• Madison420@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      That’s not what happened.

      Dude was parachuting and shot a pilot too close to him because the Japanese pilot shot down his bomber and attempted the war crime of attacking a pilot under chute.

      https://www.thearmorylife.com/when-a-1911-shot-down-a-japanese-zero/

      The Japanese Zero that hit Baggett circled back around for a closer look, intent on finishing him off if he wasn’t already dead. Thinking quickly, Baggett pulled his pistol from its holster, played dead, and hung limp in his parachute harness as the plane came toward him.

      As the Zero pilot neared Owen’s body, he opened the canopy over the cockpit to get a close look. At that moment, Baggett came to life, raised his 1911 semi-automatic pistol, and fired four rounds into the cockpit. One or more of Owen’s rounds hit home, as the Zero spun out and ended its assault against him.

        • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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          11 months ago

          Man if you think that’s the most unbelievable thing a Japanese soldier did between 1937 to 1945 you’re really not going to like hearing about Nanking and Unit 731.

            • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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              11 months ago

              It wasn’t uncommon to open your canopy to get a better view, I don’t know what to tell you besides watch some old dogfight interviews.

              The Soviets were practically infamous for always flying with them open. Not unreasonable to think a pilot that considered combat over might open his canopy.

              And, also, sucks to suck. War crime protections are agreements between nations on standards of behavior, and Imperial Japan violated them all, so even if it was:

              Good, fuck that fash.

        • Madison420@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          You know most deaths in WW1 of pilots were literally small arms, it’s not at all outlandish.

          You’re being obtuse.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      11 months ago

      A parachuting pilot is protected under the geneva convention.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacks_on_parachutists

      Such parachutists are considered hors de combat and it is made a war crime to attack them in an interstate armed conflict under Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

      • Protocol I was added in 1977. World War II ended in 1945.

      • While some of the Geneva Conventions – not the relevant ones – predated World War II, Japan was not a party to even those until after World War II.