Chinese troops then and western troops in Asian theaters?
Barbarism in the multitude of conflicts leading up to and including WWII were the exception rather than the rule for some reason.
I think it’s easy to look at ww2 or even ww1 and go “here is the absolute worst level of barbaric behavior.” I don’t particularly see it that way I don’t think that level of violence went away. It’s just more localized, or not talked about as much. When your hear the reports of what the PMCs are doing in the Middle East and Africa it sounds a lot like the pre WW2 events in Africa.
I think the Middle East is the new “Balkans” and I hesitate to say one period had more violence than another. A higher number of casualties sure, but an Afghan military base was hit a few days ago for dozens or I think hundreds of casualties.
That’s not so much a function of Chinese troops as it is a function the codes of behaviour and viciousness developed to cope with conditions on the ground. The ideological heirs of the Warlord Period are still running businesses and Party Offices in China today.
In WW2?
Not really.
I think the barbarism just tended to be of a different nature, and less well-reported, simply because you didn’t have film crews running around the battlefields. In conflicts where belligerents were encouraged to dehumanise each other (the Thirty Years’ War remains the best example of this in the early-modern world), “barbarism” wasn’t the exception, but often SOP.
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I guess the difference I see is that it was systematic. It was part of the plan from the highest levels of government and carried out with enthusiasm by the lowest ranking soldiers. In prior conflicts this type of behavior was collateral to the conflict rather than the objective.
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The leaders (Tilly is but one example) made barbarity and cruelty during the 30 years war official policy and it wasn’t just propaganda from the other side - many reports of what we’d call war crimes today were made by the soldiers of both sides - and these were acts done not only to combatants but civilians and those caught up in the movements and battles.
Germany took several centuries to recover from the deprivations that was done on its soil during the religious wars and it wasn’t until 19th century that some of these regions recovered economically as well as societal.
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The Thirty Years War would make it interesting setting are there so many flavors of size and perspectives and just the closest thing to a mini world war in Europe.
It’s a bit hard to reconcile that with the sort of rhetoric that guys like Gustavus Adolphus threw around during the course of the conflict itself.
Currently reading Livius and couldn’t agree more, he talks about war for the sake of revenge on the enemies population or for plunder. Even in the earlier days of history you had similar activities during wartime.
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