16" versus 18"
 

A friend and I were talking about the battleships of WW2 and the Japanese using 18" guns versus the U.S. 16" and he sent me this photo Have no idea what is going on and thought someone here might know more of the story.

The Japanese I don't know. But the USS New Jersey you can find in Camden. :D

Must have been very interesting, everyone is really watching the activity.

The guy doesn't look Japanese, but the caption says;

Caption Men of battleship New Jersey humiliated a Japanese prisoner of war by forcing him to bath in public view, Dec 1944 ww2dbase
Photographer Charles Fenno Jacobs

http://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=3780

That would go over like a turd in a punch bowl nowadays... :rolleyes:

Yeah, the Japs were inclined to bayoneting and decapitation of POWs.

I don't see how that would "humiliate" him; communal bathing would be a cultural norm.

He was probably very happy to get a bath!