japanese thriller violence cinema

Before starting an overview of the topic of cruelty in Japanese cinema, in my opinion, it is worth paying attention to how cruelty and violence manifested themselves in Japan in real life, and can we say that cruelty is part of the Japanese character. It is worth noting that we can see manifestations of cruelty in different periods Japanese history- from antiquity to today. Cruelty manifested itself in various areas of Japanese life.

Things that will be described above, such as the behavior of samurai, torture, executions, and other manifestations of violence were part of everyday life Japanese for a long time. All this is reflected in the art of cinema, as it often depicts the realities of society.

A striking example of cruelty is the behavior of samurai. A samurai could kill absolutely any person who, as it seemed to the samurai, showed disrespect to him or made any mistake in his actions. Situations were absolutely normal when samurai without apparent reason chopped off ordinary people heads. Their barbaric cruelty was not condemned or punished. During hostilities, samurai resorted to various tortures, mockery and humiliation of the enemy. Rape and murder of women was considered an absolutely common practice. For samurai, this was not something too cruel and immoral, it was one of the ways to humiliate the enemy.

Also a shining example manifestations of cruelty can serve as torture during the Edo era (1603 - 1868). In medieval Japan, torture was common as punishment or interrogation of a prisoner. They were pretty common occurrence for the residents and were not perceived by the Japanese as a manifestation of cruelty. Most often, torture was used on a person to obtain from him a confession of committing a crime. Before 1742 in Japan there were too brutal torture, such as tearing out nostrils, cutting off fingers, and plunging limbs into boiling oil. But in 1742, the “Code of One Hundred Articles” was adopted, which abolished such cruel measures. After this, only four types of torture remained: Prasol A.F. From Edo to Tokyo and back. - M.: Astrel, 2012. - 333.. The easiest thing was beating with sticks. The victim was stripped to the waist, put on his knees and began to beat her on the shoulders and back. A doctor was present in the room during this procedure. Torture was applied to the prisoner until he told the truth or confessed to what he had done. Ibid. P. 333..

Pressure torture was also used. Stone slabs were placed on the victim’s lap; each slab weighed 49 kilograms. A case is described when a prisoner withstood the pressure of 10 slabs - it is believed that this is the maximum weight that a prisoner could withstand. Ibid. P. 333..

Torture by tying with rope was considered the third most cruel. The defendant was twisted into the “shrimp” position and left there for approximately 3-4 hours.

And the last type of torture is hanging from a rope. This technique was used extremely rarely. Ibid. pp. 334 - 335. .

I would also like to say a few words regarding death penalty. There were six main types of execution, which depended on the severity of the crime committed. Types of death penalty:

cutting off the head when the body was handed over to relatives;

cutting off the head when the body was not handed over to relatives;

beheading and public display;

burning at the stake;

execution on the cross;

cutting off the head with a bamboo saw and public demonstration 5 Prasol A.F. From Edo to Tokyo and back. - M.: Astrel, 2012. - 340 - 341. .

It is worth noting that the cruelty of Japanese torture was noted in his diaries by Vasily Golovnin: “... in the Japanese criminal law it is commanded, in the event of denial of the accused, to use the most terrible tortures that evil could invent in barbaric times...” Golovnin V. M. Notes of a fleet captain Golovnin about his adventures in captivity of the Japanese. M.: Zakharov, 2004.. In addition to Golovnin, the cruelty of the Japanese towards the guilty was also noted by the Americans, who participated in the forced opening of Japan in the second half of the 20th century.

In 1893, Sakuma Osahiro, a member of a family of city government employees, compiled a treatise called “A True Description of the Practice of Torture,” which contained a description of the practice of torturing a prisoner. In the treatise, the author described the main tortures before the Edo era - torture by water, fire, torture in the “water prison” and torture of the “wooden horse”. The author of the treatise considered the abandonment of these methods and the transition to new types of torture, which we described earlier, as a real evolution. Important information for us is the role that the author of the treatise assigns to torture. Torture was not considered punishment or revenge for a crime committed. Torture was one part of the investigation of the crime. Torture was intended to bring the prisoner to repentance and was not considered a barbaric practice. This was one of the parts trial Sakuma Osahiro. A true account of the practice of torture. [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/Dokumenty/Japan/XIX/1880-1900/Sakuma_Osahiro/frametext.htm.

Cruelty was also used against people who studied various crafts and arts. The teacher could punish the student in the most cruel way, but this was done only for the benefit of the student. For example, a variety of tortures could be applied to a guilty geisha, the main thing was not to cause any harm to her face and not to disfigure the girl.

Of course, the most indicative bloody period of Japanese cruelty was the first half of the 20th century, when the country was actively involved in military activities. Cruelty was shown both to enemies and to loved ones. For example, during Russo-Japanese War(1904-1905) some soldiers killed their children and wives so as not to condemn them to starvation. But it is worth noting that the Japanese did not consider this a manifestation of cruelty, but on the contrary, it was a manifestation of nobility and devotion to their emperor.

They showed insane cruelty Japanese warriors to your enemies. The numbers speak for themselves: according to average estimates, about 300,000 people died during the Nanjing operation, 250,000 people died during the Zhejiang-Jiangxi operation, in addition, Japanese soldiers killed about 100,000 Filipinos and 250,000 Burmese. It is believed that Japanese wartime soldiers had a "three to three clear" policy, namely "burn the clear", "kill all the clear", "rob the clear". And looking at what the Japanese soldiers did, it becomes clear that the Japanese soldiers observed these slogans very clearly.

The complete destruction of entire cities and villages was absolutely normal for Japanese soldiers. The Japanese researcher Teruyuki Hara wrote the following about the intervention in Siberia: “Of all the cases of “complete liquidation of villages, the burning of the village of Ivanovka was the largest in scale and the most cruel.”

In 1937, an event occurred that became known as the Nanjing Massacre. It all started with the Japanese bayoneting about 20 thousand young men of military age so that they would not be able to fight against Japan in the future. The Japanese did not spare the elderly, children or women. They were not just killed, they were mocked in the dirtiest ways. Women were subjected to brutal violence, people's eyes and other organs were torn out. Eyewitnesses say that Japanese soldiers raped all the women in a row: both very young girls and old women. The weapons that the soldiers had were practically not used to kill victims, since other, bloodier types of murder were used Terentyev N. The flashpoint of the war in the Far East. [Electronic resource]. - Access mode:

http://militera.lib.ru/science/terentiev_n/05.html.

The Japanese also showed toughness in Manila. Many people were shot, some were burned alive after dousing them with gasoline.

The soldiers took photographs with their victims “as a souvenir.” The faces of the soldiers in these photographs do not express an iota of remorse.

During the wars, the Japanese actively created and used “comfort stations” - places where Japanese soldiers “relaxed” with women. It is estimated that about 300,000 women passed through the “comfort stations,” many of whom were under 18 years old. But, as Japanese scientists note, no one was forced into prostitution; the girls went to work at the comfort station only of their own free will.

It is also worth noting the special unit for the development of bacteriological weapons or detachment 731. Bacteria of plague, typhoid, dysentery and other deadly diseases were tested on civilians. Japanese scientists used the term “logs” to refer to their experimental subjects. Scientists conducted experiments not only for scientific purposes, but also for fun. The extent of the atrocity cannot be determined. But you can also look at this from the other side, many scientists say that the Japanese committed all these atrocities for the benefit of their own compatriots. They didn't want their soldiers to get sick and were looking for treatment options for various diseases.

The cruelty of the soldiers can be explained by one more fact. At that time, the rules within the Japanese army were very harsh. For any mistake, a soldier could be punished. Most often these were blows or slaps, but sometimes the punishment could be more severe. During the exercises, cruelty and humiliation also reigned in the army. Young soldiers were “cannon fodder” for the elite. Naturally, the young officers could only take out their accumulated aggression on the enemy. This, in fact, was one of the tasks of such a cruel upbringing of Seiichi Morimura. Devil's kitchen. - M.: Progress, 1983. .

Do not forget about the factor of devotion to the emperor. In order to show their loyalty to the emperor, Japanese soldiers went to great lengths. Special attack or kamikaze shock troops went to certain death for the sake of the emperor.

If we talk about modernity, then cruelty manifests itself even today. Of course, these are not the same atrocities that occurred in medieval Japan or during World War II. But sometimes it’s very strange to see that in one of the most developed countries the world show such strange impulses of cruelty towards their citizens.

A striking example is modern entertainment programs. In them people are forced to swim in boiling water and perform various tasks that are harmful to health. On many TV shows you can see people breaking their limbs and, what’s strange, such TV shows bring great pleasure to the audience. During these programs we can hear the cheerful laughter of the audience. A favorite Japanese joke is the falling floor - when a person steps on it, the floor collapses and the person falls into boiling water. The Japanese like to use such jokes during various kinds of awards. A well-known test is when people come for an interview and after a while a “drowned boy” approaches them in silence. Employers thus study the applicant's reaction to the workplace.

Let's not forget about a serious problem in the lives of Japanese schoolchildren. It has long been known that in Japanese system education exists school bullying or ijime- bullying, harassment, bullying. Some schoolchildren are driven to suicide by bullying from peers. Ijime aimed at psychological suppression of the individual. For bullying, they usually choose a child who is different from others in some way. Moreover, children of fairly successful parents participate in bullying. Year after year, the number of bullying of schoolchildren continues to grow, and Nurutdinova A.R. has not yet been very successful in solving this problem. On the other side of the “Japanese miracle”, or “Ijime”: a social disease of Japanese life and the education system. - M.: 2012. .

Recently, the cruelty of the Japanese towards dolphins has been increasingly discussed in the world. Dolphin hunting season is open in the country from September to April, and the Japanese kill a huge number of fish during this time. The world community is outraged by the behavior of the Japanese. But it is worth noting that for the Japanese this is a long-standing tradition that has become part of everyday life, and not a manifestation of cruelty towards animals.

Thus, we see that cruelty has been present in the life of the Japanese since ancient times, and often what was considered cruel and immoral for a Westerner was not such for the Japanese. Therefore, we can say that Japanese and Western people have different concepts and attitudes towards cruelty.

It is also worth noting the fundamental differences in the perception of cruelty between the Japanese and Westerners. For the Japanese, the manifestation of cruelty, as we have already mentioned, was quite common, so they treated it with calm. In addition, people from childhood were inculcated with the awareness that there may be a need to sacrifice oneself for the sake of others. This also influenced a rather calm perception of death. Unlike Western people, death for the Japanese was not something scary and terrible, it was a transition to a new stage and therefore was perceived with virtually no fear. Apparently this is why Japanese directors depict scenes of cruelty in their works, because they do not see anything terrible in them. And the Japanese viewer also treats scenes of violence in films quite calmly.

For our work, the analysis of the manifestation of cruelty is important because it shows the difference in the concept of cruelty among Westerners and among the Japanese. We saw that often what seems cruel to Westerners seems completely normal to the Japanese. In addition, the historical events that we described above served as material for the works of many directors.

Several nurses, exhausted, made their way through the tropical thickets. They had been walking all last day and most of the night. The morning southern sun began 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 the movements of 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 in 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 hole 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 panting, 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, both her heads femur were torn from their joints. The general stood under her and raised his sword over her shaved bosom. He slashed right at 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.

Hmembers of the Chamber are already aware that in lately Many postcards and letters arrived in Britain from prisoners in the Far East. The authors of almost all of these letters report that they are treated well and that they are healthy. Based on what we know about the situation of prisoners in certain areas Far East, it is safe to say that at least some of these letters were written under the dictation of the Japanese authorities.

I must unfortunately inform the House that the information received by His Majesty's Government shows absolutely beyond doubt, so far as the vast majority of prisoners in Japanese hands are concerned, that the actual state of affairs is quite different.

The House already knows that approximately 80 to 90% of Japanese civilians and military personnel interned are located in the southern region, which includes the Philippine Islands, the Dutch West Indies, Borneo, Malaya, Burma, Siam and Indo-China. The Japanese government still does not allow representatives of neutral countries to visit prison camps.

We could not obtain from the Japanese any information about the number of prisoners located in various areas, nor their names.

His Majesty's Government have received information regarding the conditions of detention and work of prisoners of war in some parts of this area. This information was of such a grim nature that it might have caused concern to the relatives of prisoners and interned civilians in Japanese hands.

The government considered it its responsibility to verify the accuracy of the information received before making it public.

Thousands of deaths

We are now convinced of the reliability of the information received. It is my sad duty to inform the House that there are now many thousands of prisoners in Siam, originally from the British Commonwealth, particularly from India.

The Japanese military forces them to live in tropical jungle conditions without good enough shelter, without clothing, food and medical care. Prisoners are forced to work on the gasket railway and on the construction of roads in the jungle.

According to the information we have received, the prisoners' health is rapidly deteriorating. Many of them are seriously ill. Several thousand prisoners have already died. I can add to this that the Japanese informed us of the death of a little more than a hundred prisoners. Roads built by prisoners go to Burma. The conditions I spoke about prevail throughout construction.

Here is what one eyewitness says about the prisoner of war camp in Siam:

“I saw a lot of prisoners, but they looked little like people: skin and bones. The prisoners were half naked, unshaven, their long, overgrown hair was tangled in tatters.”

The same witness said that the prisoners had neither hats nor shoes. I would like to remind the House that this is taking place in an area with a tropical climate, in an almost deserted area where no medical or other assistance can be obtained from the population.

We have information about the situation of prisoners in another part of this huge southern region. Evidence from Java suggests that prisoners held in unsanitary conditions in camps are not protected from malaria. Food and clothing are not enough. This leads to a deterioration in the health of prisoners, who only sometimes manage to supplement their rations with something.

Information received from the northern region suggests complete exhaustion most of the prisoners arriving from Java.

Regarding the conditions of detention of prisoners in other parts of the southern region, I do not yet have information that I could report to the House.

Before leaving the southern region, I must mention one exception. The information at our disposal suggests that conditions in the civilian internment camps are much better, or at least tolerable.

Gross bullying

The Japanese Government's refusal to grant neutral observers permission to inspect the camps in the southern region cannot be justified on plausible grounds, since the Japanese Government allowed neutrals to inspect the camps in the northern region, which includes Hong Kong, Formosa, Shanghai, Korea and Japan. We believe, however, that this inspection did not affect a sufficiently large number of camps.

His Majesty's Government has reason to believe that the conditions of detention of prisoners in this area are generally tolerable, although the Minister of War has more than once pointed out that the food being issued is not enough to maintain health for for a long time. I would like to add, however, that conditions for prisoners in Hong Kong appear to be deteriorating.

If the trials experienced by the prisoners were limited only to what I have already described, then that would be bad enough. But unfortunately, the worst is yet to come.

We have a growing list of gross abuses and atrocities committed against individuals and groups. I would not like to burden the House a detailed story about atrocities. But to give an idea of ​​them, I unfortunately must give a few typical examples.

I will first cite two cases of brutal treatment of civilians. A Shanghai municipal police officer, along with 300 other nationals of the Allied countries, was sent by the Japanese to a camp for the so-called “politically unreliable”, located on the Haifun Road in Shanghai.

This officer aroused the discontent of the Japanese gendarmerie against himself and was transferred to a station located in another part of the city. He returned from there distraught. Deep wounds on the hands and feet, left by the ropes, festered. He lost about 20 kilograms in weight. A day or two after his release, the officer died.

Execution of three prisoners

The second case occurred in the Philippine Islands. On January 11, 1942, three British nationals escaped from a civilian internment camp in Santo Tomas (Manila).

They were caught and flogged.

On January 14, a military court sentenced them to death, despite the fact that international convention provides in this case only the imposition of disciplinary punishment. The prisoners were shot with automatic weapons. They died in agony, since the first wounds were not fatal.

I turn now to cases of brutal treatment of soldiers. The Japanese, having captured a group of Indian soldiers in Burma, tied their hands behind their backs and sat them down by the road. Then the Japanese began to bayonet the prisoners one by one. Each was apparently inflicted with three wounds.

By some miracle, one of the soldiers managed to escape and make his way to our troops. From him we learned about this torture.

In another case, a British officer of a regiment known to us who was captured in Burma was subjected to torture. They beat him in the face with a saber, then tied him to a post and tied a rope around his neck. In order not to suffocate, he had to constantly reach up. Then the officer was subjected to further torture.

Fortunately for him, at this time the Allied army soldiers went on the offensive, the Japanese fled, and the officer was rescued by British tank crews.

Ship of Terror

The third case involved a ship called the Lisbon Maru, which was used by the Japanese to transport 1,800 British prisoners of war from Hong Kong.

The ship "Lisbon Maru".

In one hold, two prisoners died where they lay, and no attempt was made to remove their corpses.

On the morning of October 1, 1942, the Lisbon Maru was torpedoed by an Allied submarine. Japanese officers, soldiers and sailors left the prisoners locked in the holds and abandoned the ship, although it sank only a day after the torpedoing.

The ship had several life belts and other life-saving equipment. Only some of the prisoners managed to escape from the holds and swim to the shore under fire from Japanese soldiers. The rest (at least 800 people) died.

What has been said is enough to get an idea of ​​the barbaric character of our enemy - the Japanese. They trampled not only the principles of international law, but also all norms of decent and civilized behavior.

His Majesty's Government, through the Swiss Government, made many energetic representations to the Japanese Government.

The answers we receive are either evasive, cynical, or simply unsatisfactory.

We had the right to expect that the Japanese government, having learned about these facts, would take measures to improve the conditions of detention of prisoners. The Japanese know well enough that a civilized power is obliged to protect the life and health of prisoners captured by its army. They showed this by their treatment of prisoners during the Russo-Japanese War and the War of 1914 - 1918.

Let the Japanese government take into account that the conduct of the Japanese military authorities in the current war will not be forgotten.

It is with the deepest regret that I had to make this statement in the House of Commons. But after consultation with those Allies who are equally the victims of these unspeakable atrocities, His Majesty's Government have considered it their duty to make these facts public.

This is what the unlimited power of money leads to... Why are Japanese hated in neighboring countries?

During World War II, it was common for Japanese soldiers and officers to cut down civilians with swords, bayonet them, rape and kill women, kill children and the elderly. That is why, for the Koreans and Chinese, the Japanese are a hostile people, murderers.

In July 1937, the Japanese attacked China, starting the Sino-Japanese War, which lasted until 1945. In November-December 1937, the Japanese army launched an attack on Nanjing. On December 13, the Japanese captured the city, there was a massacre for 5 days (the killings continued later, but not as massive), which went down in history as the “Nanjing Massacre.” During the massacre carried out by the Japanese, more than 350 thousand people were slaughtered, some sources cite the figure as half a million people. Tens of thousands of women were raped, many of them killed. The Japanese army acted on the basis of 3 “clean” principles:

The massacre began when Japanese soldiers took 20,000 Chinese of military age out of the city and bayoneted them all so that they would never be able to join the Chinese army. The peculiarity of the massacres and abuses was that the Japanese did not shoot - they conserved ammunition, killed and maimed everyone with cold steel.

After this, massacres began in the city; women, girls, and old women were raped and then killed. Hearts were cut out from living people, bellies were cut, eyes were gouged out, they were buried alive, heads were cut off, even babies were killed, madness was happening in the streets. Women were raped right in the middle of the streets - the Japanese, intoxicated with impunity, forced fathers to rape their daughters, sons to rape their mothers, samurai competed to see who could kill the most people with a sword - a certain samurai Mukai won, killing 106 people.

After the war, the crimes of the Japanese military were condemned by the world community, but since the 1970s, Tokyo has been denying them; Japanese history textbooks write about the massacre that many people were simply killed in the city, without details.

Singapore massacre

On February 15, 1942, the Japanese army captured the British colony of Singapore. The Japanese decided to identify and destroy “anti-Japanese elements” in the Chinese community. During Operation Purge, the Japanese screened all Chinese males of military age, including execution lists included Chinese men who participated in the war with Japan, Chinese employees of the British administration, Chinese who donated money to the China Relief Fund, Chinese natives of China, etc.

They were taken out of the filtration camps and shot. Then the operation was extended to the entire peninsula, where they decided not to “ceremoniously” and, due to the lack of people for the inquiry, they shot everyone. Approximately 50 thousand Chinese were killed, the remaining ones were lucky, the Japanese did not complete Operation Purge, they had to transfer troops to other areas - they planned to destroy the entire Chinese population of Singapore and the peninsula.

Massacre in Manila

When in early February 1945 it became clear to the Japanese command that Manila could not be held, the army headquarters was moved to the city of Baguio, and they decided to destroy Manila. Destroy the population. In the capital of the Philippines, according to the most conservative estimates, more than 110 thousand people were killed. Thousands of people were shot, many were doused with gasoline and set on fire, the city's infrastructure, residential buildings, schools, and hospitals were destroyed. On February 10, the Japanese carried out a massacre in the Red Cross building, killed everyone, even children, and the Spanish consulate was burned along with its people.

The massacre also took place in the suburbs; in the town of Calamba, the entire population was destroyed - 5 thousand people. Monks and nuns of Catholic institutions and schools were not spared, and students were also killed.

Comfort station system

In addition to the rape of tens, hundreds, thousands of women, the Japanese authorities are guilty of another crime against humanity - the creation of a network of brothels for soldiers. It was common practice to rape women in captured villages; some of the women were taken away, few of them were able to return.

In 1932, the Japanese command decided to create “comfortable station houses”, justifying their creation by the decision to reduce anti-Japanese sentiment due to mass rapes on Chinese soil, by caring for the health of soldiers who needed to “rest” and not get sick venereal diseases. First they were created in Manchuria, in China, then in all the occupied territories - in the Philippines, Borneo, Burma, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and so on. In total, from 50 to 300 thousand women passed through these brothels, and most of them were minors. Before the end of the war, no more than a quarter survived, morally and physically disfigured, poisoned with antibiotics. The Japanese authorities even created the “service” ratio: 29 (“clients”):1, then increased it to 40:1 per day.

Currently, the Japanese authorities deny this data; previously, Japanese historians spoke about the private nature and voluntariness of prostitution.

Death Squad - Squad 731

In 1935, as part of the Japanese Kwantung Army, the so-called. "Detachment 731", its goal was to develop biological weapons, delivery vehicles, and testing on humans. It worked until the end of the war; the Japanese military did not have time to use biological weapons against the USA, and even the USSR, only thanks to the rapid offensive Soviet troops in August 1945.

Shiro Ishii - commander of Unit 731

victims of unit 731

More than 5 thousand prisoners and local residents became “experimental mice” of Japanese specialists; they called them “logs.”

People were cut alive for “scientific purposes”, infected with the most terrible diseases, then they “opened up” those still alive. They conducted experiments on the survivability of “logs” - how long would they last without water and food, scalded with boiling water, after irradiation with an X-ray machine, withstand electric discharges, without any cut out organ, and much more. other.

The Japanese command was ready to use biological weapons on Japanese territory against the American landing force, sacrificing the civilian population - the army and leadership had to evacuate to Manchuria, to Japan’s “alternate airfield”.

Asian peoples have still not forgiven Tokyo, especially in light of the fact that in recent decades Japan has refused to acknowledge more and more of its war crimes. Koreans recall that they were even forbidden to speak native language, ordered to change their native names to Japanese ones (the “assimilation” policy) - approximately 80% of Koreans adopted Japanese names. Girls were taken to brothels; in 1939, 5 million people were forcibly mobilized into industry. Korean cultural monuments were taken away or destroyed.

Sources:
http://www.battlingbastardsbataan.com/som.htm
http://www.intv.ru/view/?film_id=20797
http://films-online.su/news/filosofija_nozha_philosophy_of_a_knife_2008/2010-11-21-2838
http://www.cnd.org/njmassacre/
http://militera.lib.ru/science/terentiev_n/05.html

Massacre in Nanjing.

Like any crime of capitalism and state ambitions, the Nanjing massacre should not be forgotten.

Prince Asaka Takahito (1912-1981), it was he who issued the order to “kill all prisoners”, giving official sanction to the “Nanking Massacre”

In December 1937, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army brutally murdered many civilians in Nanjing, then the capital of the Republic of China.

Despite the fact that after the war a number of Japanese soldiers were convicted of the Nanjing massacre, since the 1970s the Japanese side has pursued a policy of denying the crimes committed in Nanjing. Japanese school history textbooks simply write vaguely that “many people were killed” in the city.

The Japanese began by taking 20 thousand men of military age out of the city and bayoneting them so that in the future they “could not take up arms against Japan.” Then the occupiers moved on to exterminating women, old people, and children.

In December 1937, a Japanese newspaper describing the exploits of the army enthusiastically reported on a valiant competition between two officers who bet who would be the first to kill more than a hundred Chinese with their sword. The Japanese, as hereditary duelists, requested additional time. A certain samurai Mukai won, killing 106 people against 105.

Mad samurai completed sex with murder, gouged out eyes and tore out the hearts of still living people. The murders were carried out with particular cruelty. Firearms that were used by Japanese soldiers were not used. Thousands of victims were stabbed with bayonets, their heads were cut off, people were burned, buried alive, women had their bellies ripped open and their insides turned out, and small children were killed. They raped and then brutally killed not only adult women, but also little girls and old women. Witnesses say that the sexual ecstasy of the conquerors was so great that they raped all the women in a row, regardless of their age, in broad daylight on busy streets. At the same time, fathers were forced to rape their daughters, and sons were forced to rape their mothers.

A peasant from Jiangsu province (near Nanjing) tied to a post to be shot.

In December 1937, the capital of Kuomintang China, Nanjing, fell. Japanese soldiers began to practice their popular "three out" policy:

“burn it clean,” “kill everyone clean,” “rob it clean.”

When the Japanese left Nanjing, it turned out that the transport ship could not get to the shore of the river bay. He was disturbed by thousands of corpses floating along the Yangtze. From memories:

“We just had to use the floating bodies as a pontoon. To board the ship, we had to walk over the dead.”

In just six weeks, about 300 thousand people were killed and more than 20,000 women were raped. Terror exceeded all imagination. Even the German consul, in an official report, described the behavior of the Japanese soldiers as “brutal.”

The Japanese bury living Chinese in the ground.

A Japanese soldier entered the monastery courtyard to kill Buddhist monks.

In 2007, documents from one of the international charitable organizations who worked in Nanjing during the war. These documents, as well as records confiscated from Japanese troops, show that Japanese soldiers killed more than 200,000 civilians and Chinese troops in 28 massacres, and at least another 150,000 people were killed on separate occasions during the infamous massacre in Nanjing. The maximum estimate of all victims is 500,000 people.

Japanese soldiers raped 20,000 people, according to evidence presented to the Tokyo war crimes court. Chinese women(an underestimate), many of whom were subsequently killed.

We all remember what horrors Hitler and the entire Third Reich committed, but few people 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 the sake of any gain or benefit, but simply for fun...

Cannibalism

This terrible fact is 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 specifically infected with venereal, infectious and other diseases in order to analyze how they would behave female body and the fetal body. Sometimes on early stages women were "cut" into operating table without any anesthesia and removed the premature baby to see how he 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 Marine had his genitals cut off and stuffed into the soldier's mouth before he was released. 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 at high speed. Tens and hundreds of prisoners became victims of these experiments: people died from bleeding, and sometimes their bodies were simply torn apart.

Amputations

The Japanese abused not only prisoners of war, but also civilians and even their own citizens suspected of spying. A popular punishment for spying was cutting off some part of the body - most often a leg, fingers or ears. The amputation was carried out without anesthesia, but at the same time they carefully ensured that the punished survived - and suffered until the end 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 they were solid, and then skin and muscle were cut from living people without anesthesia to study the effects of cold on tissue. The effects of burns were studied in the same way: people were burned alive with burning torches, skin and muscles on their arms and legs, carefully observing tissue changes.

Radiation

Still in the same notorious unit 731, Chinese prisoners were driven into special cells and subjected to the most powerful x-ray radiation, observing what changes subsequently occurred in their body. Such procedures were repeated several times until the person died.

Buried alive

One of the most brutal punishments for American prisoners of war for mutiny and disobedience was burial alive. The person was placed upright in a hole and covered with a pile of earth or stones, leaving him to suffocate. The corpses of those punished in such a cruel way were discovered more than once by Allied troops.

Decapitation

Beheading an enemy was a common execution in the Middle Ages. But in Japan this custom survived until the twentieth century and was applied to prisoners during the Second World War. But the most terrible thing was that not all executioners were skilled in their craft. Often the soldier did not complete the blow with his sword, or even hit the executed man on the shoulder with his sword. This only prolonged the torment of the victim, whom the executioner stabbed with a sword until he achieved his goal.

Death in the waves

This type of execution, quite typical of ancient Japan, 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 in a day. The Japanese have long used this property for ancient and terrible executions. The man was chained with his back to the ground, from which fresh bamboo shoots sprouted. For several days, the plants tore apart the sufferer’s body, dooming him to terrible torment. It would seem that this horror should have remained in history, but no: it is known for certain that the Japanese used this execution for prisoners during the Second World War.

Welded from the inside

Another section of experiments carried out in part 731 was experiments with electricity. Japanese doctors shocked prisoners by attaching electrodes to the head or torso, immediately giving a large voltage or for a long time exposing the unfortunate people to less stress... They say that with such exposure a person had the feeling that he was being fried alive, and this was not far from the truth: some of the victims’ organs were literally boiled.

Forced labor and death marches

The Japanese prisoner of war camps were no better than Hitler's death camps. Thousands of prisoners trapped in Japanese camps, worked from dawn to dusk, while, according to stories, they were provided with very little food, sometimes without feeding for several days. And if slave labor 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.