Both before and during World War II, the Empire of Japan committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity across various Asian–Pacific nations, most notably during the Second Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars. These crimes have been referred to as "the Asian Holocaust" or "Japan's Holocaust", as well as the "Rape of Asia". Most of these crimes occurred during the early part of the reign of Emperor Hirohito. Deaths are estimated at between 19 million and 30 million.
The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) were responsible for war crimes which resulted in millions of deaths, ranging from sexual slavery and massacres to unethical human experimentation, torture, starvation and forced labour. Evidence of these crimes, including oral testimonies and written records such as diaries and war journals, has been provided by Japanese veterans. In many instances, the Japanese political and military leadership, knowing about the atrocities committed by their own troops, continued to either condone or, in some cases, even justify them. Most of the Japanese troops who were stationed in the Asia-Pacific region either took part in or did not oppose these crimes.
The Air Service of the IJA participated in chemical and biological attacks on civilians during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, violating international agreements that Japan had signed, including the Hague Conventions, which prohibited the use of "poison or poisoned weapons" in warfare.
Since the 1950s, numerous apologies for the war crimes have been issued by senior Japanese government officials, which have been criticized by some as insincere. Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has acknowledged the country's role in causing "tremendous damage and suffering" before and during World War II, particularly the massacre and rape of civilians in Nanjing by the IJA. However, the issue remains controversial, with some members of the Japanese government, including former prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzō Abe, having paid respects at the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors all Japanese war dead, including convicted Class A war criminals. Furthermore, some Japanese history textbooks provide only brief references to the war crimes, and certain members of the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party have denied some of the atrocities, such as the government's involvement in abducting women to serve as "comfort women", a euphemism for sex slaves.
Definitions
The Tokyo Charter defines war crimes as "violations of the laws or customs of war," which involves acts using prohibited weapons, violating battlefield norms while engaging in combat with the enemy combatants, or against protected persons, including enemy civilians and citizens and property of neutral states as in the case of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Military personnel from the Empire of Japan have been convicted of many such acts committed during the period of Japanese imperialism from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. Japanese military personnel conducted a series of human rights abuses against civilians and prisoners of war throughout East Asia and the western Pacific region. These events reached their height during the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937–45 and the Asian and Pacific campaigns of World War II (1941–45).
International and Japanese law
Japan signed the 1929 Geneva Convention on the Prisoners of War and the 1929 Geneva Convention on the Sick and Wounded, but the Japanese government declined to ratify the POW Convention. In 1942, the Japanese government stated that it would abide by the terms of the Convention mutatis mutandis ('changing what has to be changed'). The crimes committed also fall under other aspects of international and Japanese law. For example, many of the crimes which were committed by Japanese personnel during World War II broke Japanese military law, and as a result the perpetrators were subject to court-martial, a requirement of that law.See, for example: Wai Keng Kwok, 2001, "Justice Done? Criminal and Moral Responsibility Issues In the Chinese Massacres Trial Singapore, 1947" (Genocide Studies Program Working Paper No. 18, Yale University), page 27. Access date: 23 April 2007. The Empire also violated international agreements signed by Japan, including provisions of the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907) such as protections for prisoners of war and a ban on the use of chemical weapons, the 1930 Forced Labour Convention which prohibited forced labor, the 1921 International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children which prohibited human trafficking, and other agreements.
The Japanese government also signed the Kellogg–Briand Pact (1929), thereby rendering its actions in 1937–45 liable to charges of crimes against peace, a charge that was introduced at the Tokyo Trials to prosecute "Class A" war criminals. "Class B" war criminals were those found guilty of war crimes per se, and "Class C" war criminals were those guilty of crimes against humanity. The Japanese government also accepted the terms set by the Potsdam Declaration (1945) after the end of the war, including the provision in Article 10 of punishment for "all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners". Japanese law does not define those convicted in the post-1945 trials as criminals, despite the fact that Japan's governments have accepted the judgments made in the trials, and in the Treaty of San Francisco (1952). Former Prime Minister Shinzō Abe had advocated the position that Japan accepted the Tokyo tribunal and its judgements as a condition for ending the war, but that its verdicts have no relation to domestic law. According to Abe, those convicted of war crimes are not criminals under Japanese law.
Historical and geographical extent
Outside Japan, different societies use widely different timeframes when they define Japanese war crimes. For example, the annexation of Korea by Japan in 1910 was enforced by the Japanese military, and the Society of Yi Dynasty Korea was controlled by the political system of the Empire of Japan. Thus, North and South Korea both refer to "Japanese war crimes" as events which occurred during the period of Korea under Japanese rule.
By contrast, the Western Allies did not come into a military conflict with Japan until 1941, and as a result, North Americans, Australians, South East Asians and Europeans may consider "Japanese war crimes" events that occurred from 1942 to 1945.See, for example: Craig Symonds, "War, Politics, and Grand Strategy in the Pacific, 1941–1945", Air University Review, November–December 1979 (Access date: 15 February 2007): "most American historians, date the war from December 1941". See also Edward Drea, "Introduction", in Edward Drea, Greg Bradsher, Robert Hanyok, James Lide, Michael Petersen & Daqing Yang, 2006, Researching Japanese War Crimes Records (National Archives and Records Administration, Washington D.C.; page 15): "The atrocities at Nanjing occurred four years before the United States entered the war. At that time, the U.S. government did not have a large military or diplomatic intelligence network in China. A handful of trained military or embassy personnel reported on events, sometimes second-hand; compared with the sensational press coverage, the official U.S. documentation was scant. As a result, with the exception of the records produced during the postwar Class A war crimes trial of the commanding general of Japanese forces deemed responsible for the Rape of Nanking, there are few materials on this subject at the National Archives." See also, Ben-Ami Shillony, "Book Review, Book Title: A History of Japan, 1582–1941 Internal and External Worlds, Author: L. M. Cullen Professor of History, Trinity College, Dublin", (Institute of Historical Research, February 2004) (Access date: 15 February 2007); Grant K. Goodman, "Review 'The Kempei Tai in the Philippines: 1941–1945' by Ma. Felisa A. Syjuco" Pacific Affairs, volume 64, number 2 (Summer 1991), pages 282–83 (Access date: 15 February 2007); United Nations Human Rights Committee, "Fifty-Ninth Session, 24 March – 11 April 1997, Decisions, Communication No. 601/1994" (3 April 1997) (Access date: 15 February 2007);Gary K. Reynolds, 2002, U.S. Prisoners of War and Civilian American Citizens Captured and Interned by Japan in World War II: The Issue of Compensation by Japan(Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress, 17 December 2002) Access date: 15 February 2007.
A small minority of people in every Asian and Pacific country which was invaded or occupied by Japan collaborated with the Japanese military, and they even served in it, for a wide variety of reasons, such as economic hardship, coercion, or antipathy toward other imperialist powers. In addition to Japanese civil and military personnel, Chinese (including Manchus), Koreans, and Taiwanese who were forced to serve in the military of the Empire of Japan were also found to have committed war crimes as part of the Japanese Imperial Army.Harmsen, Peter, Jiji Press, "Taiwanese seeks payback for brutal service in Imperial Army", The Japan Times, 26 September 2012, page 4 (article text)
Background Japanese militarism and imperialism
Militarism, nationalism and imperialism, especially during Imperial Japan's expansion through East Asia, had great bearings on the conduct of the Japanese armed forces both before and during the Second World War. After the Meiji Restoration and the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Emperor became the focus of military loyalty and nationalism. During the so-called "Age of Imperialism" in the late 19th century, Japan followed the lead of other world powers by establishing a colonial empire, an objective which it aggressively pursued.
Unlike many other major powers, Japan never ratified the Geneva Convention of 1929—also known as the Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Geneva 27 July 1929—which was the version of the Geneva Convention that covered the treatment of prisoners of war during World War II. Nevertheless, Japan ratified the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 which contained provisions regarding prisoners of war and an Imperial Proclamation in 1894 stated that Japanese soldiers should make every effort to win the war without violating international laws. According to Japanese historian Yuki Tanaka, Japanese forces during the First Sino-Japanese War released 1,790 Chinese prisoners without harm, once they signed an agreement not to take up arms against Japan if they were released.Tanaka Hidden Horrors pages 72–73 After the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, all of the 79,367 Russian prisoners who were held by the Japanese were released, and they were also paid for the labor which they performed during this period, in accordance with the Hague Convention. Similarly, the behavior of the Japanese military in World War I was at least as humane as that of other militaries which fought during the war, with some German Empire prisoners of the Japanese finding life in Japan so agreeable that they stayed and settled in Japan after the war.
By the late 1930s, the rise of militarism in Japan led to the creation of a wider Japanese military culture which bore at least superficial similarities to the military culture of Nazi Germany. Japan also had a military secret police force within the Imperial Japanese Army, known as the Kempeitai. In annexed and occupied countries, the Kempeitai and the Nazi Gestapo performed similar functions, although the Kempeitai had existed for nearly a decade before Adolf Hitler's birth.Lamong-Brown, Raymond. "Kempeitai: Japan's Dreaded Military Police". Sutton Publishing, 1998.