Random Horrific Japanese Crimes In WWII That History Forgot (20 items)

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  (#11) The Laha Airfield Massacre

  Over the course of about two weeks in February 1942, supposedly in reprisal for the destruction of a Japanese minesweeper that ran over a Dutch mine, the Japanese executed more than 200 Dutch and Australians in the woods near the Laha Airfield on Ambon Island. 

  Most of the soldiers were either beheaded or ended with a bayonet, and were buried in mass graves.
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  (#4) Unit 731

  Unit 731 was a top-secret Japanese military unit responsible for medical and chemical weapons research that defies belief. Among other things, the unit field-tested so-called “plague bombs” by dropping disease-infected devices over cities to see whether they would cause outbreaks. They did, and as many as 3,000 Chinese civilians (if not more) perished from these diseases.

  At Japan's notorious base in Pingfang, China, doctors put people in pressure chambers to see how much pressure the human body could withstand before exploding. They also infected civilians with diseases and then dissected them to examine the effects of the disease. Other atrocities include leaving POWs outside to freeze until they perished in order to investigate potential cures for frostbite, and amputating subjects' limbs to learn about blood loss.
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  (#1) Nanking Massacre

  • Event

  The scale and savagery of the Rape of Nanking defy explanation. All one can do is recite the facts. In 1937, at the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War - the conflict between Japan and China that would eventually become the Pacific branch of WWII - the Japanese invaded Nanking, the capital city of Nationalist China. The atrocities began in late 1937 and ended in early 1938. As many as 300,000 Chinese civilian lives were lost, and as many as 80,000 Chinese women were subjected to forced relations with soldiers.

  It was the first of many similar massacres, though none took place on the same scale as that at Nanking.
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  (#16) The Rape Of Manila

  In 1945, as the Japanese hurtled toward defeat, military leaders ordered the Japanese army to leave Manila, Philippines, thus surrendering it to the Allies. Ignoring this order, the Japanese stationed in the city decided to destroy it, slaying as many civilians as possible.

  They raped, bayoneted, and beheaded Filipinos until the Allies slayed every Japanese soldier in the city, a result of their refusal to surrender. As many as 100,000 Filipinos perished.
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  (#9) Cannibalism

  Significant evidence, most notably several eyewitness accounts that corroborate one another, points to Japanese soldiers eating the flesh of their enemies during WWII. This practice apparently happened throughout Southeast Asia, and flesh was consumed both from deceased and still-living Allied soldiers.

  Some accounts suggest the Japanese even executed some Allied soldiers for the sole purpose of harvesting them for food. 
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  (#17) I-8 Submarine Massacres

  The crew of the Japanese submarine I-8 committed a pair of atrocities during WWII. First, they sunk a Dutch freighter and took the crew hostage. They beat many of them with bayonets and swords until they perished, then they lashed the survivors to the hull of the sub as it dove beneath the sea. Only six people survived. The crew of the I-8 then sank an American cargo ship, again taking more than 100 prisoners, and assaulted them with hammers and blades.

  About 23 Americans survived this second attack.

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