Japanese war crimes in mainland Asia
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This page summarizes Japanese war crimes committed in mainland Asia by the Imperial Japanese Army, Imperial Japanese Navy, and the Japanese military police during World War II. During the course of war it had become evident that the Japanese mistreated prisoners. Fewer than 1 in 10 Allied Prisoners of War died in captivity in Germany; a full third died at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Forces. Many of these men died from disease, malnutrition, neglect and effects of climate. Others died as a result of Japanese brutality.
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[edit] Occupied regions
[edit] Burma
The most notable case is that of the River Kwai, in which 600 out of 2,000 prisoners died while being compelled to work on the construction of the Burma-Thailand railroad bridge.
[edit] China
Atrocities including the Nanking massacre and at Shanghai, led to the conviction of 800 Japanese for their actions.
[edit] Indochina
France put forward some accusations against Japanese military personnel and certain Japanese civilians. These related to comfort women coerced in Indochina; torture of French and Vietnamese prisoners by Kempeitai units, and execution of American airmen captured in Indochina, by Japanese Army regular personnel.
[edit] Indonesian region
The Dutch made accusations against Vice Admiral Michiaki Kamada, who had directed the execution of some 1,500 natives of Borneo, and against four other Japanese officers, for brutality and the murder of 2,000 Dutch prisoners on Flores Island. A separate case involved the death "through maltreatment" of 5,000 Indonesian forced laborers, 500 Allied prisoners and 1,000 Western and Indonesian civilians. In another case, Lieutenant, Junior Grade, William Francis "Bill" Goodwin and his copilot, aboard a PBY "Catalina" in Mission Over Kendari, Colobos Island, were shot down October, 1944. They were captured by indigenous pro-Japanese peoples and sent by Japanese authorities to detention camps in Kendari. Supposedly they were executed with Samurai swords. (See Katana.)
If these accusations are ture, then Japanese military leaders cleary ignored the rules regarding prisoners of war set forth in the Geneva Convention that, although not a signatory, Japan had agreed to follow.
[edit] Malaya
Kempeitai officers killed some Malayan citizens during the Japanese administration of this country.
[edit] Philippines
According to a former Imperial Navy medic named Akira Makino, Japanese soldiers had performed surgical training on Filipino nationals, especially on women and children before killing them.[1]
[edit] Other accusations
Australians accused the Japanese of cannibalism and mutilation of human bodies, among other crimes against humanity.
Soviet representatives on tribunals concentrated on the actual manufacture and employment of bacteriological weapons. The manufacture and the supposed use of such weapons in China during 1940-42 was found to be without any specific or supporting evidence.
