Surprising quality gun camera footage from japanese theatre.
 

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Interesting video, only the part where the fellow with the parachute is shot up is a bit......well it is like shooting people in a life boat.....but war then is nasty business.

Not to mention the footage at 1:20 where they attempt to down another pilot in his chute. They must have jumped at the opportunity to kill any pilots that they could... almost sorta upsetting. :(

Its allied guncam footage of US planes shooting at Japanese over Japan.

Presumably the fear was the pilots would simply return to fight again the next day if allowed to escape.

Here is some footage from the other side ... Rudel's tank buster Stuka squadron in Russia.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU6OK1zSxKg

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I was mislead that this was in fact Japanese footage.. Thanks for clearing that up. Still seems very inhumane.. but war is war.

Sorry do not agree on that, and yes I have done military service. Maybe I view it differantly, a foe who can fight is one thing a person who can not is another ball game.
With that attitude, if a family with children is between you and the target I guess it is ok to bump them off, though luck. Sorry some one else needs a reality check!
My last comment on that as this will only get out of hand.

But anyways back on topic.

I trust that Oleg has gone leaps and bounds beyond the smoke and fire that we have in IL-2. We have yet to see a finished product as we all know everything is still WIP. :-P Ill admit though that the quality of this video is pretty good considering how old it is.

Well, the OP's vid has gone, so:

I think that's a poor comparison, the family are presumably not combatants.

I think the best analogy to shooting a parachute, is shooting an enemy soldier who has dropped (or hasn't picked up) his gun. I guess the fate of such a soldier is probably usually dependent on whether there's time or resources to take prisoners.

It's interesting that one form of killing is generally more accepted than the other.

Well I think people have always differed on where the people able to defend themselves or not. You might remember a story about a U-boat that machine gunned survivors in a life boat, and that caused a fair amount of outcry.
That there where always some who thought first when the enemy is dead the danger is curbed, is also true, but in most cases people did frown apon those.
I personally would differ between rendering a enemy from continuing to fight and out right killing, a bit of a differance, even though in many cases it was the same.
Maybe I have a more humanitairen attitude?