See how Japan treat/execute POWs in WW2

Four of every ten Americans held prisoner by the Japanese during WWII died of starvation, illness, or abuse. This amounts to more than 30,000 men.

According to the Tokyo Tribunal findings, the death rate of Western prisoners was seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians.

The topic remains relevant today because Japan seems to be spinning a bit of revisionist history regarding the events of the Second World War.

** A blindfolded Doolittle raider being taken prisoner in 1942.

In 2014, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a message of support to a memorial service that honored convicted war criminals. This included some who were executed by Allied forces for the abuse of POWs.

A History of Abuse

The Empire of Japan never signed the Second Geneva Convention of 1929 and refused to treat prisoners of war under international agreements (this included provisions of the Hague Conventions) during the second Sino-Japanese War or World War II.

On August 5th, 1937, Emperor Hirohito ratified documents specifically removing the Hague Conventions' restraints from prisoners of war taken from China, the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

Thus, soldiers held prisoner from these nations were subject to murder, beatings, starvation, forced labor, medical experimentation, and other brutal treatments.

** Bodies of victims along the Quinhuai River out of Nanjing's west gate during the Nanking Massacre.

The most notorious use of forced labor was the construction of the Burma-Thailand Railway, otherwise known as the Death Railway. The 258 mile (415-kilometer span) was built by the Empire of Japan using 180,000 - 250,000 Allied POWs as forced labor over a four year period. About 16,000 prisoners died during construction.

Killing Downed Airmen

Many Allied airmen captured by the Japanese on land or at sea were executed following official Japanese policy (The Enemy Airmen’s Act). During the Battle of Midway in June 1942, three American airmen who were shot down and landed at sea were spotted and captured by Japanese warships.

After brief interrogations, two airmen were killed, their bodies then tied to five-gallon kerosene cans filled with water and dumped overboard from destroyer Makigumo; the third was killed, and his body dumped overboard from Arashi.

In addition to the number of POWs who reached Japanese camps, approximately 11,000 additional POWs tragically lost their lives when allied air and submarine forces attacked the ships transporting them to Japan.

Cruelly & ironically, the Japanese frequently painted supply ships with Red Crosses yet did not do the same for those vessels that deserved these markings.

At the end of the war, the Japanese Armed Forces destroyed all documents related to the POW Camps