Hidden Horrors - Japanese War Crimes in World War II (2nd augmented ed. 2018, rev. conclusion)

This landmark book documents little-known wartime Japanese atrocities during World War II. Yuki Tanaka's case studies, still remarkably original and significant, include cannibalism; the slaughter and starvation of prisoners of war; the rape, enforced prostitution, and murder of noncombatants; and biological warfare experiments. The author describes how desperate Japanese soldiers consumed the flesh of their own comrades killed in fighting as well as that of Australians, Pakistanis, and Indians. He traces the fate of sixty-five shipwrecked Australian nurses and British soldiers who were shot or stabbed to death by their captors. Another thirty-two nurses were captured and sent to Sumatra to become "comfort women"-sex slaves for Japanese soldiers. Tanaka recounts how thousands of Australian and British POWs were massacred in the infamous Sandakan camp in the Borneo jungle in 1945, while those who survived were forced to endure a tortuous 160-mile march on which anyone who dropped out of line was immediately shot.This new edition also includes a powerful chapter on the island of Nauru, where thirty-nine leprosy patients were killed and thousands of Naurans were ill-treated and forced to leave their homes. Without denying individual and national responsibility, the author explores individual atrocities in their broader social, psychological, and institutional milieu and places Japanese behavior during the war in the broader context of the dehumanization of men at war.In his substantially revised conclusion, Tanaka brings in significant new interpretations to explain why Japanese imperial forces were so brutal, tracing the historical processes that created such a unique military structure and ideology. Finally, he investigates why a strong awareness of their collective responsibility for wartime atrocities has been and still is lacking among the Japanese. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 4 Title 6 Copyright 7 Dedication 8 Contents 10 List of Illustrations 12 Foreword 14 Acknowledgments 18 Author's Note 20 Introduction 22 1 The Sandakan POW Camp and the Geneva Convention 32 The Forgotten POW Camp 32 Establishment of the Camp and the Labor Issue 33 Escapes and Nonescape Contracts 39 The Sandakan Incident and the Kempeitai 44 The System and Purpose of Gunrítsu Kaigi 50 Mistreatment of POWs and the Formosan Guards 55 2 The Sandakan Death Marches and the Elimination of POWs 66 The First Death March 66 The Second Death March 73 The Elimination and Crucifixion of POWs 80 Responsibility for Maltreatment and Massacre of POWs 88 Japanese POW Policy 91 The Psychology of Cruelty 95 3 Rape and War: The Japanese Experience 100 Rape and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal 100 The Massacre of Nurses at Banka Island 102 The Threat of Prostitution 109 The Establishment of Comfort Houses 113 The Universality of Rape in War 121 War, Rape, and Patriarchy 126 4 Judge Webb and Japanese Cannibalism 148 The Tokyo Tribunal and Cannibalism 148 Evidence of Japanese Cannibalism 149 Allied Victims of Cannibalism 152 Cannibalism of Asian POWs 157 Cannibalism of the Indigenous Population 161 Starvation and Group Psychosis 163 Responsibility and Reaction 166 Aftermath of the Tribunal 168 5 Japanese Biological Warfare Plans and Experiments on POWs 172 Unit 731 and Biological Warfare Plans 172 Biological Warfare Plans in the Southwest Pacific 176 POWs in Rabaul and Medical Experiments 182 Australian Responses to Experiments on POWs 194 The Ethics of Japanese Military Doctors and "Doubling," 197 6 Massacre of Civilians at Kavieng 204 The Japanese Invasion of Kavieng 204 Discovery of the Akíkaze Massacre 208 Responsibility Under the Australian War Crimes Act 216 A Clue to the Discovery of the Kavieng Massacre 219 Reconstruction of Events at Kavieng 222 Japanese Soldiers, International Law, and Gyokusai 230 Conclusion: Understanding Japanese Brutality in the Asia-Pacific War 234 The Japanese Concept of Basic Human Rights 234 Japanese Moral Concepts and the Emperor Ideology 238 The Corruption of Bushidõ 243 Toward Further Research 249 Notes 254 About the Book and Author 288 Index 290 This book documents for the first time previously hidden Japanese atrocities in World War II, including cannibalism; the slaughter and starvation of prisoners of war; the rape, enforced prostitution, and murder of noncombatants; and biological warfare experiments. The author describes how desperate Japanese soldiers consumed the flesh of their own comrades killed in fighting as well as that of Australians, Pakistanis, and Indians. Another chapter traces the fate of 65 shipwrecked Australian nurses and British soldiers who were shot or stabbed to death by Japanese soldiers. Thirty-two other nurses, who landed on another island, were captured and sent to Sumatra to become “comfort women‗prostitutes for Japanese soldiers. Tanaka recounts how thousands of Australian and British POWs died in the infamous Sandakan camp in the Borneo jungle in 1945. Those who survived were forced to endure a tortuous 160-mile march on which anyone who dropped out of line was immediately shot. Only six escapees lived to tell the tale. Based on exhaustive research in previously closed archives, this book represents a landmark analysis of Japanese war crimes. The author explores individual atrocities in their broader social, psychological, and institutional milieu and places Japanese behavior during the war in the broader context of the dehumanization of men at war—without denying individual and national responsibility.