Odds are if a fighter is close enough for a pistol then the fighters were committing war crimes by shooting parachuting aviators. The Japanese were known for shooting down parachutes.
What I’ve learned about “war crimes” is that it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you don’t lose. And if you win you get to punish the loser for their war crimes and pretend like you didn’t commit any.
They’re moving pretty quickly relative to you. By the time they realize you’ve shot at them, they’ll be hundreds of meters away. If they then decide to turn around (since they have to be facing you to shoot you) and come for another run at you…honestly they were probably going to do it anyway.
Shooting at a fighter aircraft while in a parachute seems like a very bad idea to me, you’re in trouble if the pilot shoots back.
Odds are if a fighter is close enough for a pistol then the fighters were committing war crimes by shooting parachuting aviators. The Japanese were known for shooting down parachutes.
It wasn’t a war crime back then, of course.
What I’ve learned about “war crimes” is that it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you don’t lose. And if you win you get to punish the loser for their war crimes and pretend like you didn’t commit any.
Japan lost and they still deny the horrible, Holocaust-tier atrocities they committed during WW2
They didn’t lose hard enough
IDK, they unconditionally surrendered. That pretty much never happens.
And yet we didn’t execute any of the people responsible.
“History get written by the victors”
A statement routinely banned in serious historical communities because of the mountains of evidence against it
It was the guy in the parachute who was shooting back. The Japanese were known for shooting down ejected pilots.
They’re moving pretty quickly relative to you. By the time they realize you’ve shot at them, they’ll be hundreds of meters away. If they then decide to turn around (since they have to be facing you to shoot you) and come for another run at you…honestly they were probably going to do it anyway.
Iirc he shot at the Japanese pilot because he was shooting pilots who had already bailed which is an unwritten rule of fighter combat.