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, captive Americans, British, Greeks, Australians and Chinese had to face slave labor, forced marches, 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 no less than 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. Japanese army soldiers 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 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 they captured American soldiers, 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.
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Almost everyone knows about the atrocities of the Gestapo, but few have heard about the horrific crimes committed by the Kempeitai, the modernized military police Imperial Army Japan, founded in 1881. The Kempeitai was an ordinary, unremarkable police force until the rise of Japanese imperialism after World War I. However, over time it became a cruel organ state power, whose jurisdiction extended to occupied territories, prisoners of war and conquered peoples. Kempeitai employees worked as spies and counterintelligence agents. They used torture and extrajudicial execution to maintain their power over millions of innocent people. When Japan surrendered, the Kempeitai leadership deliberately destroyed most documents, so we are unlikely to ever know the true scale of their brutal crimes.
1. Killing prisoners of war
After the Japanese occupied the Dutch East Indies, a group of approximately two hundred British troops found themselves surrounded on the island of Java. They did not give up and decided to fight to the last. Most of them were captured by the Kempeitai and subjected to severe torture. According to more than 60 witnesses who testified at the Hague court after the end of World War II, British prisoners of war were placed in bamboo cages (meter by meter in size) designed to transport pigs. They were transported to the coast in trucks and on open rail carts at air temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius.
The cages containing the British prisoners, who were suffering from severe dehydration, were then loaded onto boats off the coast of Surabaya and thrown into the ocean. Some prisoners of war drowned, others were eaten alive by sharks. One Dutch witness, who was only eleven years old at the time of the events described, said the following:
“One day around noon, during the hottest part of the day, a convoy of four or five army trucks carrying so-called “pig baskets”, which were usually used to transport animals to the market or slaughterhouse, drove down the street where we were playing. Indonesia was Muslim country. Pork meat was marketed to European and Chinese consumers. Muslims (residents of the island of Java) were not allowed to eat pork because they considered pigs to be “dirty animals” that should be avoided. To our great surprise, the pig baskets contained Australian soldiers in shabby military uniform. They were attached to each other. The condition of most of them left much to be desired. Many were dying of thirst and asking for water. I saw one of the Japanese soldiers open his fly and urinate on them. I was terrified then. I will never forget this picture. My father later told me that the cages containing the prisoners of war were thrown into the ocean.”
Lieutenant General Hitoshi Imamura, Commander Japanese troops, who were stationed on the island of Java, were accused of crimes against humanity, but he was acquitted by the Hague court due to insufficient evidence. However, in 1946, an Australian military tribunal found him guilty and sentenced him to ten years in prison, which he spent in prison in the city of Sugamo (Japan).
2. Operation Suk Ching
After the Japanese captured Singapore, they gave the city a new name - Sionan ("Light of the South") - and switched to Tokyo time. They then initiated a program to clear the city of Chinese, whom they considered dangerous or undesirable. Every Chinese male between the ages of 15 and 50 was ordered to appear at one of the registration points located throughout the island for questioning to determine their political views and loyalties. Those who passed the test were given a “Passed” stamp on their face, hands or clothing. Those who did not pass it (these were communists, nationalists, members of secret societies, bearers in English, government employees, teachers, veterans and criminals) were detained. A simple decorative tattoo was sufficient reason for a person to be mistaken for a member of an anti-Japanese secret society.
Two weeks after interrogation, the detainees were sent to work on plantations or drowned in the coastal areas of Changi, Ponggol and Tanah Merah Besar. Methods of punishment varied depending on the whims of the commanders. Some of the detainees were drowned in the sea, others were shot with a machine gun, and others were stabbed or beheaded. After the end of World War II, the Japanese claimed to have killed or tortured to death about 5,000 people, however, it is estimated local residents, the number of victims ranged from 20 to 50 thousand people.
3. Sandakan Death Marches
The occupation of Borneo gave the Japanese access to valuable offshore oil fields, which they decided to protect by building a nearby military airfield near the port of Sandakan. About 1,500 prisoners of war, mostly Australian soldiers, were sent to construction works to Sandakan, where they endured terrible conditions and received meager rations consisting of dirty rice and few vegetables. At the beginning of 1943, they were joined by British prisoners of war, who were forced to make an airstrip. They suffered from hunger, tropical ulcers and malnutrition.
The first few escapes by prisoners of war led to reprisals in the camp. Captured soldiers were beaten or locked in cages and left in the sun for picking coconuts or for not bowing their heads low enough to a passing camp commander. People suspected of any illegal activities were brutally tortured by the Kempeitai police. They burned their skin with a lighter or stuck iron nails into their nails. One of the prisoners of war described the Kempeitai torture methods as follows:
“They took a small wooden stick the size of a skewer and used a hammer to “hammer” it into my left ear. When she ruptured my eardrum, I lost consciousness. The last thing I remembered was excruciating pain. I came to my senses literally a couple of minutes later - after a bucket was poured on me cold water. My ear healed after a while, but I could no longer hear with it.”
Despite the repression, one Australian soldier, Captain L. S. Matthews, was able to create a clandestine intelligence network, smuggling medicine, food and money to prisoners and maintaining radio contact with the Allies. When he was arrested, he, despite brutal torture, did not disclose the names of those who helped him. Matthews was executed by the Kempeitai in 1944.
In January 1945, the Allies bombed the Sandakan military base and the Japanese were forced to retreat to Ranau. Three death marches occurred between January and May. The first wave consisted of those who were considered to have the best physical fitness. They were loaded with backpacks containing various military equipment and ammunition and forced to march through the tropical jungle for nine days, while only receiving food rations (rice, dried fish and salt) for four days. Prisoners of war who fell or stopped to rest a little were shot or beaten to death by the Japanese. Those who managed to survive the death march were sent to build camps. The prisoners of war who built the airfield near the port of Sandakan suffered constant abuse and starvation. They were eventually forced to go south. Those who could not move were burned alive in the camp as the Japanese retreated. Only six Australian soldiers survived this death march.
4. Kikosaku
During the occupation Dutch East Indies The Japanese had significant difficulty controlling the Eurasian population, people of mixed (Dutch and Indonesian) blood, who tended to be influential people and did not support the Japanese version of pan-Asianism. They were subjected to persecution and repression. Most of them met a sad fate - the death penalty.
The word "kikosaku" was a neologism and derived from "kosen" ("land of the dead", or "yellow spring") and "saku" ("technique" or "maneuvering"). It is translated into Russian as “Operation Underworld.” In practice, the word "kikosaku" was used to refer to execution without judicial trial or unofficial punishment leading to death.
The Japanese believed that the Indonesians, who had mixed blood in their veins, or "kontetsu" as they pejoratively called them, were loyal to the Dutch forces. They suspected them of espionage and sabotage. The Japanese shared the Dutch colonialists' fears about the outbreak of riots among communists and Muslims. They concluded that the judicial process in investigating cases of lack of loyalty was ineffective and hampered management. The introduction of "kikosaku" allowed the Kempeitai to arrest people on indefinite term without bringing formal charges, after which they were shot.
Kikosaku was used when Kempeitai personnel believed that only the most extreme interrogation methods would lead to a confession, even if the end result was death. Former member Kempeitai admitted in an interview with the New York Times: “At the mention of us, even babies stopped crying. Everyone was afraid of us. The prisoners who came to us faced only one fate – death.”
5. Jesselton Rebellion
The city today known as Kota Kinabalu was formerly called Jesselton. It was founded in 1899 by the British North Borneo Company and served as a way station and source of rubber until it was captured by the Japanese in January 1942 and renamed Api. On October 9, 1943, the ethnic Chinese and Suluks rebelled ( indigenous people North Borneo) attacked the Japanese military administration, offices, police stations, hotels where soldiers lived, warehouses and the main pier. Although the rebels were armed with hunting rifles, spears and long knives, they managed to kill between 60 and 90 Japanese and Taiwanese occupiers.
Two army battalions and Kempeitai personnel were sent to the city to suppress the uprising. The repression also affected civilian population. Hundreds of ethnic Chinese were executed for suspicion of aiding or sympathizing with the rebels. The Japanese also persecuted representatives of the Suluk people who lived on the islands of Sulug, Udar, Dinawan, Mantanani and Mengalum. According to some estimates, the number of victims of repression was about 3,000 people.
6. Double Ten Incident
In October 1943, a group of Anglo-Australian special forces ("Special Z") infiltrated Singapore harbor using an old fishing boat and kayaks. Using magnetic mines, they neutralized seven Japanese ships, including oil tanker. They managed to remain undetected, so the Japanese, relying on the information transmitted to them civilians and prisoners from Changi Prison, decided that the attack was organized by British guerrillas from Malaya.
On October 10, Kempeitai officers raided Changi Prison, conducted a day-long search, and arrested the suspects. A total of 57 people were arrested on suspicion of participation in harbor sabotage, including a Church of England bishop and a former minister. british colonies and Information Officer. They spent five months in prison cells, which were always brightly lit and were not equipped with sleeping beds. During this time, they were starved and subjected to harsh interrogations. One suspect was executed for alleged participation in sabotage, fifteen others died due to torture.
In 1946, a trial took place for those involved in what became known as the "Double Ten Incident". British prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Colin Sleeman described the Japanese mentality of the time:
“I have to talk about actions that are an example of human depravity and degradation. What these people did, devoid of mercy, can only be described as unspeakable horror... Among the huge amount of evidence, I tried hard to find some mitigating circumstance, a factor that would justify the behavior of these people, that would raise the story from the level of pure horror and bestiality and would have ennobled it before the tragedy. I admit, I was not able to do this.”
7. Bridge House
After Shanghai was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1937, secret police The Kempeitai occupied the building known as Bridge House.
The Kempeitai and the collaborationist reform government used the "Yellow Road" ("Huandao Hui"), a paramilitary organization consisting of Chinese criminals, to kill and commit Act of terrorism against anti-Japanese elements in foreign settlements. Thus, in an incident known as Kai Diaotu, the editor of a famous anti-Japanese tabloid was beheaded. His head was then hung on a lamppost in front of the French Concession, along with a banner reading “This is what awaits all citizens opposed to Japan.”
After Japan entered the Second world war Kempeitai employees began to persecute the foreign population of Shanghai. People were arrested on charges of anti-Japanese activity or espionage and taken to Bridge House, where they were kept in iron cages and subjected to beatings and torture. The conditions were terrible: “Rats and lice were everywhere. No one was allowed to take a bath or shower. Diseases at Bridge House ranged from dysentery to typhoid.”
The Kempeitai attracted particular attention from American and British journalists who reported on Japanese atrocities in China. John Powell, editor of the China Weekly Review, wrote: “When the interrogation began, the prisoner took off all his clothes and knelt in front of the jailers. If his answers did not satisfy the interrogators, he was beaten with bamboo sticks until blood began to ooze from the wounds.” Powell managed to return to his homeland, where he soon died after surgery to amputate a leg affected by gangrene. Many of his colleagues were also seriously injured or went crazy from the shock they experienced.
In 1942, with the assistance of the Swiss Embassy, part of the foreign citizens, who were detained and tortured at Bridge House by Kempeitai officers.
8. Occupation of Guam
Along with the islands of Attu and Kiska (the Aleutian Islands archipelago), whose population was evacuated before the invasion, Guam became the only populated area United States, occupied by the Japanese during World War II.
The island of Guam was captured in 1941 and renamed Omiya Jayme (Great Shrine). The capital Agana also received a new name - Akashi (Red City). The island was initially under the control of the Imperial Japanese navy. The Japanese resorted to vicious methods in an attempt to weaken American influence and force members of the indigenous Chamorro people to adhere to Japanese social mores and customs.
Kempeitai personnel took control of the island in 1944. They introduced forced labor for men, women, children and the elderly. Kempeitai employees were convinced that the pro-American Chamorros were engaged in espionage and sabotage, so they brutally dealt with them. One man, José Lizama Charfauros, came across a Japanese patrol while searching for food. He was forced to kneel and a huge cut was made on his neck with a sword. Charfauros was found by his friends a few days after the incident. The maggots stuck to his wound, which helped him stay alive and not get blood poisoning.
9. Women for carnal pleasures
The issue of "pleasure women" who were forced into prostitution by Japanese soldiers during World War II continues to be a source of political tension and historical revisionism in East Asia.
Officially, Kempeitai employees began to engage in organized prostitution in 1904. Initially, brothel owners contracted with the military police, who were assigned the role of overseers, based on the fact that some prostitutes could spy for enemies, extracting secrets from talkative or careless clients.
In 1932, Kempeitai employees took full control over organized prostitution for military personnel. Women were forced to live in barracks and tents behind barbed wire. They were guarded by Korean or Japanese yakuza. Railroad cars were also used as mobile brothels. The Japanese forced girls over 13 years of age into prostitution. The prices for their services depended on the ethnic origin of the girls and women and what kind of clients they served - officers, non-commissioned officers or privates. The highest prices were paid for Japanese, Korean and Chinese women. It is estimated that about 200 thousand women were forced to provide sexual services to 3.5 million Japanese soldiers. They were kept in terrible conditions and received virtually no money, despite the fact that they were promised 800 yen a month.
In 1945, members of the British Royal Marines captured Kempeitai documents in Taiwan, which revealed what was done to prisoners in the case of emergency. They were destroyed by massive bombing, poisonous gas, decapitation, drowning and other methods.
10. Epidemic Prevention Department
Japanese experiments on humans are associated with the infamous "Object 731". However, the scale of the program is difficult to fully assess, since there were at least seventeen other similar facilities throughout Asia that no one knew about.
“Object 173,” for which Kempeitai employees were responsible, was located in the Manchurian city of Pingfang. Eight villages were destroyed for its construction. It included living quarters and laboratories where doctors and scientists worked, as well as barracks, a prison camp, bunkers and a large crematorium for disposing of corpses. "Facility 173" was called the Epidemic Prevention Department.
Shiro Ishii, head of Object 173, told new employees: “The God-given mission of a doctor is to block and cure diseases. However, what we are currently working on is the complete opposite those principles". Prisoners who ended up in Site 173 were generally considered to be "incorrigible", "with anti-Japanese views" or "of no value or use." Most of them were Chinese, but there were also Koreans, Russians, Americans, British and Australians.
In the laboratories of Object 173, scientists conducted experiments on people. They tested the influence of biological agents on them (bubonic plague viruses, cholera, anthrax, tuberculosis and typhoid) and chemical weapons. One of the scientists who worked at Object 173 spoke about one incident that happened outside its walls: “He [we are talking about a thirty-year-old Chinese] knew that it was all over for him, so he did not resist when he was brought into the room and tied to the couch. But when I picked up the scalpel, he started screaming. I made an incision on his body from his chest to his stomach. He screamed loudly; his face twisted in agony. He screamed in a voice that was not his own, and then stopped. Surgeons face this every day. I was a little shocked because it was my first time."
Objects controlled by Kempeitai employees and Kwantung Army, were located throughout China and Asia. At "Object 100" in Changchun they developed biological weapons, which was supposed to destroy all livestock in China and the Soviet Union. At “Object 8604” in Guangzhou, rats that carried bubonic plague were bred. At other sites, for example, in Singapore and Thailand, malaria and plague were studied.
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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 of the civilian population of the occupied territories, as well as 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.
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. Railway had to pass through incredibly dense jungle, and was built mainly 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 the history of Australia, which did not go beyond the borders of this state, is considered to be the 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
Palawan prison camp in the Philippines, as in all Japanese camps for prisoners of war, it was simply a hellish 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...