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Axel,
Covering up for war crimes isn't anything out of the ordinary for any country. Let's look at what the Japanese did after committing the Rape of Nanking in December of 1937. They killed and massacred between 270,000 and 350,000 civilians (men, women, children, and the elderly) in about a six or seven week terror spree. Mass rapes and indescriminate shootings, beheadings and bayonettings of the Chinese inhabitants were the order of the day. There was photographic evidence made of these atrocities made and smuggled out of Nanking, and the photos were taken by the Japanese Army itself! Duplicates were made of the film, and these were the pictures secreted away and ferretted out of the city and around the country of China for 9 years. Journals were kept by the foreign missionaries who ran the Safety Zone for the Chinese people. Rabe, a prominent Nazi in Nanking helped to save some of the inhabitants also kept a journal, and made diplomatic reports to Berlin. A reporter from the New York Times, one from a Chicago Daily News, and another from the Associated Press (Frank Tillman Durden, Archibald Steele, and C. Yates McDaniel respectively) All wrote press releases of what they were witness to before they left. The Japanese booted out all of the foreign newsreel men from Nanking, and even went so far as to impede the returning of any foreign diplomats to cover up their actions before the outside world would get wind of what was done there. The Japs also started a massive propaganda campaign to show the world how beneficent they were being to the Chinese populace. A lot of this was all directed under a Top Secret plan that was issued by the Imperial Japanese High Command. The Nazi's tried to cover up all of their crimes by mass executions and the movement of Jews from one camp to miles behind their lines during the last days. So it would really no big task for a Sub commander to falsify his log to have all the appearances of a "legitimate" sinking. You have to remember that when the side committing the Official massacres and genocide loses, they become like rats on a sinking ship, each one determined to save his own skin. They also know that if the truth comes out about their crimes, it will go very hard on them. Unfortunately it is usually the really big fish that get away, and the small fry are left to take the rap. So in that instance, you could understand why a sub skipper would "doctor" his ship's log.
VBR,
Jim
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