the War of Righteousness), though this is not been implemented in full measure, largely because India has been unable to occupy any significant portion of enemy territory with the exception of Kashmir. The temporary occupation of East Pakistan was under an entirely different ideological regime in India in collaboration with a Muslim civil war belligerent so that campaign is not relevant.
Both in Kashmir and elsewhere in India, Muslims are the prime target. As discussed earlier the Pakistani civilians are viewed as "Muslims " only, and like their counterparts in Kashmir and India are legitimate targets for loot,rape, massacres. Like EoJ such actions are meticulously photographed and video recorded.
Differences between the EoJ actions against Chinese civilians and Indian actions against Pakistani civilians:
A scenario where Pakistan's resistance to aggression fails because a compliant or weak polical leadership is unwilling to use nuclear weapons is remotely possible.
In any future Pakistan India war, should Pakistan's front line defense
collapse , the civilian Pakistani population is likely to face a far more brutal treatment at the hands of India's forces than by comparison the Chinese did at the hands of EoJ forces.
The Japanese had no religious conflict with the Chinese and Korean populations ; most of which practiced a version of Buddhism very much like the Japanese themselves. The prime aim of the EoJ was imperial conquest, subjugation and submission of the population by breaking their will. The EoJs objectives were the natural resources and manpower of the territory conquered. Infact once the resistance was broken the population was to be preserved as slave labor.
In case Pakistani territory falls ( with heavy civilian losses) India's aim will be complete depopulation (of "Muslims" as they see it), and demographic change by repopulating from the huge population base in India which is 7 times the population of Pakistan.
The demographic change experiment is underway in Kashmir. By comparison Japan's population was small compared to the population of the vast territories captured.
India is well aware that it is not just Pakistan's armed forces that will resisting it. Unlike China, Manchuria and Singapore that the EoJ conquered before and during World War 2 the Pakistani population is reasonably well armed and even if the Pakistani defense collapses the people will likely fight on in a long drawn resistance against the occupation. India is banking on pouring in tens of millions of troops from its huge population base to crush the resistance.
But a resistance can also be broken by psychological terror instead of just force .
Which is why India's long history of breaking the will of resistance in Counter Insurgency Operations is relevant.
Women and children will be singled out for particularly brutal treatment . As can be seen in Kashmir blinding children and raping women is a standard anti-resistance procedure which has been partially successful.
Particularly significant is the call by politicians in India to "bring home fair skinned Kashmiri women for enjoyment " which terrified the Kashmiri population.
The instances of brutality is for now kept sporadic based on a "creep" to gauge world reaction ( the EoJ faced no such constraints). Once India's actions are internationally accepted the brutality will scale up to the next level, As can be seen in the case of Pakistani civilians dying from targeted Indian shelling the world accepts these atrocities with little condemnation.
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