Imperial Japan
This article contains sensitive and disturbing content. Viewer discretion is advised.
A Chinese man awaits his execution
Wikimedia Commons
Imperial Japan's invasion and occupation of East Asia should be spoken more about. The Imperial Army carried out some of the most horrendous acts of violence and evil against innocent civilians. They aren't paralleled by any other nation. No one was exempt from the Japanese soldier's wrath. They killed and raped women and children alike as they saw fit. The invasion of China set a new standard for how evil a human can become.
Before the invasion
Japan prepared its population for war with China decades prior to the invasion took place. Right from their first years in school, children are taught that the Chinese were creatures less than human and meant to be conquered over and killed. The teachers punished any child that expressed any thoughts of humanity towards the Chinese. Schools encouraged speaking low of them. In addition to demeaning them, they taught that the Japanese were superior in every way. Parents who opposed this line of education were publicly shamed. Teachers were at liberty to beat students and humiliate them. From such a young age, this generation was being prepared for war.
As children became teenagers and teenagers became college graduates, their academic pressure mounted. Any "failure" in reaching expected standards would have severe repercussions and consequently affect their sense of honor, which is inculcated in them. In fact, there have been cases of Japanese officers in training committing suicide in fear of falling short of the high standards. Such was the strictness and ruthlessness of Imperial Japan.
In training, every Japanese soldier is taught to die but never surrender. It was a great dishonor to surrender. Moreover, there were specialized fighters called the "Kamikaze." They were trained to fly their planes straight into enemy ships. The Imperial Japan Army couldn't care less about its troops' well-being.
Rationale behind the war
The monarchy's utilization of identity politics was only to gain the full support of the population to support the war. The real intention had nothing to do with the animosity of race or country. The rationale behind the war - China's vast lands are rich with fertile lands and natural resources.
Japan had long eyed to occupy many East Asian regions for a long time. Japan's natural resources are virtually void. Its geography is also quite challenging. Close to 70% of the country's land is mountainous, making it difficult for inhabitation and impossible for crop cultivation. A little over 11% of its land is arable(suitable for crop cultivation). The land is simply not enough to sustain its massive population. For perspective, the US has 17%, India, 60%, and the UK, 25%. Arable land isn't the only problem. Natural resources like coal, minerals, and gas are very scarce. There was very little for its rapidly growing population and almost no fuel for its rapid militarization and industrialization. Moreover, the Great Depression only made matters worse for Japan.
Through conquest, Imperial Japan sought to gain more land to mitigate these shortfalls of their geography. It was also an opportune moment because her military strength was strong and at its peak.
The war
The Second Sino-Japanese war started on 7th July, 1937. It began with the aerial bombing of Chinese cities like Nanjing(Nanking) and civilian and military infrastructure. This turned much of the city to rubble and killed thousands of civilians. After defeating the military forces defending the city/town, they tormented the civilian population. They were subject to mass rapes, beheadings, and shootings. This was a constant in many regions occupied by Imperial Japan during World War 2, like China, the Philippines, and Korea. Japan and Korea, to date, have a rocky relationship.
So what did the Japanese army do in China? The next part of this section will address the magnitude of humanitarian crimes they committed and the book that helped to bring much of the war to light.
The Rape of Nanking - A book of horrors
[WARNING: This part contains content that some readers may find disturbing]
The Rape of Nanking is a book by Iris Chang, an American historian. The book played a significant role in showing the world what Japan did in East Asia during the Second World War. Prior to this book, there was little documented content on the subject. It also explains the politics during the war and the post-war cover-up the Japanese government did. It's a gut-wrenching book to read.
Soon after, they settled around the city up for a siege. The media, government, and military officials had long boasted before the war that their victory in China would be swift and almost bloodless. This turned out to be a miscalculation. It lasted many more months than anticipated. The troops started to become frustrated, which they would later unleash upon the inhabitants of Nanking. Although the Chinese military had held its own for months, Chiang Kai-shek, the country's leader, ordered his military leadership to abandon the city. Without leadership, the soldiers were thrown into disarray. It shattered all morale and will to fight. As a direct consequence, they surrendered quickly when the Imperial Army closed in around the city. With little to no resistance, the Japanese occupied the city. To ensure their victory, they rounded up and eliminated almost all of the Chinese POWs.
For the next eight years, Nanking witnessed the Imperial soldiers bring hell to Earth. Women and children were raped with no mercy and brutally killed. Men were shot randomly off the streets. Many were tortured with impalement, organ carving, and other horrendous methods.
Here's an excerpt from the book:
"The Rape of Nanking should be remembered not only for the number of people slaughtered but for the cruel manner in which many met their deaths. Chinese men were used for bayonet practice and in decapitation contests. An estimated 20,000–80,000 Chinese women were raped. Many soldiers went beyond rape to disembowel women, slice off their breasts, nail them alive to walls. Fathers were forced to rape their daughters, and sons their mothers, as other family members watched. Not only did live burials, castration, the carving of organs, and the roasting of people become routine, but more diabolical tortures were practiced, such as hanging people by their tongues on iron hooks or burying people to their waists and watching them get torn apart by German shepherds."
"Perhaps one of the most brutal forms of Japanese entertainment was the impalement of vaginas. In the streets of Nanking, corpses of women lay with their legs splayed open, their orifices pierced by wooden rods, twigs, and weeds. It is painful, almost mind-numbing, to contemplate some of the other objects that were used to torment the Nanking women, who suffered almost unendurable ordeals. For instance, one Japanese soldier who raped a young woman thrust a beer bottle into her and shot her. Another rape victim was found with a golf stick rammed into her. And on December 22, in a neighborhood near the gate of Tongjimen, the Japanese raped a barber’s wife and then stuck a firecracker in her vagina. It blew up and killed her."
No other major regime of this time ever led a massacre such as this. Even after capturing the city, the Air Force kept bombing the city, targeting populated areas like hospitals. They spared no one, from injured civilians to young children and babies. The officers even had beheading competitions, where they would behead as many Chinese as possible in the given time. In the Manchurian region, a specialized task unit conducted research on chemical and biological warfare. Better known as Unit 731, it was responsible for testing and experimenting various diseases and chemicals on men, women, and children. Every single person experimented on died. Most of them suffered excruciating deaths. Not even newly born babies were spared. Unit 731 deserves a whole article for itself. The tests they conducted were unfathomably cruel and gruesome.
I could mention many more appalling and cruel crimes they carried out, but I believe enough has been said to understand the degree of evil and suffering they had dealt in East Asia.
Japan's occupation of China ended in 1945 after she surrendered to America. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Chinese were killed in just Nanking. An estimated total of 6 - 10 million East Asians from China, Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, and others. Many war crimes were committed in these countries as well.
Politics & the attempt to bury a dark past
Once you understand the cover-up and politics after Japan surrendered, it won't come to be a surprise why many people don't know about the war crimes and even the invasion itself.
China
Following the surrender, the Chinese government sought to "amend" relations with Japan. They saw Japan as a future power and wanted to ally with her. Because of this, the victims of the massacres and rapes never had a proper opportunity to speak up. Moreover, a few decades later, when Japan apologized for its war crimes, China deemed it to be insincere.
Japan
The war crime tribunal was of incredible scope and lasted for two and a half years-almost three times as long as the Nuremberg trials. Twenty-eight high-ranking military and political officials were prosecuted, a small number considering the crimes committed.
Japan, right from the start, attempted to bury its past. They constantly downplayed their war crimes and claimed that the reported death tolls were grossly exaggerated. The new government repeatedly prohibited the publication of schools' history books that contained accounts of the invasion. There is so little about it till today. Most textbooks don't even have the war Japan had with the US. Many Japanese citizens have no knowledge of Imperial Japan's alliance with Nazi Germany. They actively tried to erase their history.
Due to their reluctance to sincerely apologize and pay reparations, Japan and South Korea still have a complicated relationship. The Japanese government says they've apologized and paid enough reparations. On the other hand, the South Korean government says they've not been given enough compensation for the crimes committed.
On a relatively positive note, Japan passed a law that prohibits its military from developing offensive capabilities. Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution states that the country may not use military force to resolve international issues and must not maintain a military. It may have seemed like a good gesture when it passed, but its practicality amid current day international affairs is now hotly debated.
Despite all this, the world knows the truth about what Japan did in East Asia. Although it doesn't get the traction it should, a fairly large number of people do know about it. The holocaust is remembered because its perpetrators owned up to it, sincerely apologized for it, and educated their citizens about it. While Japan has repeatedly apologized through the decades, many still feel it's not enough. Whether it does something about it or not, Imperial Japan's crimes will not easily be forgotten, especially by the survivors of her torment.