War crimes in Manchukuo were committed during the rule of the
Empire of Japan
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of Japan, 1947 constitu ...
in
northeast China
Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of ...
, either directly, or through its
puppet state
A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government, is a state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside power and subject to its orders.Compare: Puppet states have nominal sove ...
of
Manchukuo, from 1931 to 1945. Various
war crimes have been alleged, but have received comparatively little historical attention.
Legal basis
Although the Empire of Japan did not sign the
Geneva Convention
upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864
The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conve ...
s, which have provided the standard definition of war crimes since 1864, the crimes committed fall under other aspects of international and Japanese law. For example, many of the alleged crimes committed by Japanese personnel broke Japanese
military law
Military justice (also military law) is the legal system (bodies of law and procedure) that governs the conduct of the active-duty personnel of the armed forces of a country. In some nation-states, civil law and military law are distinct bodie ...
, and were not subject to
court martial
A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...
, as required by that law. Japan also violated signed international agreements, including provisions of the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
such as a ban on the use of
chemical weapons
A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as a ...
, and the
Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)
The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands. Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were amo ...
, which protect
prisoners of war (POWs). The Japanese government also signed the
Kellogg–Briand Pact
The Kellogg–Briand Pact or Pact of Paris – officially the General Treaty for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy – is a 1928 international agreement on peace in which signatory states promised not to use war to ...
(1929), thereby rendering its actions in 1937-45 liable to charges of
crimes against peace
A crime of aggression or crime against peace is the planning, initiation, or execution of a large-scale and serious act of aggression using state military force. The definition and scope of the crime is controversial. The Rome Statute contains an ...
, a charge that was introduced at the
Tokyo Trials
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace, conv ...
to prosecute "Class A" war criminals. "Class B" war criminals were those found guilty of war crimes ''per se'', and "Class C" war criminals were those guilty of
crimes against humanity. The Japanese government also accepted the terms set by the
Potsdam Declaration
The Potsdam Declaration, or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, was a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, Uni ...
(1945) after the end of the war. The declaration alluded, in Article 10, to two kinds of war crime: one was the violation of international laws, such as the abuse of
prisoners of war; the other was obstructing "
democratic tendencies among the Japanese people" and
civil liberties within Japan.
In Japan, the term "Japanese war crimes" generally only refers to cases tried by the
International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also known as the ''Tokyo Trials'', following the end of the
Pacific War. However, the tribunal did not prosecute war crimes allegations involving mid-ranking officers or more junior personnel. Those were dealt with separately in trials held in China and in the Soviet Union after the
surrender of Japan.
Revisionist historians have contested that such crimes occurred. Far-right
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
groups in Japan have denied war crimes as "anti-Japanese
propaganda" to place modern Japan in a negative light for political purposes.
War Crimes
Human experimentation
Special Japanese military units conducted experiments on civilians and POWs in Manchukuo. One of the most infamous was
Unit 731
, short for Manshu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment and Ishii Unit, was a covert Biological warfare, biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in unethical h ...
. Victims were subjected to
vivisection
Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for Animal testi ...
without anesthesia, and were used to test
biological weapons
A biological agent (also called bio-agent, biological threat agent, biological warfare agent, biological weapon, or bioweapon) is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, fungus, or toxin that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterrorism ...
, among other experiments.
Between 3,000 and 12,000 men, women, and children died during human experimentation conducted by Unit 731.
[David C. Rapoport. "Terrorism and Weapons of the Apocalypse". In James M. Ludes, Henry Sokolski (eds.), ''Twenty-First Century Weapons Proliferation: Are We Ready?'' Routledge, 2001. pp. 19, 29]
Chemical and biological weapons
According to historians Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno, Emperor
Hirohito authorized the use of
chemical weapons
A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as a ...
in China. Furthermore, "tens of thousands, and perhaps as many 200,000, Chinese died of
bubonic plague,
cholera,
anthrax and other diseases", resulting from the use of
biological warfare
Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. ...
. Although owing to systematic Japanese destruction of records, there is no record of chemical or biological weapons in Manchukuo itself, these
weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natu ...
were partly researched, produced, and stockpiled in Manchukuo by the
Kwantung Army
''Kantō-gun''
, image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo
, dates = April ...
.
Forced labor
The Japanese military's use of
forced labor
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...
also caused many deaths. According to a joint study of historians Zhifen Ju, Mitsuyochi Himeta, Toru Kubo and
Mark Peattie, more than 10 million Chinese civilians were mobilized for forced labor in Manchukuo under the supervision of the
Kōa-in.
Forced laborers were often assigned work in dangerous conditions without adequate safety precautions. The world's deadliest
mine disaster, at
Benxihu Colliery
Benxihu (Honkeiko) Colliery (), located in Benxi, Liaoning, China, was first mined in 1905. Originally an iron and coal mining project under joint Japanese and Chinese control, the mine came under predominantly Japanese control. In the early 1930s, ...
, occurred in Manchukuo.
Human rights violations
*Arrest of civilians without due cause by the local Manchukuo police or Japanese authorities.
*
Torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...
of prisoners in regular penal or military jails.
*Disappearances and
Extrajudicial execution
An extrajudicial killing (also known as extrajudicial execution or extralegal killing) is the deliberate killing of a person without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, whether ...
of political opponents
*Preferential
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...
for Japanese subjects over other nationalities.
*Forced land appropriations either with or without legal orders in favour of Japanese citizens or private and government companies.
*Use of criminal gangs for robbery and intimidation of political opposition
Drug trafficking
In 2007, an article by Reiji Yoshida in the
Japan Times argued that the Japanese investments in Manchukuo were partly financed by
selling drugs. According to the article, a document claimed to have been found by Yoshida directly implicated the Kōa-in in providing funds to drug dealers in China for the benefit of the puppet governments of Manchukuo, Nanjing and Mongolia.
[''Japan profited as opium dealer wartime China'', http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070830f1.html] This document corroborates evidence analyzed earlier by the
Tokyo tribunal
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace, conve ...
which stated that
War crimes trials
Khabarovsk War Crime Trial
In late 1949, numerous members of the former Kwantung Army who had been captured in the
Soviet invasion of Manchuria
The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian strategic offensive operation (russian: Манчжурская стратегическая наступательная операция, Manchzhurskaya Strategicheskaya Nastu ...
were convicted in connection with the activities of Unit 731, and related units for their connections with crimes against humanity and the use of chemical and biological weapons.
Tokyo Trials
The
International Military Tribunal for the Far East convicted a number of high Japanese officials in connection with the
invasion of Manchuria,
establishment of Manchukuo and with
conspiracy to wage aggressive war against China. Those sentenced to death with strong connections to Manchukuo included senior officers in the Kwantung Army
Hideki Tōjō
Hideki Tojo (, ', December 30, 1884 – December 23, 1948) was a Japanese politician, general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), and convicted war criminal who served as prime minister of Japan and president of the Imperial Rule Assista ...
,
Akira Mutō,
Seishirō Itagaki
was a Japanese military officer and politician who served as a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II and War Minister from 1938 to 1939.
Itagaki was a main conspirator behind the Mukden Incident and held prestigious chief of ...
and
Kenji Doihara
was a Japanese army officer. As a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, he was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
As a leading intelligence officer, he played a key role to the Japanese machinations that ...
.
See also
*
Japanese war crimes
*
Definitions of Japanese war crimes
*
Responses of Germany and Japan to World War II crimes
*
Amleto Vespa Amleto Vespa (10 April 1884 – between 1941 and 1944)Francesco TotoroThe spying game. Amleto Vespa's Chinese Affair (1884-1944) translation of ''Amleto Vespa spia in Cina (1884-1944) '', 2014Mattia Fonzi NewsTown, 15 February 2015 (in Italian) ...
*
Japanese settlers in Manchuria
References
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Web
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Notes
{{IJA special research units
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