Japanese War Crimes

[Peter H]

From ebay,seller bazooka**joe

[Peter H]

Prisoner of war camps in areas other than the four principal islands of Japan US Report 1946:

http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/cdm4/item_viewe ... SOPTR=3035

[Polar bear]

A new topic: Murder at sea - the killing of survivors of Allied merchantships` crews sunk by Japanese submarines

http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/kriegsrecht.htm (in German), if you need help with translation, please ask

[Peter H]

Japan's massacre of Korean laborers at Marshall Islands confirmed
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/ar ... 73990.html

As many as 100 Koreans, who were forcibly mobilized by Japan to build military facilities on the Marshall Islands, were indiscriminately killed in a rebellion that appears to have started after they were forced to eat human flesh, a government report said Tuesday.

A government committee, formed to investigate Japan's forced mobilization of Koreans during the 1910-1945 colonial era, said that the results of its three-year probe indicate that the laborers were served the flesh of their colleagues, disguised as "whale meat," after the Japanese forces ran out of food.

Koreans who survived the 1945 incident have given testimony of cannibalism, but the report is the first from the government supporting them.

According to the report, the incident began in February 1945 when the Koreans, taken to Mili Atoll to build an airstrip and other military facilities for Japanese troops, killed seven Japanese officials supervising them.

Records show there were about 800 to 1,000 forced Korean laborers on the islands, which served as the eastern defensive perimeter for the Japanese military forces in the Central Pacific during the war. After taking control of the Marshalls from Germany in 1914, the Japanese steadily increased their military presence there.

[David Thompson]

A post from Regiment Norge, dealing with a single alleged war crime involving Japanese submarine commander Kinzo Tonozuka, the I-10, and the sinking of the Norwegian ship Alcides in 1943, was split off from this thread and now has a thread of its own at http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=171175

[paulksmith]

this forum is giving us history as it should be taught throughout the world. Thanks to all of you

[Peter H]

Loa Kulu Massacre
http://compunews.com/gus/massacres.htm

July 30, 1945) After surrendering to overwhelming numbers of Japanese troops, around one hundred members of the Netherlands East Indies Army were disarmed and for a while permitted restricted freedom in the town of Samarinda, in Borneo, where most of the soldiers lived with their families. Early on the morning of July 30, all prisoners, including their families, were rounded up and taken before a Japanese officer who summarily sentenced them all to death. No reason was given as they were bundled into lorries and taken to Loa Kulu just outside the town. There they had their hands tied behind their backs and as the men and children watched, the women were systematically cut to pieces with swords and bayonets until they all died. The screaming children were then siezed and hurled alive down a 600 foot deep mine shaft. The men captives, forced to kneel and witness the butchery of their wives and children, and suffering the most indescribable mental torture, were then lined up for execution by beheading. When the grisly ritual was over, the bloodied corpses and severed heads of the 144 men were then thrown down the mine shaft on top of their murdered wives and children. The horror of Loa Kulu was discovered by Australian troops who had earlier started a search for the missing Dutch soldiers.

[Peter H]

NZ coastwatcher bodies may have been found on Tarawa

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbea ... 058651.htm

The headless bodies of 17 New Zealanders and five others murdered by the Japanese during World War 2 may have been found in Kiribati.

New Zealand's High Commissioner in Kiribati, Rob Kaiwai, says a large pit with bodies in it has been discovered on Tarawa.

The unarmed coastwatchers were taken prisoner when the Japanese seized Tarawa in 1942.

They were later beheaded.

More here: http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-W ... Epi-g.html

Seventeen New Zealand coastwatchers—seven wireless operators and ten soldiers—were taken prisoner in this completion of the Japanese occupation of the Gilberts. Five civilians, including the Government wireless operator at Tarawa, were imprisoned with them. The prisoners were brought to Tarawa immediately after their capture and remained for three days tied to coconut trees in front of the Japanese commandant's house. They were then confined in the native lunatic asylum enclosure and throughout the next few weeks were intermittently put to work shifting gravel or unloading shipping at the wharf.

In the early afternoon on 15 October 1942, United States forces bombed and shelled Tarawa. During the raid one prisoner, believed to have been a civilian, escaped from the asylum enclosure and ran excitedly along the beach, waving to the American planes. Armed Korean labourers searched the village for him and, catching him in the open, shot him immediately. In the late afternoon, when most of the native population was gathered at the wharf out of sight, the Japanese killed all the prisoners. It is not known whether the dominant motive for this murder was reprisal for the raid or revenge for the escape. The Japanese who beheaded the prisoners with his sword was an official, possibly a civilian, in charge of the Korean labourers.

At an enquiry into the Tarawa murders held by an official of the Western Pacific High Commission in October 1944, one native eye-witness gave the following evidence. At about five o'clock in the evening of the day of the American raid he heard a good deal of noise from the asylum enclosure and saw the European prisoners inside sitting in a line surrounded by a number of Japanese. A dead European was dragged out from inside the asylum building and placed in front of the other prisoners. (It is conjectured that this was the man shot for escaping earlier in the afternoon.) ‘Then one Japanese started to kill the Europeans…. I did not see any more because I fainted.’

The coastwatchers who died on Tarawa (and Sergeant Third on Ocean Island) were posthumously mentioned in despatches ‘For exemplary conduct in coastwatching and communications duties in the Gilbert Islands area in the face of the enemy, despite overwhelming odds and the knowledge that relief or escape was impossible.’*

[Peter H]

Japanese Atrocities on Nauru during the Pacific War: The murder of Australians, the massacre of lepers and the ethnocide of Nauruans

Yuki Tanaka

http://japanfocus.org/-Yuki-TANAKA/3441

[Andy H]

There are several instances of cannibalism identified in The Final Betrayal by Mark Felton.

These inc amongst others the cases of 4 US servicemen-Marv Mershon a USN Radio operator who was executed and had his liver removed, Lt Flod Hall was beheaded and his liver also removed and finally two POW's Warren Earl Vaughan & Jimmy Doyle.

The eating of human flesh occured at the HQ of the 207th Inf.Btn under Col.Kato.

After a trial on Guam in 1946, two men were jailed for life, whilst a further 5 were hanged.

The book also mentions further cases of atrocities met out to POW from various nations.

Regards

Andy

[Peter H]

Maehara apologizes to former Australian POWs over wartime forced labor
http://www.japantoday.com/category/nati ... rced-labor

TOKYO —
Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara on Thursday apologized to five former Australian prisoners of war and their families in Tokyo over forced labor during World War II.

‘‘I hope we are able to create friendship and accommodation,’’ while bolstering ties between Japan and Australia, Maehara said at the beginning of the meeting. The former POWs and their families are visiting Japan on a trip through Wednesday sponsored by the Japanese government.

Representing the former POWs, Charles Richards, 94, expressed gratitude to Maehara, saying the government’s invitation would contribute to enhancing bilateral ties, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Richards was involved in building the Burma Railway after being held prisoner in Singapore. He was in Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture, when the war ended.

The former POWs are scheduled to visit Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture and Kure in Hiroshima Prefecture, where they were held during the war, on Friday and Saturday, they said.

[David Thompson]

A post on the ongoing archaeological "dig" of Unit 731's headquarters in Japan was moved to the "Unit 731 and Germ Warfare" thread at http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=44406

[Peter H]

From: http://www.nids.go.jp/english/publicati ... 2008_5.pdf

Lang Son Massacre,Indochina,March 1945

On March 12, 1945 there was an incident in which all of the 300 to 500 French POWs in Lanson,
French Indochina were executed. The majority of the prisoners were captured in battles on March
9 and 10. The Japanese troops that captured the French prisoners were under orders to transfer
immediately to their next operations. Because this troop had already suffered about 500 casualties
in battle and was reduced to about 800 men, the leaders in charge wanted to minimize the number
of soldiers they would have to leave behind for local guard duty. There was also serious concern
that about 3,000 to 4,000 French troops were still on the loose evading capture. Therefore, the troop
commander made a decision to execute all prisoners. The French commander of the local troop and
the chief of local administration were beheaded and the others were killed either by bayoneting or
by military swords. This case was a typical example of mistreatment of prisoners for the sake of
military expedience.

[flavian]

Lt Colonel Arthur Key commanded the Australian 2/14th Battalion at Kokoda in 1942.

After the battle of Isurava Key and his Battalion HQ Staff were cut off and finally captured after 10 days of trying to escape the enemy.They were taken to Buna.

According to Paul Ham's Kokoda;

..'Captured Lt-Col K and four others,'noted one Japanese soldier.'Though questioned they stubbornly refused to speak.' ...his [later] fate,and that of his men,was decapitation,either in Buna or in Rabaul..

Photo of Key from the AWM

My great Uncle W.Maurice Greenwood, VX36347, was part of Key's party.. I have studied this for years to try help closure for his brother, my grandfather as to what actually happened. Unfortunaley, I dont know if he was part of the party captured, as there were originally 5 others with Key. One comrade thinks he may have been the missing one.. dont know, other from what is documented above. Anyone know anymore about this?

[Peter H]

Admin Box Main Dressing Station

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Admin_Box

On the night of 7 February [1944], some Japanese troops captured the divisional Main Dressing Station. In what was undoubtedly a war crime thirty-five medical staff and patients were murdered.This may have increased the resolve of the defenders who were now aware what fate would befall them if they surrendered.

Oral accounts from Forgotten Voices of Burma Julian Thompson,page 130-131:

That night the Japanese broke in.We heard all the screaming from the ward across the track and bullets came through our tarpaulin...We could see the Japanese bayoneting and killing,and running about...out of six doctors there was only one left alive and most of the sixty wounded were killed.They smashed the operating theatre..

...[we] cleared the Japanese out of the MDS.They found that the enemy had camouflaged their machine-gun posts with stretchers in the wards and theatres.The bodies of thirty-one patients and four doctors were found,as well as seventy Japanese.

That night the Japanese pulled out...and started trickling down a chaung that ran up into the main dressing station...Both sides were held by our Brigade echelon personnel..they twigged what was happening and let the Japs have it.They killed an enormous number of them in the chaung,which became known as Blood Nullah.These were the chaps who had raided the dressing station,so we felt we'd avenged that one...