Forgotten Captives in Japanese-Occupied Asia: National Memories and Forgotten Captivities (Routledge


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Forgotten Captives in Japanese-Occupied Asia. For Instructors Request Inspection Copy. Add to Wish List. Description Experiences of captivity in Japanese-occupied Asia varied enormously. It covers women, children, camp guards, internee experiences upon the end of the war, and local heroines who fought back. By juxtaposing such a wide variety of captivity experiences - differentiated both by category of captive and by approach - this book transcends place, to become a collection about captivity as a category.

It will interest scholars working on the Asia-Pacific War, on captivities in general, and on the individual histories of the countries and groups covered. Product details Format Paperback pages Dimensions Bestsellers in Asian History. Convenience Store Woman Sayaka Murata. Soul of the Samurai Thomas Cleary. Vietnam Sir Max Hastings. Out of China Robert Bickers. Genghis Khan Jack Weatherford. Young China Zak Dychtwald.

The British in India David Gilmour. Inglorious Empire Shashi Tharoor. Return of a King William Dalrymple. Great Books of China Frances Wood.

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Mother Teresa Kathryn Spink. Emperor Qianlong Mark Elliott. The Dragon Throne Jonathan Fenby. Architect of Prosperity Neil Monnery. Hello, Shadowlands Patrick Winn. Romance of the Three Kingdoms Volume 2: So, while the US had an unusually long supply line between its west coast and frontline areas, leaving it vulnerable to submarine attack, Japan used its submarines primarily for long-range reconnaissance and only occasionally attacked US supply lines.

The Japanese submarine offensive against Australia in and also achieved little. As the war turned against Japan, IJN submarines increasingly served to resupply strongholds which had been cut off, such as Truk and Rabaul. In addition, Japan honored its neutrality treaty with the Soviet Union and ignored American freighters shipping millions of tons of military supplies from San Francisco to Vladivostok , [] much to the consternation of its German ally.

The US Navy, by contrast, relied on commerce raiding from the outset. However, the problem of Allied forces surrounded in the Philippines, during the early part of , led to diversion of boats to "guerrilla submarine" missions. Basing in Australia placed boats under Japanese aerial threat while en route to patrol areas, reducing their effectiveness, and Nimitz relied on submarines for close surveillance of enemy bases. Furthermore, the standard-issue Mark 14 torpedo and its Mark VI exploder both proved defective, problems which were not corrected until September Thus, only in did the US Navy begin to use its submarines to maximum effect: Japanese commerce protection was "shiftless beyond description," [n] and convoys were poorly organized and defended compared to Allied ones, a product of flawed IJN doctrine and training — errors concealed by American faults as much as Japanese overconfidence.

The number of American submarines patrols and sinkings rose steeply: In all, Allied submarines destroyed 1, merchant ships — about five million tons of shipping. Most were small cargo carriers, but were tankers bringing desperately needed oil from the East Indies. Another were passenger ships and troop transports. At critical stages of the Guadalcanal, Saipan, and Leyte campaigns, thousands of Japanese troops were killed or diverted from where they were needed.

Over warships were sunk, ranging from many auxiliaries and destroyers to one battleship and no fewer than eight carriers. In mid Japan mobilized over , men [] and launched a massive operation across China under the code name Operation Ichi-Go , their largest offensive of World War II, with the goal of connecting Japanese-controlled territory in China and French Indochina and capturing airbases in southeastern China where American bombers were based.

Despite major tactical victories, the operation overall failed to provide Japan with any significant strategic gains. A great majority of the Chinese forces were able to retreat out of the area, and later come back to attack Japanese positions at the Battle of West Hunan. Japan was not any closer to defeating China after this operation, and the constant defeats the Japanese suffered in the Pacific meant that Japan never got the time and resources needed to achieve final victory over China.

Operation Ichi-go created a great sense of social confusion in the areas of China that it affected. Chinese Communist guerrillas were able to exploit this confusion to gain influence and control of greater areas of the countryside in the aftermath of Ichi-go. After the Allied setbacks in , the South East Asia command prepared to launch offensives into Burma on several fronts. In February the Japanese mounted a local counter-attack in Arakan.

After early Japanese success, this counter-attack was defeated when the Indian divisions of XV Corps stood firm, relying on aircraft to drop supplies to isolated forward units until reserve divisions could relieve them. The Japanese responded to the Allied attacks by launching an offensive of their own into India in the middle of March, across the mountainous and densely forested frontier. This attack, codenamed Operation U-Go , was advocated by Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi , the recently promoted commander of the Japanese Fifteenth Army ; Imperial General Headquarters permitted it to proceed, despite misgivings at several intervening headquarters.

Although several units of the British Fourteenth Army had to fight their way out of encirclement, by early April they had concentrated around Imphal in Manipur state. A Japanese division which had advanced to Kohima in Nagaland cut the main road to Imphal, but failed to capture the whole of the defences at Kohima.

During April, the Japanese attacks against Imphal failed, while fresh Allied formations drove the Japanese from the positions they had captured at Kohima. As many Japanese had feared, Japan's supply arrangements could not maintain her forces. Once Mutaguchi's hopes for an early victory were thwarted, his troops, particularly those at Kohima, starved. During May, while Mutaguchi continued to order attacks, the Allies advanced southwards from Kohima and northwards from Imphal.

The two Allied attacks met on 22 June, breaking the Japanese siege of Imphal. The Japanese finally broke off the operation on 3 July. They had lost over 50, troops, mainly to starvation and disease. This represented the worst defeat suffered by the Imperial Japanese Army to that date. Although the advance in Arakan had been halted to release troops and aircraft for the Battle of Imphal , the Americans and Chinese had continued to advance in northern Burma, aided by the Chindits operating against the Japanese lines of communication. They captured a fortified position at Mount Song.

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Forgotten Captives in Japanese-Occupied Asia (Routledge Studies in the Modern Experiences of captivity in Japanese-occupied Asia varied enormously . Part One has at least one chapter for each 'National Memory', Australian, British. Buy Forgotten Captives in Japanese-Occupied Asia: National Memories and Forgotten Captivities (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia) 1 by Kevin.

In May , the Japanese prepared Operation Z or the Z Plan, which envisioned the use of Japanese naval power to counter American forces threatening the outer defense perimeter line. With their position in the Solomons disintegrating, the Japanese modified the Z Plan by eliminating the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, and the Bismarck Archipelago as vital areas to be defended. They then based their possible actions on the defense of an inner perimeter, which included the Marianas , Palau , Western New Guinea , and the Dutch East Indies. Meanwhile in the Central Pacific the Americans initiated a major offensive, beginning in November with landings in the Gilbert Islands.

Although the Japanese had moved their major vessels out in time to avoid being caught at anchor in the atoll, two days of air attacks resulted in significant losses to Japanese aircraft and merchant shipping. Consequently, the Japanese retained their remaining strength in preparation for what they hoped would be a decisive battle. A-GO envisioned a decisive fleet action that would be fought somewhere from the Palaus to the Western Carolines. If the Americans attacked the Marianas, they would be attacked by land-based planes in the vicinity.

Then the Americans would be lured into the areas where the Mobile Fleet could defeat them. The Allies aimed to establish airfields near enough the Japanese Home Islands, including Honshu , the location of Tokyo, to allow their bombing with the new Boeing B Superfortress.

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Separate different tags with a comma. Modern China's Ethnic Frontiers: Admiral Yamamoto now perceived that was it was essential to complete the destruction of the United States Navy, which had begun at Pearl Harbor. Strategy to Defeat Japan, — Includes bibliographical references and index. Dutch Evacuees in Thailand,

The ability to plan and execute such a complex operation in the space of 90 days was indicative of Allied logistical superiority. Japanese commanders saw holding Saipan as imperative. The only way to do so involved destroying the U. Fifth Fleet , which had 15 fleet carriers and planes, 7 battleships, 28 submarines, and 69 destroyers, as well as several [ quantify ] light and heavy cruisers.

Ozawa's pilots were outnumbered 2: The Japanese had considerable antiaircraft defenses but lacked proximity fuzes or good radar. With the odds against him, Ozawa devised an appropriate strategy.

Forgotten Captives in Japanese-Occupied Asia

The Japanese planes would hit the U. Ozawa also counted on about land-based planes at Guam and other islands. Spruance had overall command of the U. The Japanese plan would have failed if the much larger U. Admiral Marc Mitscher , in tactical command of Task Force 58, with its 15 carriers, was aggressive, but Spruance vetoed Mitscher's plan to hunt down Ozawa because Spruance's orders made protecting the landings on Saipan his first priority.

Over the previous month American destroyers had destroyed 17 of 25 submarines out of Ozawa's screening force. Ozawa's main attack lacked coordination, with the Japanese planes arriving at their targets in a staggered sequence. Following a directive from Nimitz, the US carriers all had combat-information centers, which interpreted the flow of radar data and radioed interception orders to the Hellcats.

The result was later dubbed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. The few attackers to reach the US fleet encountered massive AA fire with proximity fuzes. Only one American warship was slightly damaged. Mitscher launched torpedo planes and dive bombers. Mitscher decided this chance to destroy the Japanese fleet was worth the risk of aircraft losses due to running out of fuel on the return flight. Overall, the US lost planes and 76 aircrew; however, Japan lost planes, three carriers, and aircrew.

US aircraft had effectively destroyed the Imperial Japanese Navy's carrier force. Once captured, the islands of Saipan and Tinian were used extensively by the United States military as they finally put mainland Japan within round-trip range of American B bombers. In response, Japanese forces attacked the bases on Saipan and Tinian from November to January At the same time and afterwards, the United States Army Air Forces based out of these islands conducted an intense strategic bombing campaign against the Japanese cities of military and industrial importance, including Tokyo , Nagoya , Osaka , Kobe and others.

After the disaster at Philippine Sea the Japanese were left with two choices: The plan devised by the Japanese was a final attempt to create a decisive battle by utilizing their last remaining strength, which the firepower of its heavy cruisers and battleships, which were to be all committed against the American beachhead at Leyte. The Japanese planned to use their remaining carriers as bait, in order to lure the American carriers away from Leyte Gulf long enough for the heavy warships to enter and destroy any American ships present. The Japanese assembled a force totaling four carriers, nine battleships, 14 heavy cruisers, seven light cruisers, and 35 destroyers.

The main Center Force would pass through the San Bernardino Strait into the Philippine Sea, turn southwards, and then attack the landing area. The two separate groups of the Southern Force would join up and strike at the landing area through the Surigao Strait , while Northern Force with the Japanese carriers was to lure the main American covering forces away from Leyte, the carriers only embarked a total of just aircraft.

However, after departing from Brunei Bay on October 23, the Center Force was attacked by two American submarines which resulted in the loss of two heavy cruisers with another crippled. The next day, after entering the Sibuyan Sea on October 24, Center Force was assaulted by American carrier aircraft throughout the whole day leaving another heavy cruiser being forced to retire. The Americans then targeted the Musashi and sank it under a barrage of torpedo and bomb hits.

Many other ships of Center Force were attacked, but continued on. On the night of October , the Southern Force under Nishimura, attempted to enter Leyte Gulf from the south through Surigao Strait where an American-Australian force led by Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf , of six battleships, eight cruisers, and 26 destroyers ambushed the Japanese. Radar guided naval gunfire then finished off the second battleship, with only a single Japanese destroyer surviving. As a result of observing radio silence , Shima's group was unable to coordinate and synchronize its movements with Nishimura's group and subsequently arrived at Surigao Strait in the middle of the encounter; after making a haphazard torpedo attack Shima retreated.

All four Japanese carriers were sunk, but this part of the Japanese plan succeeded in drawing the American carriers away from Leyte Gulf. When Center Force fell upon a group of American escort carriers escorted by only destroyers and destroyer escorts.

Forgotten Captives in Japanese-Occupied Asia (Paperback) - Routledge

Both sides were surprised, but the outcome looked certain since the Japanese had four battleships, six heavy cruisers, and two light cruisers leading two destroyer squadrons. However, they did not press home their advantage, and were content to conduct a largely indecisive gunnery duel before breaking off. Japanese losses were extremely heavy with four carriers, three battleships, six heavy cruisers, four light cruisers and eleven destroyers sunk. On 20 October the US Sixth Army , supported by naval and air bombardment, landed on the favorable eastern shore of Leyte , north of Mindanao.

The US Sixth Army continued its advance from the east, as the Japanese rushed reinforcements to the Ormoc Bay area on the western side of the island.

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In torrential rains and over difficult terrain, the advance continued across Leyte and the neighboring island of Samar to the north. Although fierce fighting continued on Leyte for months, the US Army was in control.

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On 15 December landings against minimal resistance were made on the southern beaches of the island of Mindoro , a key location in the planned Lingayen Gulf operations, in support of major landings scheduled on Luzon. Two more major landings followed, one to cut off the Bataan Peninsula , and another, that included a parachute drop, south of Manila.

Pincers closed on the city and, on 3 February , elements of the 1st Cavalry Division pushed into the northern outskirts of Manila and the 8th Cavalry passed through the northern suburbs and into the city itself. As the advance on Manila continued from the north and the south, the Bataan Peninsula was rapidly secured.

On 16 February paratroopers and amphibious units assaulted the island fortress of Corregidor , and resistance ended there on 27 February. In all, ten US divisions and five independent regiments battled on Luzon, making it the largest campaign of the Pacific War, involving more troops than the United States had used in North Africa, Italy, or southern France. The Japanese put up little direct defense of Palawan, but cleaning up pockets of Japanese resistance lasted until late April, as the Japanese used their common tactic of withdrawing into the mountain jungles, dispersed as small units.

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Throughout the Philippines, US forces were aided by Filipino guerrillas to find and dispatch the holdouts. Mindanao was followed by invasion and occupation of Panay , Cebu , Negros and several islands in the Sulu Archipelago. Holland Smith , the commander of the invasion force, aimed to capture the island and prevent its use as an early-warning station against air raids on the Japanese Home Islands, and to use it as an emergency landing field.

General Tadamichi Kuribayashi , the commander of the defense of Iwo Jima, knew that he could not win the battle, but he hoped to make the Americans suffer far more than they could endure. The heavy American naval and air bombardment did little but drive the Japanese further underground, making their positions impervious to enemy fire. Their pillboxes and bunkers were all connected so that if one was knocked out, it could be reoccupied again. The network of bunkers and pillboxes greatly favored the defender.

Starting in mid-June , Iwo Jima came under sustained aerial bombardment and naval artillery fire. However, Kuribayashi's hidden guns and defenses survived the constant bombardment virtually unscathed. On 19 February , some 30, men of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions landed on the southeast coast of Iwo, just under Mount Suribachi; where most of the island's defenses were concentrated. For some time, they did not come under fire.

This was part of Kuribayashi's plan to hold fire until the landing beaches were full. As soon as the Marines pushed inland to a line of enemy bunkers, they came under devastating machine gun and artillery fire which cut down many of the men. By the end of the day, the Marines reached the west coast of the island, but their losses were appalling; almost 2, men killed or wounded. Navy Secretary James Forrestal, upon seeing the flag, remarked "there will be a Marine Corps for the next years".

The flag raising is often cited as the most reproduced photograph of all time and became the archetypal representation not only of that battle, but of the entire Pacific War. For the rest of February, the Americans pushed north, and by 1 March, had taken two-thirds of the island. But it was not until 26 March that the island was finally secured. The Japanese fought to the last man, killing 6, Marines and wounding nearly 20, more. The Japanese losses totaled well over 20, men killed, and only 1, prisoners were taken. Historians debate whether it was strategically worth the casualties sustained.

In late and early , the Allied South East Asia Command launched offensives into Burma, intending to recover most of the country, including Rangoon , the capital, before the onset of the monsoon in May. They then landed troops behind the retreating Japanese, inflicting heavy casualties, and captured Ramree Island and Cheduba Island off the coast, establishing airfields on them which were used to support the offensive into Central Burma. In late January , these two forces linked up with each other at Hsipaw. The Ledo Road was completed, linking India and China, but too late in the war to have any significant effect.

The Japanese Burma Area Army attempted to forestall the main Allied attack on the central part of the front by withdrawing their troops behind the Irrawaddy River. However, the advancing British Fourteenth Army under Lieutenant General William Slim switched its axis of advance to outflank the main Japanese armies. During February, Fourteenth Army secured bridgeheads across the Irrawaddy on a broad front.

The Japanese armies were heavily defeated, and with the capture of Mandalay, the Burmese population and the Burma National Army which the Japanese had raised turned against the Japanese. Slim feared that the Japanese would defend Rangoon house-to-house during the monsoon, which would commit his army to prolonged action with disastrously inadequate supplies, and in March he had asked that a plan to capture Rangoon by an amphibious force, Operation Dracula , which had been abandoned earlier, be reinstated. The troops that occupied Rangoon linked up with Fourteenth Army five days later, securing the Allies' lines of communication.

The Japanese forces which had been bypassed by the Allied advances attempted to break out across the Sittaung River during June and July to rejoin the Burma Area Army which had regrouped in Tenasserim in southern Burma. They suffered 14, casualties, half their strength. Overall, the Japanese lost some , men in Burma. Only 1, prisoners were taken. The Allies were preparing to make amphibious landings in Malaya when word of the Japanese surrender arrived. The campaign opened with a landing on the small island of Tarakan on 1 May.

This was followed on 1 June by simultaneous assaults in the north west, on the island of Labuan and the coast of Brunei. A week later the Australians attacked Japanese positions in North Borneo. The attention of the Allies then switched back to the central east coast, with the last major amphibious assault of World War II, at Balikpapan on 1 July.

Although the campaign was criticized in Australia at the time, and in subsequent years, as pointless or a "waste" of the lives of soldiers, it did achieve a number of objectives, such as increasing the isolation of significant Japanese forces occupying the main part of the Dutch East Indies , capturing major oil supplies and freeing Allied prisoners of war, who were being held in deteriorating conditions. By April , China had already been at war with Japan for more than seven years.

Both nations were exhausted by years of battles, bombings and blockades. After Japanese victories in Operation Ichi-Go , Japan was losing the battle in Burma and facing constant attacks from Chinese Nationalist forces and Communist guerrillas in the countryside. The Japanese mobilized 34th, 47th, 64th, 68th and th Divisions, as well as the 86th Independent Brigade, for a total of 80, men to seize Chinese airfields and secure railroads in West Hunan by early April.

They were supported by about aircraft from Chinese and American air forces. Concurrently, the Chinese managed to repel a Japanese offensive in Henan and Hubei. Chinese launched a counter offensive to retake Guangxi which was the last major Japanese stronghold in South China. In August , Chinese forces successfully retook Guangxi. The largest and bloodiest American battle came at Okinawa, as the US sought airbases for 3, B bombers and squadrons of B bombers for the intense bombardment of Japan's home islands in preparation for a full-scale invasion in late The Japanese, with , troops augmented by thousands of civilians on the heavily populated island, did not resist on the beaches—their strategy was to maximize the number of soldier and Marine casualties, and naval losses from Kamikaze attacks.

After an intense bombardment the Americans landed on 1 April and declared victory on 21 June. US losses totaled 38 ships of all types sunk and damaged with 4, sailors killed. The British Pacific Fleet operated as a separate unit from the American task forces in the Okinawa operation.

Its objective was to strike airfields on the chain of islands between Formosa and Okinawa, to prevent the Japanese reinforcing the defences of Okinawa from that direction. Hard-fought battles on the Japanese home islands of Iwo Jima , Okinawa , and others resulted in horrific casualties on both sides but finally produced a Japanese defeat. Of the , Okinawan and Japanese troops defending Okinawa, 94 percent died. The US Navy proposed to force a Japanese surrender through a total naval blockade and air raids.

Japanese industrial production plunged as nearly half of the built-up areas of 67 cities were destroyed by B firebombing raids. On 9—10 March alone, about , people were killed in a conflagration caused by an incendiary attack on Tokyo. LeMay also oversaw Operation Starvation , in which the inland waterways of Japan were extensively mined by air, which disrupted the small amount of remaining Japanese coastal sea traffic. This ultimatum stated that, if Japan did not surrender, it would face "prompt and utter destruction. On 6 August , the US dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in the first nuclear attack in history.

In a press release issued after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Truman warned Japan to surrender or " More than ,—, people died as a direct result of these two bombings. Another argument in favor of the atomic bombs is that they helped avoid Operation Downfall , or a prolonged blockade and bombing campaign, any of which would have exacted much higher casualties among Japanese civilians.

It promised to act 90 days after the war ended in Europe and did so exactly on schedule on 9 August by invading Manchuria. The Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation began on 9 August , with the Soviet invasion of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and was the last campaign of the Second World War and the largest of the Soviet—Japanese War which resumed hostilities between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Empire of Japan after almost six years of peace.

The USSR's entry into the war was a significant factor in the Japanese decision to surrender as it became apparent the Soviets were no longer willing to act as an intermediary for a negotiated settlement on favorable terms. The effects of the "Twin Shocks"—the Soviet entry and the atomic bombings —were profound. On 10 August the "sacred decision" was made by Japanese Cabinet to accept the Potsdam terms on one condition: At noon on 15 August, after the American government's intentionally ambiguous reply, stating that the "authority" of the emperor "shall be subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers", the Emperor broadcast to the nation and to the world at large the rescript of surrender, [] ending the Second World War.

Should we continue to fight, it would not only result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization. In Japan, 14 August is considered to be the day that the Pacific War ended. Following this period, MacArthur went to Tokyo to oversee the post-war development of the country. This period in Japanese history is known as the occupation. There were some , American casualties: The US protectorate in the Philippines suffered considerable losses. Military losses were 27, dead including POWs , 75, living POWs, and an unknown number wounded, not counting irregulars that fought in the insurgency.

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According to official Chinese Nationalist statistics, losses to the regular National Revolutionary Army totaled 3,,, with 1,, killed 1,, wounded , missing. The soldiers of the Chinese Communist Party suffered , casualties, of which , were killed, , missing, and , wounded. This would equate to a total of 3. Neither total includes the considerable number of irregular guerrilla fighters sworn to regional warlords who fought the Japanese. The casualties break down as 1. China suffered enormous civilian losses in the war. Estimates vary wildly, though there is a general consensus that civilian deaths were in the 17 to 22 million range, mostly from war-related causes such as famine.

Between the Malayan Campaign , discounting some 20, Australians , [] Burma Campaign 86, , [] Battle of Hong Kong 15, , [] and various naval encounters, British Empire forces incurred some , casualties in the Pacific Theater, including roughly 82, killed 50, in combat and 32, as POWs [] The Royal Navy lost 23 warships in the Pacific and Indian oceans: These included 3 million deaths in the Bengal famine of and 0. Australia incurred losses of 45, not including deaths and illnesses from natural causes such as disease: Of the ethnic Dutch troops, were killed in action and 37, became prisoners.

Similar to the Dutch, the 65,strong French colonial army in French Indochina 16, European French and 48, colonial disintegrated at the end of the Japanese invasion. According to a report compiled by the Relief Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare in March , combined Japanese Army and Navy deaths during the war —45 numbered approximately 2,, men, mostly against either the Americans 1. The losses were broken down as follows: The IJN lost over warships, including 11 battleships, 25 aircraft carriers, 39 cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, almost entirely in action against the United States Navy.

Japan's ally Germany lost 10 submarines and four auxiliary cruisers Thor , Michel , Pinguin , and Kormoran in the Indian and Pacific oceans. On 7 December , 2, non-combatants 2, neutral military personnel and 68 civilians were killed and 1, wounded during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

Pacific War

Because the attack happened without a declaration of war or explicit warning, it was judged by the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime. During the Pacific War, Japanese soldiers killed millions of non-combatants, including prisoners of war , from surrounding nations. Unit was one example of wartime atrocities committed on a civilian population during World War II, where experiments were performed on thousands of Chinese and Korean civilians as well as Allied prisoners of war. In military campaigns, the Imperial Japanese Army used biological weapons and chemical weapons on the Chinese, killing around , civilians.

A widely publicised example of institutionalised sexual slavery are " comfort women ", a euphemism for the , women, mostly from Korea and China, who served in the Imperial Japanese Army's camps during World War II. Some 35 Dutch comfort women brought a successful case before the Batavia Military Tribunal in According to historian Mitsuyoshi Himeta, the scorched earth campaign was responsible for the deaths of "more than 2. The collection of skulls and other remains of Japanese soldiers by Allied soldiers was shown by several studies to have been widespread enough to be commented upon by Allied military authorities and US wartime press.

Following the surrender of Japan, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East took place in Ichigaya , Tokyo from 29 April to 12 November to try those accused of the most serious war crimes. Meanwhile, military tribunals were also held by the returning powers throughout Asia and the Pacific for lesser figures. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Pacific War disambiguation.