Japanese death camps: how British prisoners were turned into living skeletons during World War II. Real Chinese torture and executions
In the Middle Ages, a key role in politics and public life belonged to the church. Against the backdrop of the flourishing of architecture and scientific technology, the Inquisition and church courts persecuted dissidents and used torture. Denunciations and executions were widespread. Women were especially helpless and powerless. Therefore, today we will tell you about the most terrible medieval tortures for girls.
Their life was not like the fairy-tale world of chivalric romances. Girls were more often accused of witchcraft and, under torture, confessed to acts they did not commit. Sophisticated corporal punishment amazes with savagery, cruelty and inhumanity. The woman has always been to blame: for infertility and a large number of children, for an illegitimate child and various bodily defects, for healing and violation of biblical rules. Public corporal punishment was used to obtain information and intimidate the population.
The most terrible torture of women in the history of mankind
Most instruments of torture were mechanized. The victim was in terrible pain and died from his injuries. The authors of all the terrible instruments knew the structure of the human body well, each method caused unbearable suffering. Although of course these tools were used not only on females, they suffered more than others.
Pear of suffering
The mechanism was a metal bulb divided into several segments. There was a screw in the middle of the bulb. The device was inserted into the offending woman's mouth, vagina or anus. The screw mechanism opened the segments of the pear. As a result, they were damaged internal organs: vagina, cervix, intestines, pharynx. A very terrible death.
The injuries caused by the device were incompatible with life. Usually torture was used on girls accused of having connections with the devil. At the sight of such a weapon, the defendants admitted to cohabitation with the devil, using the blood of babies in magical rituals. But confessions did not save the poor girls. They still died in the flames of the fire.
Witch chair (Spanish chair)
Applied to girls convicted of witchcraft. The suspect was restrained with belts and handcuffs. iron chair, in which the seat, back, and sides were covered with spikes. The person did not die immediately from loss of blood; the thorns slowly pierced the body. The cruel suffering did not end there; hot coals were placed under the chair.
History has preserved the fact that at the end of the 17th century, a woman from Austria, accused of witchcraft, spent eleven days in agony on such a chair, but she died without confessing to the crime.
Throne
A special device for long-term torture. "The Throne" was wooden chair with holes in the back. The woman's legs were fixed in the holes, and her head was lowered down. The uncomfortable position caused suffering: blood rushed to the head, the muscles of the neck and back became tense. But there were no traces of torture left on the suspect’s body.
A fairly harmless weapon, reminiscent of a modern vice, caused pain, broke bones, but did not lead to the death of the person being interrogated.
Stork
The woman was placed in an iron device, which allowed her to be fixed in a position with her legs pulled to her stomach. This position caused muscle spasms. Prolonged pain and cramps slowly drove me crazy. Additionally, the victim could be tortured with a hot iron.
Shoes with spikes under the heel
The torture shoes were secured to the leg with shackles. Using a special device, spikes were screwed into the heel. The victim could stand on his toes for some time to relieve pain and prevent deep penetration thorns But it is impossible to stand in this position for a long time. The poor sinner was in for severe pain, blood loss, and sepsis.
"Vigil" (torture by insomnia)
For this purpose, a special chair with a pyramid-shaped seat was created. The girl was placed on a seat; she could not sleep or relax. But the inquisitors found more effective way to gain recognition. The bound suspect was seated in such a position that the tip of the pyramid penetrated the vagina.
The torture lasted for hours; the unconscious woman was revived and returned to the pyramid, which tore her body and injured her genitals. To intensify the pain, heavy objects were tied to the victim’s legs and a hot iron was applied.
Goats for witches (Spanish donkey)
The naked sinner was seated on wood block pyramidal in shape; to enhance the effect, a weight was tied to the legs. The torture caused pain, but unlike the previous one, it did not tear the woman’s genitals.
Water torture
This method of inquiry was considered humane, although it often led to the death of the suspect. A funnel was inserted into the girl's mouth and a large amount of water was poured in. Then they jumped on the unfortunate woman, which could cause a rupture of the stomach and intestines. Boiling water and molten metal could be poured through the funnel. Ants and other insects were often placed into the victim's mouth or vagina. Even an innocent girl confessed to any sins in order to avoid a terrible fate.
Pectoral
The torture device is similar to a chest ornament. Hot metal was placed on the girl’s chest. After interrogation, if the suspect did not die from painful shock and did not confess to a crime against faith, charred flesh remained instead of the chest.
The device, made in the form of metal hooks, was often used to interrogate girls caught in witchcraft or manifestations of lust. This instrument could be used to punish a woman who cheated on her husband and gave birth out of wedlock. A very tough measure.
Witch bathing
The inquiry was carried out during the cold season. The sinner was seated in a special chair and tied tightly. If the woman did not repent, dipping was carried out until she suffocated under the water or froze.
Was there torture of women in the Middle Ages in Rus'?
IN medieval Rus' there was no persecution of witches and heretics. Women were not subjected to such sophisticated torture, but for murders and state crimes they could be buried up to their necks in the ground, punished with a whip so that their skin was torn to shreds.
Well, that's probably enough for today. We think that now you understand how terrible medieval torture was for girls, and now it is unlikely that any of the fair sex will want to travel back to the Middle Ages to the valiant knights.
Persons over the age of 14 are subject to criminal liability if they have committed murder, caused grievous bodily harm, committed rape, robbery, drug trafficking, arson, explosion, poisoning or other crimes that seriously violate public order. Complicity in a crime is the joint intentional participation of two or more persons in the commission of a crime.
The death penalty, as a punishment, was used in China for ridiculous and worthy actions.
In Ancient China, in addition to the usual reasons for this, there was a law that threatened with the death penalty anyone who encroached on the use of saffron dye; it was used to dye royal clothes. For wearing clothes or jewelry with dragon figures. For distorting the historical truth.
Later, it was used on cattle thieves, cigarette smugglers, pimps selling and showing pornography - the latter is reasonable.
In the 1st millennium BC, each judge invented his own reprisals against criminals and prisoners. The most common were: sawing off the foot (first they sawed off one foot, the second time the repeat offender caught the other), removal of the kneecaps, cutting off the nose, cutting off the ears, branding.
Criminals were burned at the stake, torn into two or four parts by chariots, their ribs were broken out, boiled in cauldrons, crucified (often they were simply forced to their knees, their hands tied and left in the sun).
Burying alive in the ground was especially popular. Often, in this way, prisoners were dealt with; archaeologists often discover characteristic burials of people buried alive (with open mouths, in crouched positions, sometimes a dozen people in one grave).
Castration was widely used; a significant part of those punished simply died soon after the operation from blood poisoning.
Ancient China was the kingdom of what in Chinese is called “zhou xing” - “mutilation punishments”: axes and axes, knives and saws for sawing off limbs, chisels and drills for removing kneecaps, sticks, whips, needles.
During the Han Dynasty (2nd century BC - 2nd century AD), beating with bamboo sticks or being sent to hard labor appeared.
In the 7th century AD, during the Tang Dynasty, Chinese legislation was drawn up, which, with minor changes, lasted until the beginning of the 20th century.
In an effort to make the punishment more severe, the judges came up with an execution called “carry out five types of punishment.” In this case, the criminal should have been branded, his arms or legs cut off, beaten to death with sticks, and his head put on display in the market for everyone to see.
For especially serious crimes, it was necessary to execute not only the perpetrator, but also to slaughter his entire family - his father, mother, wife, concubines, brothers and wives, sisters with husbands, children.
They did not keep convicts in prisons - it was too expensive. The prison was a rather frail structure without much security, so the main method of protection against escapes was stocks.
The most common type of last is “kanga” (or “jia”). It was used very widely: several prisoners were chained in this neck block.
During the era of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the lasts were a rectangular board measuring one meter by one meter, with a round cutout for the neck in the center. This board consisted of two sliding parts and, after the criminal’s neck was inserted into it, it was locked with a lock, weighing approximately 10-15 kg.
In addition to the neck restraints, hand stocks and metal handcuffs were also used.
If a criminal at least once tried to escape or there was a goal to torture him, he was chained to boards with a neck block for a long time, sometimes cuts were left on him so that he would be tormented by rats, bedbugs and lice.
Since the Tang Dynasty, the law has recognized three types of acceptable torture:
1) Beating with sticks. The interrogated person was placed on the ground or tied while standing, and they began to beat him with sticks on the buttocks and thighs, sometimes on the heels. The size and weight of the sticks was determined by instructions, and was different in different eras.
2) Vise for arm and leg bones - something like a Chinese finger trap, connected by strings of sticks, between which the fingers of the accused were inserted. The executioner squeezed the sticks, breaking the phalanges of the fingers, also with the legs.
3) Torture by water, brainwashing. It differed from European torture in that water was poured into the nose; before torture, the person was hung by the legs to cause swelling of the brain.
Sometimes they used the rack, torture with fire, hot iron, they were forced to swallow needles, and their nails were pulled out. They hung me up by my arms and pulled the tendons of all my joints.
Executions:
1) Decapitation - they feared it more than strangulation, although it was the most painless. The Chinese believed that in the afterlife they would look the way they met their death. The victim was stripped to the waist and made to kneel with his hands tied behind his back. After this, the executioner struck with a wide sword.
2) Removal.This was done in two ways:
A) The criminal was tied to a pole, a rope was wrapped around his neck, the ends of which were in the hands of the executioners. They slowly twist the rope with special sticks, gradually strangling the convict. The strangulation could last a very long time, since the executioners at times loosened the rope and allowed the almost strangled victim to take several convulsive breaths, and then tightened the noose again.
B) “Cage” or “standing pads” (“Li-jia”) - the device for this execution is a neck block, which was fixed on top of caged bamboo or wooden poles, at a height of about two meters. The convict was placed in a cage, and bricks or tiles were placed under his feet, which were then slowly removed. The executioner removed the bricks, and the man hung with his neck pinched by the block, which began to choke him, this could continue for months until all the stands were removed.
3) Sawing in half. To do this, the body of the criminal was tightly clamped into an unclosed coffin, which was then placed vertically upside down. After this, they sawed from top to bottom with a long two-handed saw. The saw entered the crotch and slowly moved down, tearing muscles and viscera, crushing bones. More often in the paintings you can see horizontal sawing.
4)
Lin-Chi凌遲
- “death by a thousand cuts” or"sea pike bites"- the most terrible execution by cutting small pieces from the victim's body over a long period of time. This execution followed high treason and parricide, and was used from the Middle Ages until 1905, during the Qing dynasty. For the purpose of intimidation, Linchi was carried out in public places with a large crowd of onlookers. In some cases, the victim was pumped with opium to prolong the torture, from which it happened that the victims even began to laugh without feeling unbearable torture, but this rarely happened.
IN early XIX century, an average of 15-20 people were sentenced to this execution throughout the country every year, in ancient times - more.
The convict, stripped naked, was tightly tied to wooden post, the executioners took knives and hacksaws. Then they began to cut off pieces of the criminal’s skin.
The court usually determined in advance how many cut pieces should be confiscated from the criminal; sometimes there were few, sometimes there were a lot:
1,2 - cut off the left and right eyebrows;
3.4 - cut off the meat from the left and right buttocks,
5.6 - cut off the left and right nipples and meat from the breast - was used most often.
7.8 - tear off the meat on the hands and ultimately saw off the hands;
8.9 - then saw off the arms up to the elbows;
11,12 - feet;
13.14 - tear off pieces from the leg up to the knee and then chop off;
15 - stomach with guts being torn out;
16 - neck with throat cut at the end;
17.18 - pulling from arms to shoulders;
19.20 - from toe to groin.
Death, as a rule, occurred in the middle of the execution.
In the Qing era, 36, 72, 120 and 1000, or even more, pieces of flesh were used.
In this case, the weeping covered the victim's body with a fine mesh net. The mesh was pulled tighter, and the executioner's assistant used tongs to grab a small piece that protruded in the cell and pulled it out. After that, another executioner cut it off with a sharp knife.
As a form of mercy, execution was sometimes carried out on a dead criminal.
About Chinese suicide:
A person driven to despair, wanting to take revenge for an insult or desecration inflicted on him, committed suicide in the house or near the house of the offender.
Suicide for revenge was often associated with superstitions that after death a person, having turned into a spirit/demon, could take revenge on the enemy with greater ease than during life; in this case, poison, starvation or strangulation were preferred.
The soul of the suicide could not ascend to heaven and remained forever in the house of the offender, bringing a curse on the perpetrators.
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 her legs were spread apart and they were also tied to 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 with anticipation of something terrible. The soldier began to pour water into the funnel. One mug, the second... 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 opening of the 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 gasping for breath, 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 thrust 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 across 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.
Until December 7, 1941, there was not a single military conflict with an Asian army in American history. There were only a few minor skirmishes in the Philippines during the war with Spain. This led to American soldiers and sailors underestimating the enemy.
The US Army heard stories about the brutality with which the Japanese invaders treated the Chinese population in the 40s of the twentieth century. But before the clashes with the Japanese, the Americans had no idea what their opponents were capable of.
Routine beatings were so common that it is not even worthy of mention. However, in addition, captive Americans, British, Greeks, Australians and Chinese had to face slave labor, forced marches, cruel and unusual torture, and even dismemberment.
Below are some of the most shocking atrocities committed by the Japanese army during World War II.
15. CANNIBALISM
It’s no secret that during times of famine people begin to eat their own kind. Cannibalism occurred in the expedition led by Donner, and even the Uruguay rugby team that crashed in the Andes, the subject of the movie The Alive. But this always happened only in extreme circumstances. But it is impossible not to shudder when hearing stories about eating the remains of dead soldiers or cutting off parts from living people. The Japanese camps were deeply isolated, surrounded by impenetrable jungle, and the soldiers guarding the camp often starved as well as the prisoners, resorting to horrendous means to satisfy their hunger. But for the most part, cannibalism occurred due to mockery of the enemy. A report from the University of Melbourne states:
“According to the Australian lieutenant, he saw many bodies that were missing parts, even a scalped head without a torso. He states that the condition of the remains clearly indicated that they had been dismembered for cooking."
14. NON-HUMAN EXPERIMENTS ON PREGNANT WOMEN
Dr. Josef Mengele was a famous Nazi scientist who experimented on Jews, twins, dwarfs and other concentration camp prisoners and was wanted by the international community after the war for trial for numerous war crimes. But the Japanese had their own scientific institutions, where they carried out equally terrible experiments on people.
The so-called Unit 731 conducted experiments on Chinese women who were raped and impregnated. They were purposefully infected with syphilis so that they could find out whether the disease would be inherited. Often the condition of the fetus was studied directly in the mother's womb without the use of anesthesia, since these women were considered nothing more than animals to be studied.
13. SCARDING AND SUTUPING OF THE GENITALIA IN THE MOUTH
In 1944, on the volcanic island of Peleliu, a soldier Marine Corps While having lunch with a friend, I saw the figure of a man heading towards them across the open area of the battlefield. As the man approached, it became clear that he was also a Marine soldier. The man walked bent over and had difficulty moving his legs. He was covered in blood. The sergeant decided that he was just a wounded man who had not been taken from the battlefield, and he and several colleagues hurried to meet him.
What they saw made them shudder. His mouth was sewn shut and the front of his trousers was cut. The face was distorted with pain and horror. Having taken him to the doctors, they later learned from them what really happened. He was captured by the Japanese, where he was beaten and brutally tortured. The Japanese army soldiers cut off his genitals, stuffed them into his mouth, and sewed him up. It is unknown whether the soldier was able to survive such a horrific outrage. But a reliable fact is that instead of intimidating, this event had the opposite effect, filling the hearts of the soldiers with hatred and giving them additional strength to fight for the island.
12. SATISFYING DOCTORS’ CURIOSITY
People practicing medicine in Japan did not always work to alleviate the plight of the sick. During World War II, Japanese "doctors" often performed brutal procedures on enemy soldiers or ordinary citizens in the name of science or simply to satisfy curiosity. Somehow they became interested in what would happen to the human body if it was twisted for a long time. To do this, they placed people in centrifuges and spun them sometimes for hours. People were thrown onto the walls of the cylinder and the faster it spun, the more more pressure appeared on the internal organs. Many died within a few hours and their bodies were removed from the centrifuge, but some were spun until they literally exploded or fell apart.
11. AMPUTATION
If a person was suspected of espionage, then he was punished with all cruelty. Not only soldiers of Japan's enemy armies were subject to torture, but also residents of the Philippines, who were suspected of providing intelligence information for the Americans and British. The favorite punishment was to simply cut them alive. First one arm, then perhaps a leg and fingers. Next came the ears. But all this did not lead to a quick death so that the victim suffered for a long time. There was also the practice of stopping bleeding after cutting off a hand, when several days were given for recovery to continue torture. Men, women and children were amputated; no one was spared from the atrocities of the Japanese soldiers.
10. TORTURE BY DROWNING
Many believe that waterboarding was first used by US soldiers in Iraq. Such torture is contrary to the country's constitution and appears unusual and cruel. This measure may be considered torture, but may not be considered that way. It is definitely a difficult ordeal for the prisoner, but it does not put his life at risk. The Japanese used waterboarding not only for interrogation, but also tied prisoners at an angle and inserted tubes into their nostrils. Thus, the water went directly into their lungs. It didn't just make you feel like you were drowning, like waterboarding, but the victim actually seemed to drown if the torture went on for too long.
He could try to spit out enough water so as not to choke, but this was not always possible. Waterboarding was the second most common cause of death for prisoners, after beatings.
9. FREEZING AND BURNING
Another type of inhumane research on the human body was the study of the effects of cold on the body. Frequently, freezing would remove the skin from the victim's bones. Of course, the experiments were carried out on living, breathing people who had to live with limbs from which the skin had fallen off for the rest of their lives. But not only the impact was studied low temperatures on the body, but also high. They burned the skin on a person’s hand over a torch, and the prisoner ended his life in terrible agony.
8. RADIATION
X-rays were still poorly understood at the time, and their usefulness and effectiveness in diagnosing disease or as a weapon were in question. Irradiation of prisoners was used especially frequently by Detachment 731. Prisoners were gathered under a shelter and exposed to radiation. They were taken out at certain intervals to study the physical and psychological effects of the radiation. With particularly large doses of radiation, part of the body burned and the skin literally fell off. The victims died in agony, as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki later, but much more slowly.
7. BURNING ALIVE
The Japanese soldiers from the small islands of the South Pacific were hardened, cruel people who lived in caves with little food, little to do, and plenty of time to cultivate hatred for their enemies. Therefore, when American soldiers were captured by them, they were absolutely merciless to them. Most often, American sailors were burned alive or partially buried. Many of them were found under rocks where they were thrown to decompose. The prisoners were tied hand and foot, then thrown into a dug hole, which was then slowly buried. Perhaps the worst thing was that the victim's head was left outside, which was then urinated on or eaten by animals.
6. BEHAVIORATION
In Japan it was considered an honor to die from a sword. If the Japanese wanted to disgrace the enemy, they brutally tortured him. Therefore, for those captured, dying by beheading was lucky. It was much worse to be subjected to the tortures listed above. If ammunition ran out in battle, the Americans used a rifle with a bayonet, while the Japanese always carried a long blade and a long curved sword. Soldiers were lucky to die from decapitation and not from a blow to the shoulder or chest. If the enemy found himself on the ground, he was chopped to death, rather than his head being cut off.
5. DEATH BY TIDE
Since Japan and its surrounding islands are surrounded by ocean waters, this type of torture was common among the inhabitants. Drowning is a terrible type of death. Even worse was the expectation of imminent death from the tide within a few hours. Prisoners were often tortured for several days in order to learn military secrets. Some could not stand the torture, but there were also those who only gave their name, rank and serial number. A special type of death was prepared for such stubborn people. The soldier was left on the shore, where he had to listen for several hours to the water getting closer and closer. Then, the water covered the prisoner's head and, within a few minutes of coughing, filled the lungs, after which death occurred.
4. TORTURE WITH BAMBOO
Bamboo grows in hot tropical areas and grows noticeably faster than other plants, several centimeters per day. And when the devilish mind of man invented the most terrible way to die, it was impalement. The victims were impaled on bamboo, which slowly grew into their bodies. The unfortunates suffered from inhuman pain when their muscles and organs were pierced by the plant. Death occurred as a result of organ damage or blood loss.
3. COOKING ALIVE
Another activity of Unit 731 was exposing victims to small doses of electricity. With a small impact it caused a lot of pain. If it was prolonged, then the internal organs of the prisoners were boiled and burned. Interesting fact about the intestines and gallbladder is that they have nerve endings. Therefore, when exposed to them, the brain sends pain signals to other organs. It's like cooking the body from the inside. Imagine swallowing a hot piece of iron to understand what the unfortunate victims experienced. The pain will be felt throughout the body until the soul leaves it.
2. FORCED WORK AND MARCHES
Thousands of prisoners of war were sent to Japanese concentration camps, where they lived the life of slaves. The large number of prisoners was a serious problem for the army, since it was impossible to supply them with sufficient food and medicine. In concentration camps, prisoners were starved, beaten, and forced to work until they died. The lives of the prisoners meant nothing to the guards and officers monitoring them. In addition, if labor was needed on an island or another part of the country, the prisoners of war had to march hundreds of kilometers there in unbearable heat. Countless soldiers died along the way. Their bodies were thrown into ditches or left there.
1. FORCE TO KILL COMRADES AND ALLIES
Most often, beatings of prisoners were used during interrogations. The documents state that at first the prisoner was spoken to in a friendly manner. Then, if the interrogating officer understood the futility of such a conversation, was bored or simply angry, then the prisoner of war was beaten with fists, sticks or other objects. The beating continued until the torturers got tired. In order to make the interrogation more interesting, they brought in another prisoner and forced him to continue under pain of his own death by beheading. Often he had to beat a prisoner to death. Few things in war were as difficult for a soldier as causing suffering to a comrade. These stories filled the Allied troops with even greater determination in the fight against the Japanese.
Pour some tea and sit on a bench and read your favorite articles on my website.
Almost everyone knows about the atrocities of the Gestapo, but few have heard about the horrific crimes committed by the Kempeitai, the modernized military police Imperial Army Japan, founded in 1881. The Kempeitai was an ordinary, unremarkable police force until the rise of Japanese imperialism after World War I. However, over time, it became a brutal organ of state power, whose jurisdiction extended to occupied territories, prisoners of war and conquered peoples. Kempeitai employees worked as spies and counterintelligence agents. They used torture and extrajudicial execution to maintain their power over millions of innocent people. When Japan surrendered, the Kempeitai leadership deliberately destroyed most of the documents, so we are unlikely to ever know the true scale of their brutal crimes.
1. Killing prisoners of war
After the Japanese occupied the Dutch East Indies, a group of approximately two hundred British troops found themselves surrounded on the island of Java. They did not give up and decided to fight to the last. Most of them were captured by the Kempeitai and subjected to severe torture. According to more than 60 witnesses who testified in the Hague court after the end of World War II, British prisoners of war were placed in bamboo cages (meter by meter in size) designed to transport pigs. They were transported to the coast in trucks and on open rail carts at air temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius.
The cages of British prisoners of war, who were suffering from severe dehydration, were then loaded onto boats off the coast of Surabaya and thrown into the ocean. Some prisoners of war drowned, others were eaten alive by sharks. One Dutch witness, who was only eleven years old at the time of the events described, said the following:
“One day around noon, during the hottest part of the day, a convoy of four or five army trucks carrying so-called “pig baskets”, which were usually used to transport animals to the market or slaughterhouse, drove along the street where we were playing. Indonesia was a Muslim country. Pork meat was marketed to European and Chinese consumers. Muslims (residents of the island of Java) were not allowed to eat pork because they considered pigs to be “dirty animals” that should be avoided. To our great surprise, the pig baskets contained Australian soldiers in tattered military uniforms. They were attached to each other. The condition of most of them left much to be desired. Many were dying of thirst and asking for water. I saw one of the Japanese soldiers open his fly and urinate on them. I was terrified then. I will never forget this picture. My father later told me that the cages containing the prisoners of war were thrown into the ocean.”
Lieutenant General Hitoshi Imamura, the commander of the Japanese forces stationed on the island of Java, was accused of crimes against humanity, but was acquitted by the Hague court due to insufficient evidence. However, in 1946, an Australian military tribunal found him guilty and sentenced him to ten years in prison, which he spent in prison in the city of Sugamo (Japan).
2. Operation Suk Ching
After the Japanese captured Singapore, they gave the city a new name - Sionan ("Light of the South") - and switched to Tokyo time. They then initiated a program to clear the city of Chinese, whom they considered dangerous or undesirable. Each Chinese male between the ages of 15 and 50 was ordered to report to one of the registration centers located throughout the island for questioning to determine his identity. Political Views and loyalty. Those who passed the test were given a “Passed” stamp on their face, hands or clothing. Those who did not pass it (these were communists, nationalists, members of secret societies, bearers English language, government officials, teachers, veterans and criminals) were detained. A simple decorative tattoo was sufficient reason for a person to be mistaken for a member of an anti-Japanese secret society.
Two weeks after interrogation, the detainees were sent to work on plantations or drowned in the coastal areas of Changi, Ponggol and Tanah Merah Besar. Methods of punishment varied depending on the whims of the commanders. Some of the detainees were drowned in the sea, others were shot with a machine gun, and others were stabbed or beheaded. After the end of World War II, the Japanese claimed to have killed or tortured to death about 5,000 people, however, it is estimated local residents, the number of victims ranged from 20 to 50 thousand people.
3. Sandakan Death Marches
The occupation of Borneo gave the Japanese access to valuable offshore oil fields, which they decided to protect by building a nearby military airfield near the port of Sandakan. About 1,500 prisoners of war, mostly Australian soldiers, were sent to construction work to Sandakan, where they endured terrible conditions and received meager rations consisting of dirty rice and few vegetables. At the beginning of 1943, they were joined by British prisoners of war, who were forced to make an airstrip. They suffered from hunger, tropical ulcers and malnutrition.
The first few escapes by prisoners of war led to reprisals in the camp. Captured soldiers were beaten or locked in cages and left in the sun for picking coconuts or not bowing their heads low enough to a passing camp commander. People suspected of any illegal activities were brutally tortured by the Kempeitai police. They burned their skin with a lighter or stuck iron nails into their nails. One of the prisoners of war described the Kempeitai torture methods as follows:
“They took a small wooden stick the size of a skewer and used a hammer to “hammer” it into my left ear. When she ruptured my eardrum, I lost consciousness. The last thing I remembered was excruciating pain. I came to my senses literally a couple of minutes later - after a bucket was poured on me cold water. My ear healed after a while, but I could no longer hear with it.”
Despite the repression, one Australian soldier, Captain L. S. Matthews, was able to create a clandestine intelligence network, smuggling medicine, food and money to prisoners and maintaining radio contact with the Allies. When he was arrested, despite severe torture, he did not reveal the names of those who helped him. Matthews was executed by the Kempeitai in 1944.
In January 1945, the Allies bombed the Sandakan military base and the Japanese were forced to retreat to Ranau. Three death marches occurred between January and May. The first wave consisted of those who were considered to be in the best physical shape. They were loaded with backpacks containing various military equipment and ammunition and forced to march through the tropical jungle for nine days, with food rations (rice, dried fish and salt) were given for only four days. Prisoners of war who fell or stopped to rest a little were shot or beaten to death by the Japanese. Those who managed to survive the death march were sent to build camps. The prisoners of war who built the airfield near the port of Sandakan suffered constant abuse and starvation. They were eventually forced to go south. Those who could not move were burned alive in the camp as the Japanese retreated. Only six Australian soldiers survived this death march.
4. Kikosaku
During the occupation of the Dutch East Indies, the Japanese had significant difficulty controlling the Eurasian population, people of mixed (Dutch and Indonesian) blood, who tended to be influential people and did not support the Japanese version of Pan-Asianism. They were subjected to persecution and repression. Most of them faced a sad fate - the death penalty.
The word "kikosaku" was a neologism and derived from "kosen" ("land of the dead", or "yellow spring") and "saku" ("technique" or "maneuvering"). It is translated into Russian as “Operation Underworld.” In practice, the word "kikosaku" was used to refer to execution without trial or unofficial punishment leading to death.
The Japanese believed that the Indonesians, who had mixed blood in their veins, or "kontetsu" as they pejoratively called them, were loyal to the Dutch forces. They suspected them of espionage and sabotage. The Japanese shared the Dutch colonialists' fears about the outbreak of riots among communists and Muslims. They concluded that the judicial process in investigating cases of lack of loyalty was ineffective and hampered management. The introduction of kikosaku allowed the Kempeitai to arrest people indefinitely without formal charges, after which they were shot.
Kikosaku was used when Kempeitai personnel believed that only the most extreme interrogation methods would lead to a confession, even if the end result was death. A former Kempeitai member admitted in an interview with the New York Times: “At the mention of us, even babies stopped crying. Everyone was afraid of us. The prisoners who came to us faced only one fate – death.”
5. Jesselton Rebellion
The city today known as Kota Kinabalu was formerly called Jesselton. It was founded in 1899 by the British North Borneo Company and served as a way station and source of rubber until it was captured by the Japanese in January 1942 and renamed Api. On October 9, 1943, the ethnic Chinese and Suluks rebelled ( indigenous people North Borneo) attacked the Japanese military administration, offices, police stations, hotels where soldiers lived, warehouses and the main pier. Although the rebels were armed with hunting rifles, spears and long knives, they managed to kill between 60 and 90 Japanese and Taiwanese occupiers.
Two army battalions and Kempeitai personnel were sent to the city to suppress the uprising. The repression also affected the civilian population. Hundreds of ethnic Chinese were executed for suspicion of aiding or sympathizing with the rebels. The Japanese also persecuted representatives of the Suluk people who lived on the islands of Sulug, Udar, Dinawan, Mantanani and Mengalum. According to some estimates, the number of victims of repression was about 3,000 people.
6. Double Ten Incident
In October 1943, a group of Anglo-Australian special forces ("Special Z") infiltrated Singapore harbor using an old fishing boat and kayaks. Using magnetic mines, they neutralized seven Japanese ships, including an oil tanker. They managed to remain undetected, so the Japanese, based on information given to them by civilians and prisoners from Changi Prison, decided that the attack was organized by British guerrillas from Malaya.
On October 10, Kempeitai officers raided Changi Prison, conducted a day-long search, and arrested the suspects. A total of 57 people were arrested on suspicion of participating in sabotage in the harbor, including the bishop of the Anglican Church and former minister British Colonies and Information Officer. They spent five months in prison cells, which were always brightly lit and were not equipped with sleeping beds. During this time, they were starved and subjected to harsh interrogations. One suspect was executed for alleged participation in sabotage, fifteen others died due to torture.
In 1946, a trial was held for those involved in what became known as the Double Ten Incident. British prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Colin Sleeman described the Japanese mentality of the time:
“I have to talk about actions that are an example of human depravity and degradation. What these people, deprived of mercy, did cannot be called anything other than unspeakable horror... Among huge amount evidence, I tried diligently to find some mitigating circumstance, a factor that would justify the behavior of these people, that would raise the story from the level of pure horror and bestiality and would ennoble it into tragedy. I admit, I was not able to do this.”
7. Bridge House
After Shanghai was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1937, the Kempeitai secret police occupied the building known as Bridge House.
The Kempeitai and the collaborationist reform government used the Yellow Road (Huandao Hui), a paramilitary organization of Chinese criminals, to kill and carry out terrorist attacks against anti-Japanese elements in foreign settlements. Thus, in an incident known as Kai Diaotu, the editor of a famous anti-Japanese tabloid was beheaded. His head was then hung on a lamppost in front of the French Concession, along with a banner reading “This is what awaits all citizens opposed to Japan.”
After Japan entered the Second world war Kempeitai employees began to persecute the foreign population of Shanghai. People were arrested on charges of anti-Japanese activity or espionage and taken to Bridge House, where they were kept in iron cages and subjected to beatings and torture. The conditions were terrible: “Rats and lice were everywhere. No one was allowed to take a bath or shower. Diseases at Bridge House ranged from dysentery to typhoid.”
Special attention The Kempeitai attracted American and British journalists who reported on Japanese atrocities in China. John Powell, editor of the China Weekly Review, wrote: “When the interrogation began, the prisoner took off all his clothes and knelt in front of the jailers. If his answers did not satisfy the interrogators, he was beaten with bamboo sticks until blood began to ooze from the wounds.” Powell managed to return to his homeland, where he soon died after surgery to amputate a leg affected by gangrene. Many of his colleagues were also seriously injured or went crazy from the shock they experienced.
In 1942, with the assistance of the Swiss Embassy, some of them were released and returned to their homeland. foreign citizens, who were detained and tortured at Bridge House by Kempeitai officers.
8. Occupation of Guam
Along with the islands of Attu and Kiska (the Aleutian Islands archipelago), whose populations were evacuated before the invasion, Guam became the only inhabited territory of the United States occupied by the Japanese during World War II.
The island of Guam was captured in 1941 and renamed Omiya Jayme (Great Shrine). The capital Agana also received a new name - Akashi (Red City). The island was initially under the control of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Japanese resorted to vicious methods in an attempt to weaken American influence and force members of the indigenous Chamorro people to adhere to Japanese social mores and customs.
Kempeitai personnel took control of the island in 1944. They introduced forced labor for men, women, children and the elderly. Kempeitai employees were convinced that the pro-American Chamorros were engaged in espionage and sabotage, so they brutally dealt with them. One man, José Lizama Charfauros, came across a Japanese patrol while searching for food. He was forced to kneel and a huge cut was made on his neck with a sword. Charfauros was found by his friends a few days after the incident. The maggots stuck to his wound, which helped him stay alive and not get blood poisoning.
9. Women for carnal pleasures
The issue of "pleasure women" who were forced into prostitution by Japanese soldiers during World War II continues to be a source of political tension and historical revisionism in East Asia.
Officially, Kempeitai employees began to engage in organized prostitution in 1904. Initially, brothel owners contracted with the military police, who were assigned the role of overseers, based on the fact that some prostitutes could spy for enemies, extracting secrets from talkative or careless clients.
In 1932, Kempeitai officials took full control of organized prostitution for military personnel. Women were forced to live in barracks and tents behind barbed wire. They were guarded by Korean or Japanese yakuza. Railroad cars were also used as mobile brothels. The Japanese forced girls over 13 years of age into prostitution. The prices for their services depended on the ethnic origin of the girls and women and what kind of clients they served - officers, non-commissioned officers or privates. The highest prices were paid for Japanese, Korean and Chinese women. It is estimated that about 200 thousand women were forced to provide sexual services to 3.5 million Japanese soldiers. They were kept in terrible conditions and received virtually no money, despite the fact that they were promised 800 yen a month.
In 1945, members of the British Royal Marines captured Kempeitai documents in Taiwan that detailed what was done to prisoners in an emergency. They were destroyed using massive bombardment, poisonous gas, beheading, drowning and other methods.
10. Epidemic Prevention Department
Japanese experiments on humans are associated with the infamous "Object 731". However, the scale of the program is difficult to fully assess, since there were at least seventeen other similar facilities throughout Asia that no one knew about.
“Object 173,” for which Kempeitai employees were responsible, was located in the Manchurian city of Pingfang. Eight villages were destroyed for its construction. It included living quarters and laboratories where doctors and scientists worked, as well as barracks, a prison camp, bunkers and a large crematorium for disposing of corpses. "Facility 173" was called the Epidemic Prevention Department.
Shiro Ishii, head of Object 173, told new employees: “The God-given mission of a doctor is to block and cure diseases. However, what we are working on now is the exact opposite of those principles.". Prisoners who ended up in Site 173 were generally considered to be "incorrigible", "with anti-Japanese views" or "of no value or use." Most of them were Chinese, but there were also Koreans, Russians, Americans, British and Australians.
In the laboratories of Object 173, scientists conducted experiments on people. On them they tested the influence of biological (viruses of bubonic plague, cholera, anthrax, tuberculosis and typhoid) and chemical weapons. One of the scientists who worked at Object 173 spoke about one incident that happened outside its walls: “He [we are talking about a thirty-year-old Chinese] knew that it was all over for him, so he did not resist when he was brought into the room and tied to the couch. But when I picked up the scalpel, he started screaming. I made an incision on his body from his chest to his stomach. He screamed loudly; his face twisted in agony. He screamed in a voice that was not his own, and then stopped. Surgeons face this every day. I was a little shocked because it was my first time."
Objects controlled by Kempeitai employees and Kwantung Army, were located throughout China and Asia. At "Object 100" in Changchun, biological weapons were developed that were supposed to destroy all livestock in China and the Soviet Union. At “Object 8604” in Guangzhou, rats that carried bubonic plague were bred. At other sites, for example, in Singapore and Thailand, malaria and plague were studied.
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