Looting nothing new in wars was Re: The sacking of Baghdad

[Steve Mynott]

Tim May wrote:

> When we smashed Germany and Japan, those nations didn't burn and loot 
> every major building, store, factory, etc. There may have been several 
> reasons for this. For example, we accepted the formal surrender of both 
> nations, leaving their "management" in place for at least the transition 
> period (more so in Japan than in Germany, for various reasons).

A quick google search seems to show that there *was* looting in both 
Germany and Japan as those countries collapsed much as you would expect 
in a power vacuum.

In the German case much of the looting and rape in Berlin (of around 
100,000 German women) was committed by invading Soviet troops in early 
May 1945.

There was German civilian looting in Frankfurt, at least, and probably 
everywhere.

"Battered in Allied advance on Berlin, Frankfurt, the third largest city 
in Germany, becomes a city in ruins - German civilians go on an orgy of 
looting, pillaging freight cards and coal yards"

<http://www.footagefinders.com/wwii(2).htm#Mass%20Arny%20maneuvers>

As for Japan:-

The diversion of military funds and supplies into private hands 
actually began the day before the emperors broadcast [of surrender] and 
unfolded in several distinct phases. It was later estimated that 
approximately 70% of all army and navy stocks in Japan were disbursed in 
this first frenzy of lootingand this for a force of some 5 million men 
at home, over 3 million overseas.

further

  He clears up the mystery, once and for all, about what happened to the 
untold billions of dollars worth of war materiel, supplies, and goods 
that vanished immediately after the surrender; it was stolen by Japanese 
men of position and privilege, as Dower calls them, with the help of 
Japanese authorities.

http://www.jetro.org/inside/io9910.html

-- Steve