Many of them committed suicide rather than be taken prisoner or surrender there are many articles and such on the war in the pacific theatre and almost all of them mention that. Although the ones with veterans interviews would be most helpful.
I've read -- and this may be pure anecdote -- that false claims about how the American forces were treating prisoners of war may have contributed to that.
I'm looking for historical examples of "flinching away," so I can illustrate the concept to others and talk about motivated cognition and leaving a line of retreat and so on.
The ideal example would be one of motivated skepticism with grave consequences. Like, a military commander who shied away from believing certain reports because they implied something huge and scary was about to happen, and then the huge and scary thing happened and caused great damage. Something like that.
What examples can you think of?