Japanese atrocities

Japanese invasion of China

Atrocities: very cruel actions against people. In roughly 6 weeks of occupation, the Japanese killed about 280 000 Chinese people. stole Chinese property

Atrocities included:

• Mass rape of women, children and even babies (20 000 rapes reported) (known as the Nanking Massacre or the Rape of Nanking)

• Many shot at close ranges

• Decapitations

• Buried alive

• Beaten to death

• Burned and stole chinese property

prisoner of war camps

Prisoner of War (POW) camp: a camp that is set up to put soldiers of the opposition that are captured in battle.

Often these prisoners are traded for soldiers that were captured by your opposition.

In present times there are rules of combat that set out standards of treatment for captured soldiers. These rules are set out in the Geneva convention, which was already in place during World War 2.

Continued

Japanese POW camps were spread out across Japan, China and other occupied territories to house more than 140 000 Allied POW's .

These camps were often very poorly run and there are many reports of starvation, beatings and gruesome deaths that came out of these camps.

Prisoners were subjected to very harsh conditions and forced to work beyond the point of exhaustion.

Many soldiers also died from diseases that they were refused treatment for.

Camp O’donnel

• 54 000 POW’s

• 170 deaths daily

• In 9 months 40 000 died due to rotten food and contaminated water .

Cabanatuan Prison

• No food and water was scarce

• most POW’s used in factories

• If one prisoner escaped 10 were killed

• No praying allowed

Mistsushima prison camp

• cruel

• Leader : Captain Nakajima

• Japanese government hanged because death rates at camp were high.