Until December 7, 1941, there was not a single military conflict with an Asian army in American history. There were only a few minor skirmishes in the Philippines during the war with Spain. This led to underestimation of the enemy American soldiers and sailors.
The US Army heard stories of the brutality with which the Japanese invaders treated the Chinese population in the 1940s. But before the clashes with the Japanese, the Americans had no idea what their opponents were capable of.
Routine beatings were so common that it is not even worthy of mention. However, in addition, captured Americans, British, Greeks, Australians and Chinese had to face slave labor, violent marching, cruel and unusual torture, and even dismemberment.
15. Cannibalism
It is no secret that during times of famine people begin to eat their own kind. Cannibalism occurred in the expedition led by Donner, and even the Uruguay rugby team that crashed in the Andes, the subject of the film " Alive" But this always happened only in extreme circumstances. But it is impossible not to shudder when hearing stories about eating the remains of dead soldiers or cutting off parts from living people.
The Japanese camps were deeply isolated, surrounded by impenetrable jungle, and the soldiers guarding the camp were often as hungry as the prisoners, resorting to horrendous means to satisfy their hunger. But for the most part, cannibalism occurred due to mockery of the enemy. A report from the University of Melbourne states:
« According to the Australian lieutenant, he saw many bodies that were missing parts, even a scalped head without a torso. He argues that the condition of the remains clearly indicated that they had been dismembered for cooking.».
14. Inhuman experiments on pregnant women
Dr. Josef Mengele was a famous Nazi scientist who experimented on Jews, twins, dwarfs and other concentration camp prisoners and was wanted by the international community after the war for trial for numerous war crimes. Pay attention to the article 10 of the most evil fascists you've never heard of. But the Japanese had their own scientific institutions, where they put no less terrible experiences over people.
The so-called Unit 731 conducted experiments on Chinese women who were raped and impregnated. They were purposefully infected with syphilis so that they could find out whether the disease would be inherited. Often the condition of the fetus was studied directly in the mother's womb without the use of anesthesia, since these women were considered nothing more than animals to be studied.
13. Castration and suturing of the genitals in the mouth
In 1944, on the volcanic island of Peleliu, a soldier Marine Corps While having lunch with a friend, I saw the figure of a man heading towards them across the open area of the battlefield. As the man approached, it became clear that he was also a Marine soldier. The man walked bent over and had difficulty moving his legs. He was covered in blood. The sergeant decided that he was just a wounded man who had not been taken from the battlefield, and he and several colleagues hurried to meet him.
What they saw made them shudder. His mouth was sewn shut and the front of his trousers was cut. The face was distorted with pain and horror. Having taken him to the doctors, they later learned from them what really happened. He was captured by the Japanese, where he was beaten and brutally tortured. Soldiers Japanese army cut off his genitals, stuffed them into his mouth, and sewed him up.
It is unknown whether the soldier was able to survive such a horrific outrage. But the reliable fact is that instead of intimidating, this event produced reverse effect, filling the hearts of the soldiers with hatred and giving them additional strength to fight for the island.
12. Satisfying doctors' curiosity
People practicing medicine in Japan did not always work to alleviate the plight of the sick. During World War II, Japanese " the doctors" often carried out cruel procedures on enemy soldiers or ordinary citizens in the name of science or simply to satisfy curiosity. Somehow they became interested in what would happen to the human body if it was twisted for a long time.
To do this, they placed people in centrifuges and spun them sometimes for hours. People were thrown against the walls of the cylinder and the faster it spun, the more pressure was exerted on the internal organs. Many died within a few hours and their bodies were removed from the centrifuge, but some were spun until they literally exploded or fell apart.
11. Amputation
If a person was suspected of espionage, then he was punished with all cruelty. Not only soldiers of Japan's enemy armies were subject to torture, but also residents of the Philippines, who were suspected of providing intelligence information for the Americans and British. The favorite punishment was to simply cut them alive. First one arm, then perhaps a leg and fingers.
Next came the ears. But all this did not lead to quick death, but was done so that the victim would suffer for a long time. There was also the practice of stopping bleeding after cutting off a hand, when several days were given for recovery to continue torture. Men, women and children were amputated; no one was spared from the atrocities of the Japanese soldiers.
10. Torture by waterboarding
Many believe that waterboarding was first used by US soldiers in Iraq. Such torture is contrary to the country's constitution and appears unusual and cruel. This measure may be considered torture, but it may not be considered that way. It is definitely a difficult ordeal for the prisoner, but it does not put his life at risk. The Japanese used waterboarding not only for interrogation, but also tied prisoners at an angle and inserted tubes into their nostrils.
Thus, the water went directly into the lungs. It didn't just make you feel like you were drowning, like waterboarding, but the victim actually seemed to drown if the torture went on for too long.
9. Freeze and Burn
Another kind of inhumane research human body was a study of the effects of cold on the body. Often, as a result of freezing, the skin fell off the victim's bones. Of course, the experiments were carried out on living, breathing people who had to live with limbs from which the skin had fallen off for the rest of their lives.
But not only the impact was studied low temperatures on the body, but also high. They burned the skin on a person’s hand over a torch, and the prisoner ended his life in terrible agony.
8. Radiation
X-rays were still poorly understood at that time, and their usefulness and effectiveness in diagnosing disease or otherwise were in question. Irradiation of prisoners was used especially frequently by Detachment 731. Prisoners were gathered under a shelter and exposed to radiation.
They were taken out at certain intervals to study the physical and psychological effects of the radiation. With particularly large doses of radiation, part of the body burned and the skin literally fell off. The victims died in agony, as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki later, but much more slowly.
7. Burning Alive
Japanese soldiers from small islands in the South Pacific were hardened, cruel people who lived in caves, where there was not enough food, there was nothing to do, but there was a lot of time to cultivate hatred of enemies in their hearts. Therefore, when American soldiers were captured by them, they were absolutely merciless to them.
Most often, American sailors were burned alive or partially buried. Many of them were found under rocks where they were thrown to decompose. The prisoners were tied hand and foot, then thrown into a dug hole, which was then slowly buried. Perhaps the worst thing was that the victim's head was left outside, which was then urinated on or eaten.
6. Decapitation
ISIS members take particular pleasure in beheading Christians and other opponents. In Japan, it was considered an honor to die from a sword. If the Japanese wanted to disgrace the enemy, they brutally tortured him. Therefore, for those captured, dying by beheading was lucky. It was much worse to be subjected to the tortures listed above.
If ammunition ran out in battle, the Americans used a rifle with a bayonet, while the Japanese always carried a long blade and a long curved sword. Soldiers were lucky to die from decapitation and not from a blow to the shoulder or chest. If the enemy found himself on the ground, he was chopped to death, rather than his head being cut off.
5. Death by high tide
Since Japan and its surrounding islands are surrounded by ocean waters, this type of torture was common among the inhabitants. Drowning is a terrible type of death. Even worse was the expectation of imminent death from the tide within a few hours. Prisoners were often tortured for several days in order to learn military secrets. Some could not stand the torture, but there were also those who only gave their name, rank and serial number.
Prepared for such stubborn people special kind of death. The soldier was left on the shore, where he had to watch for several hours as the water came closer and closer. Then, the water covered the prisoner's head and, within a few minutes of coughing, filled the lungs, after which death occurred.
4. Impalement
Bamboo grows in hot tropical areas and grows noticeably faster than other plants, several centimeters per day. And when the devilish mind of man invented the most terrible way to die, it was impalement.
The victims were impaled on bamboo, which slowly grew into their bodies. The unfortunates suffered from inhuman pain when their muscles and organs were pierced by the plant. Death occurred as a result of organ damage or blood loss.
3. Cooking alive
Another activity of Unit 731 was exposing victims to small doses of electricity. With a small impact it caused a lot of pain. If it was prolonged, then the internal organs of the prisoners were boiled and burned. Interesting fact The thing about the intestines and gall bladder is that they do not have nerve endings.
Therefore, when exposed to them, the brain sends pain signals to other organs. It's like cooking the body from the inside. Imagine swallowing a hot piece of iron to understand what the unfortunate victims experienced. The pain will be felt throughout the body until the soul leaves it.
2. Forced labor and marches
Thousands of prisoners of war were sent to Japanese concentration camps, where they lived the life of slaves. The large number of prisoners was a serious problem for the army, since it was impossible to supply them with sufficient food and medicine. In concentration camps, prisoners were starved, beaten, and forced to work until they died.
The prisoners' lives meant nothing to the guards and officers watching over them. Moreover, if work force was needed on an island or another part of the country, the prisoners of war had to march hundreds of kilometers there in unbearable heat. Countless soldiers died along the way. Their bodies were thrown into ditches or left there.
1. Forced to kill comrades and allies
Most often, beatings of prisoners were used during interrogations. The documents state that at first the prisoner was spoken to in a friendly manner. Then, if the interrogating officer understood the futility of such a conversation, was bored or simply angry, then the prisoner of war was beaten with fists, sticks or other objects. The beating continued until the torturers got tired.
In order to make the interrogation more interesting, they brought in another prisoner and forced him to continue under pain. own death from beheading. Often he had to beat a prisoner to death. Few things in war were as difficult for a soldier as causing suffering to a comrade. These stories filled the Allied troops with even greater determination in the fight against the Japanese.
The inhumane experiments of the Japanese army on people were filmed several years ago documentary, in which historians, journalists and former members of Unit 731 talked about what happened in Japan in the 30s and 40s of the last century.
Several nurses, exhausted, made their way through the tropical thickets. They had been walking all last day and most nights. The morning southern sun was beginning to burn quite mercilessly and their once white uniforms, now soaked in sweat, stuck to their young bodies with every movement. Ten girls had been captured by the Japanese the day before during an assault on an American military camp and were now being dragged to Japanese headquarters for interrogation. Once the nurses, all under 30 years of age, entered the Japanese camp, they were forced to strip naked and forced into bamboo cages. They were thrown several razors and ordered to shave their pubes, seemingly for hygiene purposes, and the intimidated girls obeyed, although they knew very well that it was all a lie.
Around noon, a general, well known as a monstrous sadist, arrived at the camp. He sent two soldiers to bring him one of the captives. They grabbed Lydia, a 32-year-old leggy blonde with gorgeous full breasts. She screamed and resisted, but two Japanese quickly overpowered her and knocked her to the ground with a quick kick to her open, shaved groin.
“We know that you have information about your movement American troops. It would be better for you to tell everything or you will be subjected to hellish torture. Got it, American cunt?
Lydia began to explain that she knew nothing, screaming in horror. Ignoring her pleas, the soldiers placed the nurse on a bamboo pole mounted between two tall palm trees. Her hands were tied and raised above her head, so that her wonderful breasts were completely exposed to all eyes. Then they spread her legs apart and tied them to the trees, exposing her womb.
If the ropes had not supported her body, she would hardly have been able to stay in this uncomfortable seat. One of the soldiers squeezed her head in his hands, and the second stuck a plastic tube into her mouth and pushed it 30 centimeters down the captive’s throat. She squealed like a pig, but now she could only moo instead of articulate speech. They tied another pole between the trees, this time at the level of her neck, and tied her neck tightly with a rope so that she could not move her head. A gag was placed in her mouth around the tube to prevent her from getting rid of the tube. The other end of the tube was tied above her head to a tree and a large funnel was inserted into it.
“She’s almost ready...”, the other women looked at what was happening in horror, not understanding what was about to happen. Lydia's magnificent body was already glistening with sweat under the hot tropical sun. She was all trembling with anticipation of something terrible. The soldier began to pour water into the funnel. One mug, another... Now Lydia was choking and choking, her eyes rolled out of her head, but the water continued to flow. Ten minutes later she looked like she was 9 months pregnant. The pain was indescribable. The second soldier amused himself by pushing his fingers into her vagina. He tried to open her urethra with his little finger. With a strong push, he drove his finger into the opening of the urethra. Distraught with pain, Lydia wheezed and moaned.
“Okay, now she has enough water... let’s make her pee.”
The gag was pulled out of her mouth and the unfortunate woman was able to catch her breath. She was gasping for breath, her stomach was stretched to its limit. The soldier who had just been playing with her vagina brought a thin bamboo tube. He began to insert it into the opening of the captive's urethra. Lydia screamed wildly. Slowly the tube entered her body until a trickle of urine flowed from its end. Soon the urine only began to drip, but this continued endlessly, thanks to the huge amount of water she swallowed. One short Japanese man began to punch her in her overflowing stomach, sending unbearable waves of pain. At this time, the remaining captives were dragged out of their cells and gang-raped.
After three hours of torture with water and blows to the stomach, one of the soldiers forced a large mango into the captive's gaping pleasure channel. Then with his left hand he grabbed Lydia's left nipple and, squeezing it as hard as he could, pulled back her breast. Enjoying the desperate cries of the unfortunate woman, he brought the razor-sharp blade of his sword to the tender body and began to cut off the breast. He soon raised his hand, exposing the bloody, swaying mass for all to see. The severed breast was impaled on sharpened bamboo stakes. Lydia was again asked questions and her answer again did not satisfy the executioners.
A dozen soldiers bent down two large palm trees that grew about 9 meters from the interrogated woman. Ropes were tied to their tops, securing the other ends to the captive's ankles. Lydia desperately begged for her life as the general's sword whistled, cutting through the ropes holding the trees. Instantly, the nurse's body was thrown into the air, suspended by her outstretched legs, as the force of the trees was not enough to tear her in half. She screamed heart-rendingly, the heads of both her femurs were torn out of their sockets. The general stood under her and raised his sword over her shaved bosom. He slashed right across her pubic bone. There was a crash and Lydia's body was torn in half by the trees. Down came a rain of water, blood and torn intestines swallowed by the captive. Many of the caged women who witnessed this inhumane scene lost consciousness.
The next victim was thrown into a large barrel, studded with iron spikes on the inside. She could not move without running into their points. Water began to slowly drip onto her shaved head. The monotonous dripping of water on the same place made her almost go crazy... This continued for days. After three days of this barbaric torture, she was pulled out of the barrel. She already had a hard time understanding where she was and what they were doing to her. Completely drained, she was hung with ropes wrapped around her ample breasts. Now the executioners began to whip her with a whip to everyone’s delight. She screamed with strength that came from nowhere, her whole beautiful body wriggled like a snake. She was beaten for 45 minutes... and finally she lost consciousness and was soon hanging lifelessly from a tree...
Other women were raped in the most perverted forms. They understood that interrogation about the movements of American troops was just a pretext for torture. Every day one of them was brutally tortured and killed just for fun.
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 in the 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 by its own citizens suspected of espionage. 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
All in the same notorious unit 731, Chinese prisoners were driven into special cells and subjected to powerful X-rays, observing what changes subsequently occurred in their bodies. 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 exposing the unfortunate people to a lower voltage for a long time... 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 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.
Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on Earth. Some of its Chinese varieties can grow a full meter in a day. Some historians believe that the deadly bamboo torture was used not only by the ancient Chinese, but also by the Japanese military during World War II.
How it works?
1) Sprouts of living bamboo are sharpened with a knife to form sharp “spears”;
2) The victim is suspended horizontally, with his back or stomach, over a bed of young pointed bamboo;
3) Bamboo quickly grows high, pierces the skin of the martyr and grows through his abdominal cavity, the person dies for a very long time and painfully.
2. Iron Maiden
Like torture with bamboo, the “iron maiden” is considered by many researchers to be a terrible legend. Perhaps these metal sarcophagi with sharp spikes inside only frightened the people under investigation, after which they confessed to anything. The "Iron Maiden" was invented at the end of the 18th century, i.e. already at the end of the Catholic Inquisition.
How it works?
1) The victim is stuffed into the sarcophagus and the door is closed;
2) The spikes driven into the inner walls of the “iron maiden” are quite short and do not pierce the victim, but only cause pain. The investigator, as a rule, receives confessions, which the arrested person only has to sign;
3) If the prisoner shows fortitude and continues to remain silent, long nails, knives and rapiers are pushed through special holes in the sarcophagus. The pain becomes simply unbearable;
4) The victim never admits to what she had done, so she was locked in a sarcophagus for a long time, where she died from loss of blood;
5) Some models of the “iron maiden” were provided with spikes at eye level in order to quickly poke them out.
3. Skafism
The name of this torture comes from the Greek “scaphium”, which means “trough”. Skafism was popular in ancient Persia. During the torture, the victim, most often a prisoner of war, was devoured alive by various insects and their larvae who were partial to human flesh and blood.
How it works?
1) The prisoner is placed in a shallow trough and wrapped in chains.
2) He is force fed large quantities milk and honey, which causes the victim to have profuse diarrhea, which attracts insects.
3) The prisoner, having shit himself and smeared with honey, is allowed to float in a trough in a swamp, where there are many hungry creatures.
4) The insects immediately begin their meal, with the living flesh of the martyr as the main dish.
4. The Terrible Pear 
“The pear is lying there - you can’t eat it,” it is said about the medieval European weapon for “educating” blasphemers, liars, women who gave birth out of wedlock, and gay men. Depending on the crime, the torturer thrust the pear into the sinner's mouth, anus or vagina.
How it works?
1) A tool consisting of pointed leaf-shaped segments pear-shaped inserted into the client’s desired body opening;
2) The executioner little by little turns the screw on the top of the pear, while the “leaves” segments bloom inside the martyr, causing hellish pain;
3) After the pear is completely opened, the offender receives internal injuries incompatible with life and dies in terrible agony, if he has not already fallen into unconsciousness.
5. Copper Bull 
The design of this death unit was developed by the ancient Greeks, or, to be more precise, by the coppersmith Perillus, who sold his terrible bull to the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris, who simply loved to torture and kill people in unusual ways.
A living person was pushed inside the copper statue through a special door.
So
Phalaris first tested the unit on its creator, the greedy Perilla. Subsequently, Phalaris himself was roasted in a bull.
How it works?
1) The victim is closed in a hollow copper statue of a bull;
2) A fire is lit under the bull’s belly;
3) The victim is fried alive, like a ham in a frying pan;
4) The structure of the bull is such that the cries of the martyr come from the mouth of the statue, like a bull’s roar;
5) Jewelry and amulets were made from the bones of the executed, which were sold at bazaars and were in great demand..
6. Torture by rats 
Torture by rats was very popular in ancient China. However, we will look at the rat punishment technique developed by 16th century Dutch Revolution leader Diedrick Sonoy.
How it works?
1) The stripped naked martyr is placed on a table and tied;
2) Large, heavy cages with hungry rats are placed on the prisoner’s stomach and chest. The bottom of the cells is opened using a special valve;
3) Hot coals are placed on top of the cages to stir up the rats;
4) Trying to escape the heat of hot coals, rats gnaw their way through the flesh of the victim.
7. Cradle of Judas 
The Judas Cradle was one of the most torturous torture machines in the arsenal of the Suprema - the Spanish Inquisition. Victims usually died from infection, as a result of the fact that the pointed seat of the torture machine was never disinfected. The Cradle of Judas, as an instrument of torture, was considered “loyal” because it did not break bones or tear ligaments.
How it works?
1) The victim, whose hands and feet are tied, is seated on the top of a pointed pyramid;
2) The top of the pyramid is thrust into the anus or vagina;
3) Using ropes, the victim is gradually lowered lower and lower;
4) The torture continues for several hours or even days until the victim dies from powerlessness and pain, or from blood loss due to rupture of soft tissues.
8. Trampling by elephants 
For several centuries, this execution was practiced in India and Indochina. An elephant is very easy to train and teaching it to trample a guilty victim with its huge feet is a matter of just a few days.
How it works?
1. The victim is tied to the floor;
2. A trained elephant is brought into the hall to crush the martyr’s head;
3. Sometimes before the “head test,” animals crush the victims’ arms and legs in order to amuse the audience.
9. Rack 
Probably the most famous and unrivaled death machine of its kind called the “rack”. It was first tested around 300 AD. on the Christian martyr Vincent of Zaragoza.
Anyone who survived the rack could no longer use their muscles and became a helpless vegetable.
How it works?
1. This instrument of torture is a special bed with rollers at both ends, around which ropes are wound to hold the victim’s wrists and ankles. When the rollers rotated, the ropes pulled in opposite directions, stretching the body;
2. Ligaments in the victim’s arms and legs are stretched and torn, bones pop out of their joints.
3. Another version of the rack was also used, called strappado: it consisted of 2 pillars dug into the ground and connected by a crossbar. The interrogated person's hands were tied behind his back and lifted by a rope tied to his hands. Sometimes a log or other weights were attached to his bound legs. At the same time, the arms of the person raised on the rack were turned back and often came out of their joints, so that the convict had to hang on his outstretched arms. They were on the rack from several minutes to an hour or more. This type of rack was used most often in Western Europe
4. In Russia, a suspect raised on the rack was beaten on the back with a whip and “put to the fire,” that is, burning brooms were passed over the body.
5. In some cases, the executioner broke the ribs of a man hanging on a rack with red-hot pincers.
10. Paraffin in the bladder
A savage form of torture, the exact use of which has not been established.
How it works?
1. Candle paraffin was rolled by hand into a thin sausage, which was inserted through the urethra;
2. Paraffin slipped into the bladder, where solid salts and other nasty things began to settle on it.
3. Soon the victim began to have kidney problems and died from acute renal failure. On average, death occurred within 3-4 days.
11. Shiri (camel cap)
A monstrous fate awaited those whom the Ruanzhuans (a union of nomadic Turkic-speaking peoples) took into slavery. They destroyed the slave's memory terrible torture- putting a shiri on the victim’s head. Usually this fate befell young men captured in battle.
How it works?
1. First, the slaves' heads were shaved bald, and every hair was carefully scraped out at the root.
2. The executors slaughtered the camel and skinned its carcass, first of all, separating its heaviest, dense nuchal part.
3. Having divided the neck into pieces, they immediately pulled it in pairs over the shaved heads of the prisoners. These pieces stuck to the heads of the slaves like a plaster. This meant putting on the shiri.
4. After putting on the shiri, the neck of the doomed person was chained in a special wooden block so that the subject could not touch his head to the ground. In this form, they were taken away from crowded places so that no one would hear their heartbreaking screams, and they were thrown there in an open field, with their hands and feet tied, in the sun, without water and without food.
5. The torture lasted 5 days.
6. Only a few remained alive, and the rest died not from hunger or even from thirst, but from unbearable, inhuman torment caused by drying, shrinking rawhide camel skin on the head. Inexorably shrinking under the rays of the scorching sun, the width squeezed and squeezed the slave's shaved head like an iron hoop. Already on the second day, the shaved hair of the martyrs began to sprout. Coarse and straight Asian hair sometimes grew into the rawhide; in most cases, finding no way out, the hair curled and went back into the scalp, causing even greater suffering. Within a day the man lost his mind. Only on the fifth day did the Ruanzhuans come to check whether any of the prisoners had survived. If at least one of the tortured people was found alive, it was considered that the goal had been achieved. .
7. Anyone who underwent such a procedure either died, unable to withstand the torture, or lost his memory for life, turned into a mankurt - a slave who does not remember his past.
8. The skin of one camel was enough for five or six widths.
12. Implantation of metals
A very strange means of torture and execution was used in the Middle Ages.
How it works?
1. A deep incision was made on a person’s legs, where a piece of metal (iron, lead, etc.) was placed, after which the wound was stitched up.
2. Over time, the metal oxidized, poisoning the body and causing terrible pain.
3. Most often, the poor people tore the skin in the place where the metal was sewn up and died from blood loss.
13. Dividing a person into two parts
This terrible execution originated in Thailand. The most hardened criminals were subjected to it - mostly murderers.
How it works?
1. The accused is placed in a robe woven from vines and stabbed with sharp objects;
2. After this, his body is quickly cut into two parts, the upper half is immediately placed on a red-hot copper grate; This operation stops the bleeding and prolongs the life of most people.
A small addition: This torture is described in the book of the Marquis de Sade “Justine, or the successes of vice.” This is a small excerpt from a large piece of text where de Sade allegedly describes the torture of the peoples of the world. But why supposedly? According to many critics, the Marquis was very fond of lying. He had an extraordinary imagination and a couple of delusions, so this torture, like some others, could have been a figment of his imagination. But this field should not refer to Donatien Alphonse as Baron Munchausen. This torture, in my opinion, if it did not exist before, is quite realistic. If, of course, the person is pumped up with painkillers (opiates, alcohol, etc.) before this, so that he does not die before his body touches the bars.
14. Inflating with air through the anus
A terrible torture in which a person is pumped with air through the anus.
There is evidence that in Rus' even Peter the Great himself sinned with this.
Most often, thieves were executed this way.
How it works?
1. The victim was tied hand and foot.
2. Then they took cotton and stuffed it into the poor man’s ears, nose and mouth.
3. Bellows were inserted into his anus, with the help of which a huge amount of air was pumped into the person, as a result of which he became like a balloon.
3. After that, I plugged his anus with a piece of cotton.
4. Then they opened two veins above his eyebrows, from which all the blood flowed out under enormous pressure.
5. Sometimes tied up man They stood him naked on the roof of the palace and shot him with arrows until he died.
6. Until 1970, this method was often used in Jordanian prisons.
15. Polledro
Neapolitan executioners lovingly called this torture “polledro” - “foal” (polledro) and were proud that it was first used in their hometown. Although history has not preserved the name of its inventor, they said that he was an expert in horse breeding and came up with an unusual device to tame his horses.
Only a few decades later, lovers of making fun of people turned the horse breeder’s device into a real torture machine for people.
The machine was a wooden frame, similar to a ladder, the crossbars of which were very sharp corners, so that when a person is placed with his back on them, they cut into the body from the back of the head to the heels. The staircase ended with a huge wooden spoon, into which the head was placed, as if in a cap.
How it works?
1. Holes were drilled on both sides of the frame and in the “cap”, and ropes were threaded into each of them. The first of them was tightened on the forehead of the tortured, the last tied thumbs legs As a rule, there were thirteen ropes, but for those who were especially stubborn, the number was increased.
2. Using special devices, the ropes were pulled tighter and tighter - it seemed to the victims that, having crushed the muscles, they were digging into the bones.
16. Dead Man's Bed (modern China) 
The Chinese Communist Party uses the “dead man’s bed” torture mainly on those prisoners who try to protest against illegal imprisonment through a hunger strike. In most cases, these are prisoners of conscience, imprisoned for their beliefs.
How it works?
1. The arms and legs of a stripped prisoner are tied to the corners of a bed on which, instead of a mattress, there is a wooden board with a hole cut out. A bucket for excrement is placed under the hole. Often, a person’s body is tied tightly to the bed with ropes so that he cannot move at all. A person remains in this position continuously for several days to weeks.
2. In some prisons, such as Shenyang City No. 2 Prison and Jilin City Prison, police also place a hard object under the victim's back to intensify the suffering.
3. It also happens that the bed is placed vertically and the person hangs for 3-4 days, stretched out by his limbs.
4. Added to this torment is force feeding, which is carried out using a tube inserted through the nose into the esophagus, into which liquid food is poured.
5. This procedure is performed mainly by prisoners on the orders of the guards, and not by medical workers. They do it very rudely and unprofessionally, often causing serious damage internal organs person.
6. Those who have gone through this torture say that it causes displacement of the vertebrae, joints of the arms and legs, as well as numbness and blackening of the limbs, which often leads to disability.
17. Yoke (Modern China) 
One of the medieval tortures used in modern Chinese prisons is the wearing of a wooden collar. It is placed on a prisoner, causing him to be unable to walk or stand normally.
The clamp is a board from 50 to 80 cm in length, from 30 to 50 cm in width and 10 – 15 cm in thickness. In the middle of the clamp there are two holes for the legs.
The victim, who is wearing a collar, has difficulty moving, must crawl into bed and usually must sit or lie down, as the upright position causes pain and leads to injury to the legs. Without assistance, a person with a collar cannot go to eat or go to the toilet. When a person gets out of bed, the collar not only puts pressure on the legs and heels, causing pain, but its edge clings to the bed and prevents the person from returning to it. At night the prisoner is unable to turn around, and in winter time a short blanket does not cover your legs.
More worst form This torture is called “crawling with a wooden clamp.” The guards put a collar on the man and order him to crawl on the concrete floor. If he stops, he is hit on the back with a police baton. An hour later, his fingers, toenails and knees are bleeding profusely, while his back is covered in wounds from the blows.
18. Impalement 
A terrible, savage execution that came from the East.
The essence of this execution was that a person was laid on his stomach, one sat on him to prevent him from moving, the other held him by the neck. A stake was inserted into the person's anus, which was then driven in with a mallet; then they drove a stake into the ground. The weight of the body forced the stake to go deeper and deeper and finally it came out under the armpit or between the ribs.
19. Spanish water torture 
In order to the best way to carry out the procedure of this torture, the accused was placed on one of the types of racks or on a special big table with a rising middle part. After the victim's arms and legs were tied to the edges of the table, the executioner began work in one of several ways. One of these methods involved forcing the victim, using a funnel, to swallow a large number of water, then they hit the swollen and arched belly. Another form involved placing a cloth tube down the victim's throat through which water was slowly poured, causing the victim to swell and suffocate. If this was not enough, the tube was pulled out, causing internal damage, and then inserted again and the process repeated. Sometimes cold water torture was used. In this case, the accused lay naked on the table for hours under the spray. ice water. It is interesting to note that this type of torture was considered light, and the court accepted confessions obtained in this way as voluntary and given by the defendant without the use of torture. Most often, these tortures were used by the Spanish Inquisition in order to extract confessions from heretics and witches.
20. Chinese water torture
They sat a man in a very cold room, tied him so that he could not move his head, and in complete darkness cold water was very slowly dripped onto his forehead. After a few days the person froze or went crazy.
21. Spanish armchair 
This instrument of torture was widely used by the executioners of the Spanish Inquisition and was a chair made of iron, on which the prisoner was seated, and his legs were placed in stocks attached to the legs of the chair. When he found himself in such a completely helpless position, a brazier was placed under his feet; with hot coals, so that the legs began to slowly fry, and in order to prolong the suffering of the poor fellow, the legs were poured with oil from time to time.
Another version of the Spanish chair was often used, which was a metal throne to which the victim was tied and a fire was lit under the seat, roasting the buttocks. The famous poisoner La Voisin was tortured on such a chair during the famous Poisoning Case in France.
22. GRIDIRON (Grid for torture by fire) 
Torture of Saint Lawrence on the gridiron.
This type of torture is often mentioned in the lives of saints - real and fictitious, but there is no evidence that the gridiron “survived” until the Middle Ages and had even a small circulation in Europe. It is usually described as ordinary metal grill 6 feet long and two and a half feet wide, mounted horizontally on legs to allow a fire to be built underneath.
Sometimes the gridiron was made in the form of a rack in order to be able to resort to combined torture.
Saint Lawrence was martyred on a similar grid.
This torture was used very rarely. Firstly, it was quite easy to kill the person being interrogated, and secondly, there were a lot of simpler, but no less cruel tortures.
23. Pectoral 
In ancient times, a pectoral was a female breast decoration in the form of a pair of carved gold or silver bowls, often sprinkled with precious stones. It was worn like a modern bra and secured with chains.
In a mocking analogy with this decoration, the savage instrument of torture used by the Venetian Inquisition was named.
In 1985, the pectoral was heated red-hot and, taking it with tongs, they put it on the tortured woman’s chest and held it until she confessed. If the accused persisted, the executioners heated up the pectoral again cooled by the living body and continued the interrogation.
Very often, after this barbaric torture, charred, torn holes were left in place of the woman’s breasts.
24. Tickle torture 
This seemingly harmless effect was a terrible torture. With prolonged tickling, a person's nerve conduction increased so much that even the lightest touch initially caused twitching, laughter, and then turned into terrible pain. If such torture was continued for quite a long time, then after a while spasms of the respiratory muscles occurred and, in the end, the tortured person died from suffocation.
At the most simple version torture: sensitive areas were tickled by the interrogated, either simply with their hands, or with hair brushes or brushes. Stiff bird feathers were popular. Usually they tickled under the armpits, heels, nipples, inguinal folds, genitals, and women also under the breasts.
In addition, torture was often carried out using animals that licked some tasty substance from the heels of the interrogated person. The goat was very often used because it was very hard language, adapted for eating grass, caused very strong irritation.
There was also a type of tickling torture using a beetle, most common in India. With it, a small bug was placed on the head of a man's penis or on a woman's nipple and covered with half a nut shell. After some time, the tickling caused by the movement of insect legs on a living body became so unbearable that the interrogated person confessed to anything
25. Crocodile 
These tubular metal crocodile pliers were red-hot and used to tear the penis of the person being tortured. First, with a few caressing movements (often made by women), or with a tight bandage, a persistent, hard erection was achieved and then the torture began
26. Tooth crusher 
These serrated iron tongs were used to slowly crush the testicles of the interrogated person.
Something similar was widely used in Stalinist and fascist prisons.
27. Creepy tradition. 
Actually, this is not torture, but an African ritual, but, in my opinion, it is very cruel. Girls aged 3-6 years old simply had their external genitalia scraped out without anesthesia.
Thus, the girl did not lose the ability to have children, but was forever deprived of the opportunity to experience sexual desire and pleasure. This ritual is done “for the benefit” of women, so that they will never be tempted to cheat on their husbands
28. Bloody Eagle 
One of the most ancient tortures, during which the victim was tied face down and his back was opened, his ribs were broken off at the spine and spread apart like wings. Scandinavian legends claim that during such an execution, the wounds of the victim were sprinkled with salt.
Many historians claim that this torture was used by pagans against Christians, others are sure that spouses caught in treason were punished in this way, and still others claim that the bloody eagle is just a terrible legend. 
What were the Japanese "death camps" like?
A collection of photographs taken during the liberation of prisoners from Japanese death camps has been published in Britain. These photographs are no less shocking than photographs from German concentration camps. Japan did not support the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, and cruel jailers were free to do whatever they wanted to the prisoners: starve them, torture them and abuse them, turning people into emaciated half-corpses, reports Chips.
When, after the surrender of Japan in September 1945, Allied troops began to release Japanese prisoners of war concentration camps, a terrifying sight met their eyes. The Japanese, who did not support the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, mocked captured soldiers, turning them into living skeletons covered in leather.
The exhausted prisoners were constantly tortured and abused by the Japanese. The inhabitants of the camps pronounced with horror the names of the guards, who were famous for their special sadism. Some of them were subsequently arrested and executed as war criminals.
Prisoners in Japanese camps were fed extremely poorly, they were constantly hungry, and most of the survivors were in an extreme state of exhaustion at the time of liberation.
Tens of thousands of starving prisoners of war were constantly subjected to abuse and torture. The picture shows torture devices discovered in one of the prisoner of war camps by the Allied troops who liberated the camp. The tortures were numerous and inventive. For example, “water torture” was very popular: guards first poured a large volume of water into the prisoner’s stomach through a hose, and then jumped on his swollen belly.
Some guards became especially famous for their sadism. The picture shows Lieutenant Usuki, known among the prisoners as the "Black Prince". He was an overseer on the construction of the railway, which prisoners of war called "the road of death." Usuki beat people for the slightest offense or even without any guilt. And when one of the prisoners decided to escape, Usuki personally cut off his head in front of the other prisoners.
Another cruel overseer - a Korean nicknamed "Mad Half-Breed" - also became famous for his brutal beatings. He literally beat people to death. He was subsequently arrested and executed as a war criminal.
Very many British prisoners of war had their legs amputated while in captivity - both due to brutal torture, and because of numerous inflammations, the cause of which in a humid warm climate could be any wound, and in the absence of adequate medical care the inflammation quickly developed into gangrene.
In the photo - large group amputee prisoners after liberation from the camp.
By the time of liberation, many prisoners literally turned into living skeletons and could no longer stand up on their own.
Horrifying photographs were taken by officers of the Allied forces liberating the death camps: they were supposed to become evidence of Japanese war crimes during World War II.
During the war, more than 140 thousand Allied soldiers were captured by the Japanese, including representatives from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Great Britain, India and the United States.
The Japanese used prison labor to build highways, railways, airfields, for work in mines and factories. The working conditions were unbearable and the amount of food was minimal.
The “road of death”, a railway line built on the territory of modern Burma, enjoyed especially terrible fame. More than 60 thousand Allied prisoners of war were involved in its construction, about 12 thousand of them died during construction from hunger, disease and abuse.
The Japanese guards abused the prisoners as best they could. The prisoners were loaded with work that was clearly beyond the strength of exhausted people, and they were severely punished for failure to fulfill the quota.
Prisoners of war in Japanese camps lived in such ramshackle huts, in constant dampness, overcrowding and cramped conditions.
About 36,000 prisoners of war were transported to central Japan, where they worked in mines, shipyards and ammunition factories.
The prisoners ended up in the camp in the clothes in which they were captured Japanese troops. They were not given any other things: only sometimes, in some camps, they received work clothes, which were worn only while working. The rest of the time the prisoners wore their own things. Therefore, by the time of liberation, most prisoners of war remained in complete rags.