We all remember what horrors Hitler and the entire Third Reich committed, but few take into account that the German fascists had sworn allies, the Japanese. And believe me, their executions, torments and tortures were no less humane than the German ones. They mocked people not even for any gain or benefit, but simply for fun...
Cannibalism
In that terrible fact very difficult to believe, but there is a lot of written evidence and evidence about its existence. It turns out that the soldiers who guarded the prisoners often went hungry, there was not enough food for everyone and they were forced to eat the corpses of prisoners. But there are also facts that the military cut off body parts for food not only from the dead, but also from the living.
Experiments on pregnant women
“Unit 731” is especially famous for its terrible abuse. The military was specifically allowed to rape captive women so that they could become pregnant, and then carried out various frauds on them. They were specially infected with sexually transmitted, infectious and other diseases in order to analyze how the female body and the fetus would behave. Sometimes on early stages women were “cut open” on the operating table without any anesthesia and the premature baby was removed to see how it copes with infections. Naturally, both women and children died...
Brutal torture
There are many known cases where the Japanese tortured prisoners not for the sake of obtaining information, but for the sake of cruel entertainment. In one case, a captured wounded to the Marine They cut off the genitals and, putting them in the soldier’s mouth, released him to his own. This senseless cruelty of the Japanese shocked their opponents more than once.
Sadistic curiosity
During the war, Japanese military doctors not only carried out sadistic experiments on prisoners, but often did this without any, even pseudoscientific, purpose, but out of pure curiosity. This is exactly what the centrifuge experiments were like. The Japanese were wondering what would happen to human body, if it is rotated for hours in a centrifuge with enormous speed. Tens and hundreds of prisoners became victims of these experiments: people died from bleeding, and sometimes their bodies were simply torn apart.
Amputations
The Japanese abused not only prisoners of war, but also civilians and even their own citizens suspected of spying. A popular punishment for spying was cutting off some part of the body - most often a leg, fingers or ears. The amputation was carried out without anesthesia, but at the same time they carefully ensured that the punished survived - and suffered for the rest of his days.
Drowning
Immersing an interrogated person in water until he begins to choke is a well-known torture. But the Japanese moved on. They simply poured streams of water into the prisoner's mouth and nostrils, which went straight into his lungs. If the prisoner resisted for a long time, he simply choked - with this method of torture, literally minutes counted.
Fire and Ice
Experiments on freezing people were widely practiced in the Japanese army. The limbs of prisoners were frozen until solid state, and then skin and muscle were cut from living people without anesthesia to study the effects of cold on tissue. The effects of burns were studied in the same way: people were burned alive with burning torches, skin and muscles on their arms and legs, carefully observing tissue changes.
Radiation
Still in the same notorious unit 731, Chinese prisoners were driven into special cells and subjected to the most powerful x-ray radiation, observing what changes subsequently occurred in their body. Such procedures were repeated several times until the person died.
Buried alive
One of the most brutal punishments for American prisoners of war for mutiny and disobedience was burial alive. The person was placed upright in a hole and covered with a pile of earth or stones, leaving him to suffocate. The corpses of those punished in such a cruel way were discovered more than once by Allied troops.
Decapitation
Beheading an enemy was a common execution in the Middle Ages. But in Japan this custom survived until the twentieth century and was applied to prisoners during the Second World War. But the most terrible thing was that not all executioners were skilled in their craft. Often the soldier did not complete the blow with his sword, or even hit the executed man on the shoulder with his sword. This only prolonged the torment of the victim, whom the executioner stabbed with a sword until he achieved his goal.
Death in the waves
This one is pretty typical ancient japan This type of execution was also used during World War II. The executed person was tied to a pole dug in the high tide zone. The waves slowly rose until the person began to choke, and finally, after much suffering, drowned completely.
The most painful execution
Bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world; it can grow 10-15 centimeters per day. The Japanese have long used this property for ancient and terrible execution. The man was chained with his back to the ground, from which fresh bamboo shoots sprouted. For several days, the plants tore apart the sufferer’s body, dooming him to terrible torment. It would seem that this horror should have remained in history, but no: it is known for certain that the Japanese used this execution for prisoners during the Second World War.
Welded from the inside
Another section of experiments carried out in part 731 was experiments with electricity. Japanese doctors shocked prisoners by attaching electrodes to the head or torso, immediately giving a large voltage or for a long time exposing the unfortunate people to less stress... They say that with such exposure a person had the feeling that he was being fried alive, and this was not far from the truth: some of the victims’ organs were literally boiled.
Forced labor and death marches
The Japanese prisoner of war camps were no better than Hitler's death camps. Thousands of prisoners trapped in Japanese camps, worked from dawn to dusk, while, according to stories, they were provided with very little food, sometimes without feeding for several days. And if slave force was needed in another part of the country, hungry, exhausted prisoners were driven, sometimes a couple of thousand kilometers, on foot under the scorching sun. Few prisoners managed to survive the Japanese camps.
Prisoners were forced to kill their friends
The Japanese were masters of psychological torture. They often forced prisoners, under threat of death, to beat and even kill their comrades, compatriots, even friends. Regardless of how this psychological torture ended, the will and soul of a person were forever broken.
The atrocities committed by the Japanese military during World War II are so brutal that they are almost impossible to comprehend. In a way, it will be better to forget this scary story, but in doing so we will dishonor those who suffered and died as a result of these crimes. By remembering the past, we better understand the present, especially the hostility of Korea and China towards Japan.
Nanjing massacre
The scale and brutality of the violence committed in Nanjing defies explanation. At the beginning of the conflict between Japan and China in 1937, the Japanese captured Nanjing. The atrocities began in December 1937 and continued until 1938. About 300,000 Chinese civilians were killed, and more than 80,000 Chinese women were raped. The Japanese bayoneted babies, forced family members to rape each other, and beheaded children.
Japanese internment camps
The Japanese set up countless camps throughout East Asia. The prisoners of war who ended up in these camps faced harsh conditions that included starvation, forced labor, and exposure to disease and extreme conditions. weather conditions. Prisoners of war were subjected to beatings, death by beheading and many other cruelties.
Comfort women
During World War II, 200,000 Korean women, many of whom were barely 16 years old, were sent throughout East Asia to work in brothels specifically for the Japanese military.
Death on the Railroad
During the occupation of territories South-East Asia, the Japanese decided to build a railway connecting Thailand and Burma. The railway had to pass through incredibly dense jungle, and was built largely by hand, without the help of machinery. The Japanese forced prisoners of war to work day and night, giving them only rice, and exposing them to fever, cholera, tropical ulcers and other diseases.
Unit 731
Unit 731 was a top-secret Japanese military unit responsible for medical and chemical weapons research. They dropped chemical bombs on Chinese cities to see if this is the cause of the disease outbreak. According to some estimates, these bombs killed more than 300,000 people.
Competition - kill 100 people with a sword
On the way to the destruction of Nanjing, two Japanese army officers entered into a friendly competition with each other - who would be the first to kill 100 people with a sword during the war? Bloodshed began on the road when Japanese army began to advance towards Nanjing, and continued until the destruction of the city.
Death March to Bataan
In 1942, atrocities began in Bataan when the area was captured by Japan. The Japanese were not prepared for this a large number prisoners of war, so they decided to march 76,000 people through the jungle, where almost everyone died.
Bangka Island massacre
The Japanese bombed the seas around Singapore to destroy enemy ships. One such ship was filled with 65 Australian nurses, 53 of whom managed to swim to the small Japanese-controlled island of Bangka, where they were killed.
Death March in Sandakan
The worst crime in Australian history that didn't go beyond of this state, is considered to be a death march in Sandakan. This was at a time when the Japanese had already begun to flee. As a result, all who survived the march were executed. Out of 2,700 soldiers, only 6 survived and only because they were able to escape into the jungle.
Ludoyequality
There is evidence that Japanese soldiers ate the meat of dead and even living enemies during World War II. In all likelihood, this practice was widespread throughout Southeast Asia.
Mass killing of enemy pilots
Ignoring all military conventions, Japan issued a decree to execute all enemy pilots. The most tragic accident The execution of pilots is considered to be on the day of Japan's surrender.
Reznya at Laha airfield
For two weeks in February 1943, supposedly in retaliation for the destruction of the Japanese minesweeper, the Japanese killed more than 300 Dutch and Australians in the forest near Laha airfield on the island of Ambon and buried them in mass graves.
Alexandra Hospital massacre
In February 1942, the Japanese captured Singapore. On February 14, a Japanese soldier arrived at the British Alexandra Hospital and began walking through the wards and indiscriminately beating patients, doctors, nurses, orderlies, and military personnel who were in charge of the hospital.
Palawan massacree
The Palawan POW camp in the Philippines, like all Japanese POW camps, was a hell of a place. On December 14, 1944, the Japanese left all 150 Americans camped in wooden buildings. They then set these buildings on fire. Only 11 Americans were able to survive.
Occupation of the island of Nauru
In 1942, the Japanese occupied the tiny equatorial island of Nauru and held it until the end of the war. During this time they committed a number of atrocities. The Japanese put the prisoners into boats, swam deep into the sea, and then lowered them. The remaining part of the prisoners on the island died of hunger and disease.
Operation‘’Sook Ching’’
After the capture of Singapore in February 1942, the Japanese decided to exterminate all Chinese in the city who could resist Japanese occupation, including military personnel, leftists, communists, and those who had weapons. Thus began Operation Suk Ching. The operation killed 5,000 people.
Destruction of Manila
In 1945, when Japan was already forced to surrender Manila to enemy troops, the officers ignored the order and decided to kill as many as possible before leaving. civilians. As a result, more than 100,000 Filipino civilians died.
Submarine I-8
The crew of the Japanese submarine I-8 committed several atrocities during World War II. First, they sank a Dutch ship, took 103 prisoners, and beat many of them to death with sledgehammers and swords. Only five people survived. The I-8 crew then sank an American freighter, again taking more than 100 prisoners, who suffered the same fate.
Pig cage
When the Allies surrendered, some soldiers fled to the hills and formed resistance units. When they were caught, they were put in iron cages meant for pigs and transported in 100+ degree heat before they were thrown into the sea with sharks.
Reznya in Port Blair
The Japanese committed countless atrocities during their 3-year occupation of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. They forced local women to work in brothels and clubbed enemy officers in the head until they died.
Reznya in the Andaman Islands
The Japanese committed a number of atrocities towards the end of the war, despairing over their defeat. In the Andaman Islands, they gathered everyone who was opposed to Japan and sent them to an uninhabited island.
Invasion of Hong Kong
A lesser known incident in the history of the war in Pacific Ocean is the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong on December 18, 1941. Those who tried to defend the island, including British medical personnel, were taken to the outskirts of the city and bayoneted to death. The massacre lasted 7 days, during which the Japanese took control of the city's water supply, intending to let everyone in the city die of thirst if they did not surrender. The delivery came on Christmas...
Japanese atrocities - 21+
I present to your attention photos taken by Japanese soldiers during World War II. Only thanks to quick and tough measures, the Red Army was able to very painfully tear out the Japanese army on Lake Khasan and the Khalkhin Gol River, where the Japanese decided to test our strength
Only thanks to a serious defeat, they pinned their ears and postponed the invasion of the USSR until the Germans captured Moscow. Only the failure of Operation Typhoon did not allow our dear Japanese friends to organize a second front for the USSR.
Trophies of the Red Army
Everyone has somehow forgotten about the atrocities of the Germans and their lackeys on our territory. Unfortunately.
I want an example Japanese photos to show what a joy the Imperial Japanese Army was. It was a powerful and well-equipped force. And its composition was perfectly prepared, drilled, fanatically devoted to the idea of domination of their country over all other monkeys. These were yellow-skinned Aryans, which was reluctantly admitted by other long-nosed and round-eyed superior people from the Third Reich. Together they were destined to divide the world into smaller ones for their own benefit.
The photo shows a Japanese officer and soldier. I especially draw your attention to the fact that all officers in the army had swords without fail. The old samurai families have katanas, the new ones, without traditions, have an army sword of the 1935 model. Without a sword, you are not an officer.
In general, the cult of edged weapons among the Japanese was at its best. Just as officers were proud of their swords, so soldiers were proud of their long bayonets and used them wherever possible.
In the photo - practicing bayonet fighting on prisoners:
It was good tradition, so it was used everywhere.
(well, by the way, this also happened in Europe - the brave Poles practiced saber cutting and bayonet techniques on captured Red Army soldiers in exactly the same way)
However, shooting was also practiced on prisoners. Training on captured Sikhs from the British Armed Forces:
Of course, the officers also flaunted their ability to use a sword. especially honing the ability to remove human heads with one blow. Supreme chic.
In the photo - training in Chinese:
Of course, the Untermenschi had to know their place. In the photo, the Chinese greet their new masters as expected:
If they show disrespect, in Japan a samurai could blow off the head of any commoner who, as it seemed to the samurai, greeted him disrespectfully. In China it was even worse.
However, low-ranking soldiers also did not lag behind the samurai. In the photo, soldiers admire the agony of a Chinese peasant who was gored by their bayonets:
Of course, they chopped off heads both for training and just for fun:
And for selfies:
Because it is beautiful and courageous:
The Japanese army especially developed after the storming of the Chinese capital - the city of Nanjing. Here the soul unfolded like a button accordion. well in Japanese sense It’s probably better to say like a fan of sakura flowers. In the three months after the assault, the Japanese massacred, shot, burned, and various other things, more than 300,000 people. Well, not a person, in their opinion, but a Chinese one.
Indiscriminately - women, children or men.
Well, it’s true, it was customary to cut out the men first, just in case, so as not to interfere.
And women - after. With violence and entertainment.
And children, of course
The officers even started a competition to see who could cut off the most heads in a day. Just like Gimli and Legolas - who kills the most orcs. Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun, later renamed Mainichi Shimbun. On December 13, 1937, a photo of Lieutenants Mukai and Noda appeared on the front page of the newspaper under the headline "The competition to be the first to cut off the heads of 100 Chinese with a saber is over: Mukai has already scored 106 points, and Noda has 105." One point in the “bounty race” meant one victim. But we can say that these Chinese are lucky.
As mentioned in the diary of an eyewitness to those events, the leader of the local Nazi Party John Rabe, “the Japanese military chased the Chinese throughout the city and stabbed them with bayonets or sabers.” However, according to a Japanese veteran imperial army, who participated in the events in Nanjing, Hajime Kondo, the majority of the Japanese “believed that it was too noble for a Chinese to die from a saber, and therefore more often stoned them to death.”
Japanese soldiers began to practice their popular “three to three” policy: “burn the clear,” “kill the clear,” “rob the clear.”
Another selfie. The warriors tried to document their bravery. Well, due to prohibitions, I can’t post photos of more sophisticated amusements, such as stuffing cola into a raped Chinese woman. Because it's softer. The Japanese man shows what kind of girlfriend he has.
More selfies
One of the brave athletes with booty^
And these are just the results of some outsider^
Then the Chinese could not bury all the corpses for a long time.
It took a long time. There are a lot of dead, but there is no one to bury them. Everyone has heard about Tamerlane with the pyramids of skulls. Well, the Japanese are not far behind.
Whites got it too. The Japanese did not bother with prisoners.
These were lucky - they survived:
But this Australian doesn't:
So if the brave Japanese crossed our border, one could imagine that they would be worthy comrades of the Germans. The photo shows the result of the work of the German Einsatzkommando.
Because - just look at the photo
It is well known that wars are a time when sometimes all the darkest and cruelest things that exist in human nature awaken in people. Reading the memoirs of eyewitnesses to the events of the Second World War, getting acquainted with the documents, you are simply amazed at human cruelty, which at that time, it seems, simply knew no bounds. And we are not talking about military operations, war is war. We are talking about torture and executions that were applied to prisoners of war and civilians.
Germans
It is well known that representatives of the Third Reich during the war years simply put the matter of extermination of people on stream. Mass shootings, killings in gas chambers they are striking in their callous approach and scale. However, in addition to these methods of murder, the Germans also used others.
In Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, the Germans practiced burning entire villages alive. There were cases when people who were still alive were thrown into pits and covered with earth.
But this pales in comparison with the cases when the Germans approached the task in a particularly “creative” way.
It is known that in the Treblinka concentration camp, two girls - members of the Resistance - were boiled alive in a barrel of water. At the front, the soldiers had fun tearing apart prisoners tied to tanks.
In France, the Germans used the guillotine en masse. It is known that more than 40 thousand people were beheaded using this device. Among others, the Russian princess Vera Obolenskaya, a member of the Resistance, was executed with the help of the guillotine.
At the Nuremberg trials, cases were made public in which the Germans sawed people with hand saws. This happened in the occupied territories of the USSR.
Even such a time-tested form of execution as hanging, the Germans approached “outside the box.” To prolong the torment of those executed, they were hung not on a rope, but on a metal string. The victim did not die immediately from a broken vertebrae, as with the usual method of execution, but suffered for a long time. Participants in the conspiracy against the Fuhrer were killed in this way in 1944.
Moroccans
One of the least known pages in the history of World War II in our country is the participation of the French expeditionary force, which recruited residents of Morocco - Berbers and representatives of other native tribes. They were called Moroccan Gumiers. The Gumiers fought against the Nazis, that is, they were on the side of the Allies who liberated Europe from the “brown plague.” But with his cruelty towards to the local population Moroccans, according to some estimates, surpassed even the Germans.
First of all, the Moroccans raped the inhabitants of the territories they captured. Of course, first of all, women of all ages suffered - from little girls to old women, but boys, teenagers and men who dared to resist them were also subjected to violence. As a rule, gang rape ended with the murder of the victim.
In addition, the Moroccans could mock the victims by gouging out their eyes, cutting off their ears and fingers, since such “trophies” increased the status of the warrior according to Berber ideas.
However, an explanation can be found for this behavior: these people lived in their Atlas Mountains in Africa almost at the level tribal system, were illiterate, and, finding themselves in the theater of military operations of the 20th century, they transferred their essentially medieval ideas to it.
Japanese
While the behavior of the Moroccan Gumiers is understandable, it is extremely difficult to find a reasonable interpretation for the actions of the Japanese.
There are many memories of how the Japanese abused prisoners of war, representatives civilian population occupied territories, as well as over their own compatriots suspected of espionage.
One of the most popular punishments for spying was cutting off fingers, ears, or even feet. The amputation was performed without anesthesia. At the same time, careful care was taken to ensure that the person punished continuously felt pain during the procedure, but survived.
In the camps for prisoners of war of the Americans and the British, this type of execution for rebellion was practiced, such as burial alive. The convict was placed vertically in a hole and covered with a pile of stones or earth. The man suffocated and died slowly, in terrible pain.
The Japanese also used medieval execution by beheading. But if in the era of the samurai the head was cut off with one masterful blow, then in the 20th century there were not so many such masters of the blade. Inept executioners could strike the unfortunate man's neck many times before the head was separated from the neck. The suffering of the victim in this case is difficult to even imagine.
Another type of medieval execution that was used by the Japanese military was drowning in the waves. The convict is tied to a pole dug into the shore in the high tide zone. The waves slowly rose, the man choked and finally died painfully.
And finally, probably the most terrible method of execution, which came from antiquity - tearing apart with growing bamboo. As you know, this plant is the fastest growing in the world. It grows 10-15 centimeters per day. The man was chained to the ground, from which young bamboo shoots peeked out. Over the course of several days, the plants tore the sufferer's body apart. After the end of the war, it became known that during the Second World War the Japanese also used such a barbaric method of execution on prisoners of war.
Hmembers of the Chamber are already aware that in Lately many arrived in Britain postcards and letters from prisoners in the Far East. The authors of almost all of these letters report that they are treated well and that they are healthy. Based on what we know about the situation of prisoners in certain areas Far East, it is safe to say that at least some of these letters were written under the dictation of the Japanese authorities.
I must unfortunately inform the House that the information received by His Majesty's Government shows absolutely beyond doubt, so far as the vast majority of prisoners in Japanese hands are concerned, that the actual state of affairs is quite different.
The House already knows that approximately 80 to 90% of those interned by the Japanese civilians and military personnel stationed in southern region, including the Philippine Islands, the Dutch West Indies, Borneo, Malaya, Burma, Siam and Indo-China. The Japanese government still does not allow representatives of neutral countries to visit prison camps.
We could not obtain from the Japanese any information about the number of prisoners located in various areas, nor their names.
His Majesty's Government have received information regarding the conditions of detention and work of prisoners of war in some parts of this area. This information was of such a grim nature that it might have caused concern to the relatives of prisoners and interned civilians in Japanese hands.
The government considered it its responsibility to verify the accuracy of the information received before making it public.
Thousands of deaths
We are now convinced of the reliability of the information received. It is my sad duty to inform the House that there are now many thousands of prisoners in Siam, originally from the British Commonwealth, particularly from India.
The Japanese military forces them to live in tropical jungle conditions without good enough shelter, without clothing, food and medical care. Prisoners are forced to work on the gasket railway and on the construction of roads in the jungle.
According to the information we have received, the prisoners' health is rapidly deteriorating. Many of them are seriously ill. Several thousand prisoners have already died. I can add to this that the Japanese informed us of the death of a little more than a hundred prisoners. Roads built by prisoners go to Burma. The conditions I spoke about prevail throughout the entire construction period.
Here is what one eyewitness says about the prisoner of war camp in Siam:
“I saw a lot of prisoners, but they looked little like people: skin and bones. The prisoners were half naked, unshaven, their long, overgrown hair was tangled in tatters.”
The same witness said that the prisoners had neither hats nor shoes. I would like to remind the House that this is happening in an area with tropical climate, in an almost deserted area, where it is impossible to receive either medical or any other help from the population.
We have information about the situation of prisoners in another part of this huge southern region. Evidence from Java suggests that prisoners held in unsanitary conditions in camps are not protected from malaria. Food and clothing are not enough. This leads to a deterioration in the health of prisoners, who only sometimes manage to supplement their rations with something.
Information received from northern region, they talk about the complete exhaustion of most of the prisoners arriving from Java.
Regarding the conditions of detention of prisoners in other parts of the southern region, I do not yet have information that I could report to the House.
Before I finish with the southern region, I must mention one exception. The information at our disposal suggests that conditions in the civilian internment camps are much better, or at least tolerable.
Gross bullying
The Japanese Government's refusal to grant neutral observers permission to inspect the camps in the southern region cannot be justified on plausible grounds, since the Japanese Government allowed neutrals to inspect the camps in the northern region, which includes Hong Kong, Formosa, Shanghai, Korea and Japan. We believe, however, that this inspection did not touch enough large number camps.
His Majesty's Government has reason to believe that the conditions of detention of prisoners in this area are generally tolerable, although the Minister of War has more than once pointed out that the food being issued is not enough to maintain health for long time. I would like to add, however, that conditions for prisoners in Hong Kong appear to be deteriorating.
If the trials experienced by the prisoners were limited only to what I have already described, then that would be bad enough. But unfortunately, the worst is yet to come.
We have a growing list of gross abuses and atrocities committed against individuals and groups. I would not like to burden the House a detailed story about atrocities. But to give an idea of them, I unfortunately must give a few typical examples.
I will first cite two cases of brutal treatment of civilians. A Shanghai municipal police officer, along with 300 other nationals of the Allied countries, was sent by the Japanese to a camp for the so-called “politically unreliable”, located on the Haifun Road in Shanghai.
This officer aroused the discontent of the Japanese gendarmerie against himself and was transferred to a station located in another part of the city. He returned from there distraught. The deep wounds on the arms and legs left by the ropes festered. He lost about 20 kilograms in weight. A day or two after his release, the officer died.
Execution of three prisoners
The second case occurred in the Philippine Islands. On January 11, 1942, three British nationals escaped from a civilian internment camp in Santo Tomas (Manila).
They were caught and flogged.
On January 14, a military court sentenced them to death penalty, despite the fact that the international convention provides in this case only for the imposition of disciplinary punishment. The prisoners were shot with automatic weapons. They died in agony, since the first wounds were not fatal.
I turn now to cases of brutal treatment of soldiers. The Japanese, having captured a group of Indian soldiers in Burma, tied their hands behind their backs and sat them down by the road. Then the Japanese began to bayonet the prisoners one by one. Each was apparently inflicted with three wounds.
By some miracle, one of the soldiers managed to escape and make his way to our troops. From him we learned about this torture.
In another case, he was tortured British officer known to us regiment, captured in Burma. They beat him in the face with a saber, then tied him to a post and tied a rope around his neck. In order not to suffocate, he had to constantly reach up. Then the officer was subjected to further torture.
Fortunately for him, at this time the Allied army soldiers went on the offensive, the Japanese fled, and the officer was rescued by British tank crews.
Ship of Terror
The third case involved a ship called the Lisbon Maru, which was used by the Japanese to transport 1,800 British prisoners of war from Hong Kong.
The ship "Lisbon Maru".
In one hold, two prisoners died where they lay, and no attempt was made to remove their corpses.
On the morning of October 1, 1942, the Lisbon Maru was torpedoed by an Allied submarine. Japanese officers, soldiers and sailors left the prisoners locked in the holds and abandoned the ship, although it sank only a day after the torpedoing.
The ship had several life belts and other life-saving equipment. Only some of the prisoners managed to escape from the holds and swim to the shore under fire Japanese soldiers. The rest (at least 800 people) died.
What has been said is enough to get an idea of the barbaric character of our enemy - the Japanese. They trampled not only principles international law, but also all norms of decent and civilized behavior.
His Majesty's Government, through the Swiss Government, made many energetic representations to the Japanese Government.
The answers we receive are either evasive, cynical, or simply unsatisfactory.
We had the right to expect that the Japanese government, having learned about these facts, would take measures to improve the conditions of detention of prisoners. The Japanese know well enough that a civilized power is obliged to protect the life and health of prisoners captured by its army. They showed this by their treatment of prisoners during Russo-Japanese War and the wars of 1914 - 1918.
Let the Japanese government take into account that the conduct of the Japanese military authorities in the current war will not be forgotten.
It is with the deepest regret that I had to make this statement in the House of Commons. But after consultation with those allies who equally are victims of these unspeakable atrocities, His Majesty's Government considered it their duty to make these facts public.