Japanese Military Atrocities Before WWII

Do you know everything that happened before Japan became peaceful? In this article, we will look at the atrocities committed by Japanese military forces before or during World War II. Some things are so brutal that it is almost impossible to comprehend them.

Within Japan itself, the population has always lived in an endless millennial war. The country is famous for its long history of Samurai warfare, but little is said about the international events between World War I and World War II.

Despite the atrocities committed by some military personnel, do not become one of them by facing the cases in this article with racial hatred. After all, Japan is currently one of the most peaceful nations in the world. No matter how much Japan and many try to forget or ignore, it is important to remember the horrible crimes in our history to ensure that they never happen again.

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Table of Contents

The Nanjing Massacre

The Nanjing Massacre was an episode of murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing, the capital of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). The massacre claimed the lives of over 300,000 Chinese.

During the capture of the city, some soldiers competed to see who could kill more people. Many Chinese women were abducted and used as sex slaves. About 80,000 Chinese women were raped during the occupation.

Initially, the women were killed immediately after being raped. They were often killed through explicit mutilations. Young children were not exempt from these atrocities and were also captured to be raped.

These atrocities lasted more than 2 months and decreased with the order (December 1937). The generals and some soldiers responsible for the attack were tried and sentenced to death by the Japanese tribunal itself after World War II.

To learn more, also read: Why did Japan attack the Americans at Pearl Harbor?

Comfort Women

In addition to what happened in Nanjing, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, it is believed that the Japanese forced over 200,000 women into sexual relations. They were called comfort women, most of whom were Korean.

They were sent throughout East Asia to work in brothels catering to the Japanese armed forces. The brothels operated long hours, and the women rarely received time off, maintaining forced relations repeatedly every day for years.

In 2015, the Prime Minister of Japan officially apologized for the practice and agreed to pay a sum of 1 billion yen, or about 9 million dollars to the 46 surviving comfort women.

Unit 731

Unit 731 (Nana-san-ichi Butai) was the unit where the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army was located in the Pingfang district of the former puppet state of Manchukuo, northeast China.

The site was a facade to hide human experiments on civilians and prisoners of war, including Chinese, Russian, Mongolian, Korean, and even Allied prisoners. Common criminals, captured enemies, and anti-Japanese partisans were also used.

Among the experiments of Unit 731, prisoners were infected with venereal diseases for study in the human body. Some were subjected to vivisection without anesthesia to study the effects of diseases on organs. Others were raped by guards.

Some prisoners were subjected to cold temperature tests to study the effects of freezing cold. Others were targets of tests with firearms such as grenades and flamethrowers and biological weapons. Others were left without water and food.

Also read: Unit 731 – Japan’s Dark Side

Death by Railway

During the occupation of Southeast Asian territories, the Japanese decided to build a railway connecting Thailand and Burma. The railway would cross an incredibly dense jungle and would be built largely by hand.

The Japanese gathered 60,000 prisoners of war and 200,000 enslaved local workers and forced them to work day and night through monsoons and suffocating heat. The workers were given only rice to eat.

The injured and sick were left to die. The dangers included dengue, cholera, tropical ulcers, and a severe vitamin B deficiency that led many to paralysis.

The Bataan Death March

The atrocities in Bataan, Philippines, began in 1942 when the region surrendered to Japan. The Japanese, unprepared for the large number of prisoners of war, ordered all 75,000 of them to march through the jungle.

This march became known as the Bataan Death March. The Japanese soldiers, who saw surrender as a sign of weakness, relentlessly beat the captives. Some fell behind due to lack of water, the heat of the jungle, or exhaustion.

The stragglers were decapitated or simply left to perish. It is estimated that 2,500 Filipinos and 500 Americans perished during the march. About 26,000 Filipinos succumbed to disease or starvation in the prisoner camp.

The Bangka Island Massacre

As Allied forces abandoned Singapore after the Japanese took control, Japanese planes bombed the sea in an effort to sink as many fleeing transport ships as possible.

One of these ships had 65 Australian nurses, 53 of whom managed to swim to the small Bangka Island, controlled by the Japanese, after the transport sank.

The Japanese soldiers gathered as many people as possible, including wounded military personnel, Allied soldiers, and some of the nurses. The Japanese then set up a machine gun on the beach, ordered everyone into the shallow waters, and mowed them down. Only two survived the incident.

The Sandakan Death March

Considered the worst military atrocity in Australia’s history, the Sandakan Death March is little known outside of that country. The incident occurred at the end of World War II when the Japanese were retreating.

They abandoned the Sandakan prisoner of war camp in Borneo, forcing the soldiers interned there to march through the jungle to Ranau with them until they perished from hunger or disease. More than 2,345 Australian prisoners of war died.

The lack of food affected even the Japanese; some committed suicide and resorted to cannibalism. Such things did not happen only in Australia, but in various places during the war. Some prisoners and allies were even eaten alive.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor

On December 7, 1941, in the early morning, the Japanese bombed the American base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. It was a bloody and violent event that killed over 2,000 Americans, injured many people, and destroyed many vessels.

Many of the dead were only 17 and 18 years old; some were firefighters and family members. The attack occurred because the U.S. intervened and froze all Japanese assets in the U.S. and embargoed oil imports, stripping Japan of its power.

We know that Pearl Harbor made Americans very angry with the Japanese, thus destroying two populated cities in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with a nuclear bomb. The attack was also a surprise and killed 100 times more innocent people.

Attacks on American cities: In addition to Pearl Harbor, Japan also conducted air raids on other American cities, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. These attacks resulted in few casualties but caused panic among the American population.

The I-8 Submarine Massacre

The crew of the Japanese submarine I-8 committed a pair of atrocities during World War II. First, they sank a Dutch freighter and took the crew hostage.

They stabbed many of them with bayonets and swords until they died, then tied the survivors to the hull of the submarine, which sank to the bottom of the sea. Only six people survived.

The crew of the I-8 sank an American freighter, again taking over 100 prisoners, and attacked them with hammers and blades. About 23 Americans survived this second attack.

The Battle of Manila

In 1945 in Manila, Philippines, the Japanese army was ordered to retreat by military leaders. Ignoring this order, the Japanese stationed in the city decided to destroy it, killing as many civilians as possible.

They raped, shot, mutilated, and decapitated Filipinos until the Allies killed all of the more than 16,000 Japanese soldiers in the city as a result of their refusal to surrender. About 100,000 Filipinos died.

Remembered today as a national tragedy, the Battle of Manila cost Filipinos, in addition to thousands of human lives, the destruction of countless and irreparable historical treasures, colleges, churches, convents, universities, and historical monasteries.

Operation Sook Ching

After taking control of Singapore in February 1942, the Japanese decided to eradicate any Chinese in the city who could oppose Japanese rule, including military personnel, leftists, communists, and those with weapons.

Thus began the Sook Ching Operation. In Japanese, the name was Operation Dai Kensho, or “great inspection.” The operation resulted in several massacres, typically by machine gun, of groups of ethnically Chinese men.

The official Japanese number for the operation was 5,000 casualties, although according to a Japanese reporter in Singapore, the number was around 50,000.

The Occupation of Nauru

The Japanese occupied Nauru, a small equatorial island east of Papua New Guinea, from 1942 until the end of World War II. During this period, they committed a series of atrocities, including the execution of several Australian officials.

At the time, Nauru was home to a leper colony. The Japanese gathered the lepers, put them on boats, took them out to sea, and then blew up the boats with everyone on board. They also displaced about 1,200 native Nauruans to other islands.

Many of these displaced people died of starvation or disease before the end of World War II, meaning that the Japanese essentially committed genocide against the Nauruan people.

The Palawan Massacre

The Palawan prisoner of war camp in the Philippines was a hellish place. According to survivor accounts, two American soldiers had their left arms broken with a pipe just for eating a papaya to avoid starving to death.

On December 14, 1944, the Japanese forced all 150 Americans in the camp to enter wooden buildings. They then set the buildings on fire; only 40 men managed to escape from the burning buildings.

Some tried to escape by swimming in a nearby bay and were shot. Others tried to hide among the rocks near the bay but were found and killed. In the end, 11 Americans survived that night.

Other attacks and war crimes by the Japanese

The invasion of Hong Kong – In December 1941 during the Pacific War, Japan invaded Hong Kong with orders not to take prisoners. Anyone found defending the island, including British doctors, was killed with a bayonet.

Massacres in Port Blair – The Japanese committed numerous atrocities in the Bay of Bengal. Japanese soldiers tortured high-ranking Indian officials allied with the Allied forces.

The Pig Basket Massacre – When East Java surrendered to the Japanese, some soldiers fled to the hills. The captured soldiers were forced into bamboo boxes made for transporting pigs. They were transported in trucks exposed to 100-degree heat, taken to boats, and thrown into shark-infested waters.

The Alexandra Hospital Massacre – Japanese soldiers entered the Alexandra Hospital managed by the British, going from room to room indiscriminately beating patients, doctors, and nurses. 100 men were locked in suffocating sheds and killed the next day.

Laha Airport Massacre – The Japanese executed over 200 Dutch and Australians near the Laha airfield on Ambon Island. Most of the soldiers were decapitated or killed with a bayonet and buried in mass graves.

The Enemy Aviators Massacre – Even after the emperor’s decree and Japan’s surrender at the end of the war, some frantic Japanese soldiers decapitated some captured aviators.

Attacks on Chinese cities – In addition to the famous Nanjing attack, other Chinese cities also suffered attacks from the Japanese, such as Wuhan and Shanghai.

Attack on minorities – Japan has also been accused of committing genocide against other ethnic minorities, such as the Ainu, an indigenous tribe of Japan, and Koreans.

What is Japan’s punishment for these crimes?

After World War II, Japan was subjected to a trial for the crimes committed during the war by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE). This tribunal was created by the Allies to judge Japanese military and political leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the war.

As a result of the trial, many Japanese military and political leaders were sentenced to death or long prison terms. Some examples include General Hideki Tojo and General Tomoyuki Yamashita, both sentenced to death for war crimes.

In addition to the IMTFE trial, Japan was also required to pay reparations for the damages caused during the war to other countries, including China and the Pacific island nations. Japan was also required to disarm and renounce its territorial conquests.

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Japanese crimes committed in World War II