The atrocities committed by the Japanese military during World War II were so brutal that they are almost impossible to comprehend. In some ways, it would be best to forget this horrific history, but to do so would shame those who suffered and lost their lives. A look at Japan's worst crimes in World War II will also help us better understand the world today, especially since Korea and China are still hostile to Japan. In addition, it is important that we learn and remember the horrific crimes of our recent history so that we can ensure that they are never committed again.
WARNING: This list contains extremely disturbing content.
The Rape of Nanking
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The scale and barbarity of the Rape of Nanking defies explanation. The only thing it does is recite the facts.In 1937, at the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War (the Japan-China conflict that eventually became the Pacific arm of World War II), the Japanese invaded Nanjing, the capital of Nationalist China. The atrocities began in late 1937 and ended in early 1938. As many as 300,000 Chinese civilians lost their lives and as many as 80,000 Chinese women were forced into relationships with soldiers. It was the first of many similar massacres, although none on the same scale as the Nanking Massacre.
Comfort women
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During the Sino-Japanese conflict and World War II, the Japanese army forced up to 200,000 women into prostitution. Known as "comfort women", these women, mainly Korean, were sent throughout East Asia to work in brothels that catered to the Japanese military, with long opening hours and little time off for the women, meaning they endured forced relationships on a daily basis for years.In 2015, Japan's prime minister formally apologized and agreed to pay 1 billion yen to the 46 surviving comfort women. of the comfort women to pay 1 billion yen (about $9 million).
Railroad death
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During their occupation of Southeast Asian territories, the Japanese decided to build a railroad connecting Thailand and Myanmar. The railroad would run through incredibly dense jungle and would be built by hand, largely without the help of large industrial tools. The Japanese gathered 60,000 prisoners of war and 200,000 enslaved local laborers and forced them to work around the clock through monsoons and sweltering heat. Workers were left to eat rice, while the injured perished. Dangers include dengue fever, cholera, tropical ulcers and extreme vitamin B deficiency that causes paralysis.
Unit 731
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Unit 731 was Japan's most secretive military unit, responsible for medical and chemical weapons research against belief. Among other things, the unit field-tested so-called "plague bombs" by dropping disease-infected devices over cities to check whether they could cause outbreaks. They did, and as many as 3,000 Chinese civilians (and more) died from these diseases. At the infamous Japanese Hirafu base in China, doctors put people in pressure chambers to see how much pressure the human body could withstand before the explosion. They also infected civilians with diseases and then autopsied them to examine the effects of the disease. Other atrocities included putting prisoners of war outside to freeze until they died in order to study possible frostbite cures and amputating subjects' limbs to see how much blood was lost.
A race to kill 100 men with sabers
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Photo by Nobutoshi Sato/
On the way to Nanking, two Japanese officers entered each other in a friendly race: who would be the first to kill 100 sabers during the conflict? The path of bloodshed began on the roads as Japanese troops marched toward Nanking and continued until the entire city was destroyed. The contest was reported by a Japanese newspaper - here's a particularly chilling translation, "Noda: 'Hey, I've got 105. How about you?" Mukai: "I have 106!" ...... Both men laughed because they didn't know who had killed 100 first, and finally someone said, "So, since it's a tie game, what if we start over, this time with 150 kills?" "
Baatan Death March
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The atrocities in Baatan, Philippines, began in 1942 when the region surrendered to Japan. Unprepared for the large number of POWs, the Japanese ordered all 75,000 of them to march through the jungle, a march known as the Baatan Death March. Japanese soldiers, who saw the surrender as a sign of weakness, continued to beat their prisoners. Some fell behind due to lack of water, jungle heat or exhaustion. Scattered men were decapitated or simply died. An estimated 2,500 Filipinos and 500 Americans were killed in the march. Some 26,000 more Filipinos died of disease or starvation in prison camps.
Bonga Island Massacre
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After the Japanese takeover, and as the Allies evacuated Singapore, Japanese planes bombed the sea to sink as many fleeing transports as possible. One such ship was carrying 65 Australian nurses, 53 of whom managed to swim to the Japanese-controlled island of Bangka after the transport sank. Japanese soldiers rounded up as many people as possible, including wounded servicemen, Allied soldiers and some nurses. The Japanese then set up machine guns on the beach and ordered everyone into the shallows and cut them down. Only two survived the incident.
Sandakan Death March
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Photo: Harrison, John Thomas/Wiki***Helpful Sources/Public Domain
The Sandakan Death March is considered to be the worst military atrocity in Australia's history, and is little known outside of the country. It took place at the end of the Second World War, when the Japanese were fleeing the country. They abandoned the Sandakan POW camp in Borneo, forcing the soldiers interned there to travel with them through the jungle until they starved to death or became ill. Any soldiers who actually completed the entire trek were executed by the Japanese. Of the 2,700 internees at the Sandakan camp, only six survived.
CannibalismImportant evidence suggests that Japanese soldiers devoured the flesh of their enemies during World War II, most notably in several mutually corroborating eyewitness testimonies. The practice apparently took place throughout Southeast Asia, with both the dead and still-living Allied troops consuming the meat. Some accounts suggest that the Japanese even executed some Allied soldiers purely to harvest their food.
Enemy plane massacres
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Photo: US Air Force photo
The Japanese showed no mercy to captured pilots on Allied bombers. A particularly tragic incident was the beheading of Allied pilots by frantic Japanese soldiers on the day of Japan's surrender, and after hearing the Emperor announce Japan's surrender.
Laha airfield massacre
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Photo by SSGT RL Stewart
Over a period of about two weeks in February 1942, allegedly in retaliation for the destruction of Japanese minesweepers that had swept over Dutch mines, the Japanese executed more than 200 Dutch and Australians. Most of the soldiers were beheaded or bayoneted and buried in mass graves.
Alexandra Hospital Massacre
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In February 1942, the Japanese occupied Singapore. On the 14th of that month, Japanese soldiers arrived at the British-run Alexandra Hospital, entered the building and ravaged the building room by room, beating patients, doctors, nurses, orderlies and the military personnel who ran the hospital. They then took 100 men from the building, imprisoned them overnight in sweltering shacks behind the hospital and began executing them indiscriminately the next day.
Palawan Massacre
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Like all Japanese-run POW camps, the Palawan POW camp in the Philippines was a hellhole. According to survivors, the left arm of two American soldiers who took papayas from a tree to stave off starvation was broken by a metal pipe.On Dec. 14, 1944, the Japanese forced all 150 Americans in the camp into wooden buildings. They then set the buildings on fire. 30 to 40 men managed to escape the burning buildings. Some tried to escape by swimming into the nearby bay and were shot. Others tried to hide among the rocks next to the bay. Most of them were found and dispatched. Only 11 Americans survived that night - escaping the fire, the ensuing shooting and the people swimming in the bay. One survivor was bitten by a shark but managed to finish the swim.
Nauru Island Occupation
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From 1942 until the end of World War II, the Japanese occupied Nauru, a small equatorial island east of Papua New Guinea. During this time they committed a series of atrocities, including the execution of several Australian officers. At the time, Nauru was colonized by leprosy. The Japanese rounded up lepers, put them on ships and into the sea, then blew up the ships and killed everyone. They then displaced about 1200 Nauruans and moved them to another nearby island. Many of these displaced people starved to death or contracted diseases before the end of World War II, meaning that the Japanese essentially committed genocide against the Nauruans. Thus began Operation Sook Ching, which is Chinese for "thorough cleansing". In Japanese, it was called "Operation Dai Kencho" or "The Great Inspection". The operation resulted in the massacre of several groups of typically Chinese men, often with machine guns. The official Japanese toll for the operation was 5,000 casualties, although according to Japanese journalists in Singapore in 1942, it was around 50,000.
The Rape of Manila
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In 1945, as the Japanese fought to defeat the Japanese army, the military leadership ordered the Japanese to leave Manila, Philippines, and surrender to the Allies. The Japanese ignored this order and decided to move into the city, eliminating as many civilians as possible. They raped, bayoneted and beheaded Filipinos until the Allies killed every Japanese soldier in the city for refusing to surrender. As many as 100,000 Filipinos lost their lives.
The I-8 Submarine Massacre
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During World War II, the crew of the Japanese I-8 submarine committed two atrocities. First, they sank a Dutch freighter and took the crew hostage. They beat many of them with bayonets and swords until they perished, and then, when the submarine submerged, they tied the survivors to its hull. Only six survived. The crew of I-8 then sank an American freighter, again capturing more than 100 prisoners and beating them with hammers and swords. About 23 Americans survived the second attack.
PIG BASKET MASSACRE When the Allies handed East Java back to the Japanese, some soldiers fled to the mountains and formed a resistance. Eventually, military police captured the soldiers and forced them into 3-foot-long bamboo tubes used for transporting pigs, which were then transported to the coast in exposed trucks and streetcars through 100-degree-plus temperatures before being loaded onto ships. The boats then take the soldiers out to sea and dump the ones still in the piggy banks into shark-infested waters.
Port Blair Massacre
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Numerous atrocities took place during the Japanese occupation of the Andamanese (Andamanese), a pair of beautiful tropical islands off the Burmese coast in the Bay of Bengal. These included the Port Blair Execution. Japanese soldiers and Allied troops tortured senior Indian officers in the alliance. They then buried them in their chests before bayoneting their exposed heads and shoulders and shooting them until the officers were killed. Japanese officers also forced local women.
Invasion of Hong Kong
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Japan's invasion of Hong Kong, which began on December 18, 1941, is a little-known event in the history of the Pacific War, with orders to "take no prisoners". Anyone who tried to defend the island, including British medics, was taken to the outskirts of the city and dispatched with bayonets.