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sofixa 5 days ago

Yep, commanders are responsible for the actions undertaken by their troops.

It's called Command responsibility or sometimes the Yamashita principle/doctrine, after a Japanese general who was executed for horrific crimes committed by troops not even under his command, but in his area of responsibility (they were naval troops in the Philippines, he was commander of the Philippines, the navy and the army hated each other; he pulled out of Manilla in order to wage war in favourable terrain, the naval infantry commander refused to follow him and fought a brutal urban battle that destroyed the city, and on purpose killed more than a hundred thousand civilians).

sku11gat 5 days ago | parent [-]

Some Japanese officers take responsibility very seriously.

>Hitoshi Imamura was a Japanese general who served in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, and was subsequently convicted of war crimes. Finding his punishment to be too light, Imamura built a replica of his prison in his garden and confined himself there until his death.

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

sofixa 4 days ago | parent [-]

Most just ordered horrific atrocities, their men to die, and then killed themselves.