Japanese war crimes in the Pacific
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This page lists documented cases of war crimes, and other criminal acts, committed in the Pacific during the Pacific War, specifically by the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy, especially by the military police (Kempeitai). American prisoners held by Imperial Japan died at a rate exceeding 37% compared to the 2% rate in Nazi Germany.
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[edit] "Medical experiments" at Chuuk (1944)
In the Caroline Islands (under the South Pacific Mandate) Japanese seamen committed a number of criminal acts; among these acts were "medical experiments" on American prisoners. For example, American prisoners were injected with Streptococcus bacteria, while others received tourniquets on their arms and legs for seven hours to evaluate their resistance. When these were removed, two prisoners died from shock.
[edit] Murder of Pan Am personnel on Wake Island (1943)
Before the capture of Wake Island, Japanese Navy personnel took revenge on American civilian prisoners, executing 98 Pan American World Airways contract workers.
[edit] Killing of islanders on Palau
In Palau, also under the South Pacific Mandate, Japanese forces shot any suspected spies.
[edit] Americans downed pilots during the Battle of Midway
Of 51 U.S. Army Air Force pilots who participated in the decisive Battle of Midway, 18 failed to return. Forty-one American torpedo planes were sent, of which 37 did not return; other losses made up 80 American planes lost in battle.
Known cases include Ensign Wesley Osmus of Chicago, assigned to the CV Yorktown, and Ensign Frank O'Flaherty, assigned to the CV Enterprise. They were captured by the Japanese Navy during the battle, and retained in the destroyers Arashi and Nagara, respectively. The prisoners were intensely interrogated; days later, the first American prisoner was murdered with an axe and thrown into the sea and the other was shot and thrown into sea. The surviving perpetrators were not arraigned.
[edit] The "Hell Ships or Death Vessels" Crimes
Prisoners-of-war were transported to prisoner camps in vessels, which due to their appalling conditions, were dubbed "hell ships" or "death vessels" by the survivors. Notable is the case of the Oryoko Maru, aboard which some 1,300 prisoners died en route from Philippines to Japan in 1944. Most of these ships were sunk.
[edit] Dutch Indies
In New Guineas, one Japanese Navy officer ordered the execution of an Australian prisoner. The prisoner petitioned for his life but the officer refused to relent. In Rabaul (the greatest Japanese fortress in the war), Japanese ordered 1,000 American and British prisoners to walk over 165 miles on bad terrain; only 183 survived the march. In Sulawesi, a Japanese officer ordered the crucifixion of four airmen (included one American); and on Amboina island, other Japanese military personnel inflicted cruel treatment on American, Dutch and British prisoners.
[edit] Bataan Death March
[edit] Bibliography
- -Review World War II
- -Editions:
- September 1996
- November 2000
- January 2001
- Conmemorative Special 60° Anniversary Edition of Midway Battle.
- -Editors:Primedia Editions
- (ISSN 0898-4204),Primedia Editions Entusiast Group,a PRIMEDIA Company.
