Japanese War Dead 1937-45

[Peter H]

The (in)famous Japanese Yasukuni Shrine tabulates something like 2.46 million Japanese war dead since 1853,95% or 2.3 million as a result of the Sino-Japanese War and WW2.This figure also includes Japanese civilians I assume,plus the Japanese Pows who died in Soviet captivity?Post-war radiation deaths are also included?

This here as well,various sources listed:

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/ww2stats.htm

Japan
Military:
Clodfelter: 500,000 Japanese k. or d. in China (only)
Keegan: 1,200,000
Kinder: 1,200,000
Small & Singer: 250,000 (1937-41), 1,000,000 (after Dec. 1941)
Info. Please: 1,270,000
Britannica: 1,300,000 (not incl. 300,000 deaths not related to battle)
Eckhardt: 1,500,000
HarperCollins: 1,506,000
Encarta: 1,700,000
Ellis: 1,740,000 (from 1937)
Compton's: 1,862,499
Urlanis: 2,000,000
Civilian:
Compton's: 250,000
HarperCollins: 300,000
Urlanis: 350,000
Encarta: 380,000
Ellis: 393,400
Eckhardt: 500,000
Britannica: 672,000
Wallechinsky: 700,000
All (undifferentiated):
Messenger: 2,000,000
Wallechinsky: 3.2M

I assume the Yasukuni figures are the more reliable,being detailed by name etc?

Would a breakdown of 1.7 million military dead,and 0.6 million civilian dead be a fair depiction of the total of 2.3 million?

[Larry D.]

I can't comment authoritatively on the numbers because no two sources seem to agree, but I have always thought that the Yasukuni Shrine was a place to honor military war dead and not civilians killed during the war. Perhaps I am wrong.

--Larry

[Zebedee]

The shrine also 'contains the kami of civillians'. Here is a link to the English version of the FAQ of the shrine's website:

http://www.yasukuni.or.jp/english/

(I provide this link only for information on the beliefs surrounding the shrine, and in no way endorse some of the opinions contained on this site.)

I do see Larry's point - not all civillians seem to be counted. eg I would have thought that more than 57 000 women would have been killed out of the c. 600 000?

Perhaps there is someone out there who can clarify this for us?

[mars]

Peter, those recorded Japanese deaths in China did not include Japanese killed in the China North-Eastern provinces, which was so-called "Manchu Country" in that periold, between 1931-1945, there were around 20,000 Japanese soldiers were killed by chinese gurillars there. And there were between 20,000-50,000 Japanese soldiers killed fighter Chinese in the two campaings in Bruma (1942 and 1943-1945)

[Larry D.]

Thanks Zebedee for the link to the Shrine's website.

It is pretty clear from the site's Q&A section that there are no civilians enshrined there except for:

1) women in direct service to the military (nurses, auxiliaries, signal personnel, etc.), who were killed in action or who committed suicide to prevent capture; and,
2) a small number of students (probably belonging to the Japanese equivalent of the Hitler Jugend) who died in direct service to the military while working in war production factories, etc.

So the total figure given for the number of souls enshrined there, less 57,000 women plus a few thousand others that are mentioned, are all uniformed military dead.

--Larry

[Larry D.]

Peter H et al -

A relatively recent source that is exceedingly well researched gives the number of Japanese "civilian deaths from air raids: 668,000."

Dunnigan, James F. and Albert A. Nofi. The Pacific War Encyclopedia. New York: Facts On File, 1998. Volume 1, page 106.

--Larry

[Zebedee]

Hi Larry,

I was thinking along the same lines but the site also lists "Some 1,500 peoples lost their lives when the Tsushima Maru, a transport ship, was torpedoed and sunk by an enemy submarine while transporting evacuees from Okinawa to Kagoshima. Included among them were 700 elementary school students".

These 1500 are also included. Which would imply not all the civillian enshrined kamis are directly linked to war work.

It's also worth adding that the shrine contains around 250 000 Korean and Taiwanese who died in Japan's armed forces. (Something which is still causing political friction as I type this cf http://rki.kbs.co.kr/english/news/news_ ... m?No=23598).

[Larry D.]

Some 210,000 war dead from Korea and 28,000 from Taiwan, most of them forced into service under Japan's colonial rule, are enshrined at Yasukuni.

Good point, Zebedee. To be really, really accurate with the numbers, it would probably be a very difficult task to break everything down into subsets so as to avoid mixing the apples with the oranges. I get tired just thinking about it because of the widely conflicting numbers. A couple of hours ago I checked my two volumes of the MacArthur Reports that cover the Japanese side during the war to see if there was any tabulation of Empire war casualties, but I came up empty handed. His Far Eastern Command G-2 people did a marvelous job with that material, but for some reason they avoided the subject of casualties. I guess they were smart.

--Larry

[Larry D.]

Here are some more numbers from a well-accepted source:

Not to confuse the issue:

About 1,130,000 Japanese died serving against American and allied forces in the Pacific island campaigns at sea, in the air and on land. The Japanese estimate that 81,000 of the above died after the Emperor's surrender: killed by local guerrillas, killed by local villagers in revenge for massacres, and dead from malnutrition, disease and suicide. In Japan American air raids killed 10,500 uniformed personnel and 183,000 civilians, half of them in Tokyo; plus 140,000 died from the effects of the bomb at Hiroshima and 70,000 at Nagasaki. The lust for glory on the part of a handful of fanatic generals in 1931 had resulted in the deaths of 2,670,000 of their fellow citizens and the imposition of a foreign occupation.

(page 181)

Yet, in tables on pages 322-23 of the same book, the author says Japan lost 1,630,000 military personnel while engaged on military operations, with a total human loss of 2,670,000. He cites no sources for any of these numbers so there is no way of telling where he got them from.

[Source: Ready, J. Lee. World War Two Nation by Nation. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1995.]

As hard as I try, I can't make these numbers balance out. :roll:

--Larry

[Peter H]

Gents,
Thanks for the input.

I think that some historians are confusing battle deaths with total deaths,missing and we end up getting some varying figures.

For example approx 250,000 Japanese served in Papua-New Guinea,but only 20,000 or so survived the war.Famine and disease took a large toll.Burma and the Phillipines probably tabulates to being somewhat of the same.Then as Mars points only 103,000 dead in China must be understated.

/Peter

[mars]

Peter, Japanese combat deaths in china exceeded 100,000 before the end of 1939 already

[Peter H]

Thanks mars.

This link says this:

http://www.nimitz-museum.org/cbiexcerpts.htm

Although Japan had managed inflict nearly two million Chinese casualties, it had suffered 700,000 of its own. By the end of 1941, over 400,000 Japanese soldiers had been killed in China, and a Japanese army of one million men was bogged down in a seemingly endless war against an opponent who could be beaten, but not defeated.

Perhaps the final death toll as mentioned by Lee,courtesy of Larry,might look like this?:

Japanese Military Personnel on active service

Pacific 1,130,000
Against China/USSR 500,000

Lee's figure 1,630,000

Then add:

Koreans/Taiwanese in Japanese service

Koreans/Taiwanese 238,000

Japanese prisoners held by Soviets,died in captivity

62,000

Women and youths in direct service

72,000


Civilian deaths

668,000


Total 2,670,000


Gueestimates at the best.

[Larry D.]

Your tally certainly makes sense and looks plausible, Peter H. Oh, by the way, the author's name is J. Lee Ready. Believe it or not, Ready is his last name.

--Larry

[Peter H]

'More than 3.1 million Japanese died in Showa War"

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/world/20060815TDY13001.htm

According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, the number of Japanese killed after the Sino-Japanese War started in 1937 stood at about 3.1 million.

They included 2.3 million servicemen and civilian employees who served for the military. Of them, 200,000 were killed on the mainland, and 2.1 million were killed on Okinawa Prefecture, Iwojima island and overseas.

Civilian war deaths are estimated at 800,000--500,000 killed in Japan and 300,000 overseas.

[guam]

Representatives of Japanese nonprofit are on Guam looking for gravesites of Japanese war dead.

Is it true that a majority of these men are still in the areas where they fell in battle? Mass burials have been rumored for years yet never proven...