Kanao Inouye (May 24, 1916 – August 27, 1947) was a Canadian citizen of Japanese descent, convicted of

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

and war crimes for his actions during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Known as the "Kamloops Kid", he served as an interpreter and prison camp guard for the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

and the

Kenpeitai The , also known as Kempeitai, was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945 that also served as a secret police force. In addition, in Japanese-occupied territories, the Kenpeitai arrested or killed those suspecte ...

political police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...

Early life in Canada

Nisei is a Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants (who are called ). The are considered the second generation, ...

(second-generation

Japanese-Canadian are Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Canadians are mostly concentrated in Western Canada, especially in the province of British Columbia, which hosts the largest Japanese community in the country with the majority of them living ...

), Kanao Inouye was born to immigrant parents in

Kamloops Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the South flowing North Thompson River and the West flowing Thompson River, east of Kamloops Lake. It is located in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, w ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. His father, Tadashi Inouye, had emigrated to

from

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, and had been a decorated Canadian soldier during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

.Brode P,
Canada's war criminal Kanao Inouye
, ''Esprit de Corps'', December 2002. Although his father died in 1926, Inouye at his first trial described his life in Canada as happy. His family nevertheless maintained close ties to Japan, where his grandfather, Chotahara Inouye, was a Member of Parliament in the House of Peers. After he graduated from Vancouver Technical School, Inouye's family urged him to go to Japan to continue his education. He did so in 1938 and was still there when World War II began.

War years

In 1942, Inouye was conscripted into the

as an interpreter. Made a sergeant, he was assigned to

Sham Shui Po Sham Shui Po is an area of Kowloon, Hong Kong, situated in the northwestern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, north of Tai Kok Tsui, east of Cheung Sha Wan and south of Shek Kip Mei (). It is located in and is the namesake of the Sham Shui P ...

prison camp in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, which housed Canadian prisoners of war from the Hong Kong Garrison. Inouye was noted for his unusual brutality. He beat prisoners at random, stating it was in

retaliation Revenge is committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Francis Bacon described revenge as a kind of "wild justice" that "does... offend the law ndputteth the law out of office." Pr ...

for racism and discrimination that he had received in Canada. In contrast to his later trial testimony about his childhood, he allegedly told them: "When I was in Canada I took all kinds of abuse. ... They called me a 'little yellow bastard'. Now where is your so-called superiority, you dirty scum?"Woo T,
Responsibility
" ''The Fighting 44s: Uniting the Asian Conscience'', April 17, 2006. Inouye was discharged from the army the following year, but in 1944 he was conscripted as an interpreter for the notorious

military police in Hong Kong. Trial testimony stated he had been an enthusiastic torturer of suspected spies and traitors. Former POWs said that Inouye was responsible for the torture of multiple Canadian POWs and other civilians.

Conviction and execution

After the

Japanese capitulation The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ( ...

in August 1945, Inouye was arrested in

Kowloon Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and t ...

and tried for war crimes by a British military court. In 1946, he was found guilty of torturing prisoners of war and civilians. Inouye had been accused of murdering four detainees, but was acquitted of those charges. Under normal circumstances, the lesser verdict would have spared his life, since British war crimes courts did not condemn anyone to death if none of their victims had died. However, Inouye was sentenced to death on the grounds that his Canadian citizenship constituted a serious aggravating factor. The verdict was overturned on appeal, since as a Canadian citizen, Inouye could not be prosecuted for war crimes committed by an enemy army. In April 1947, Inouye was tried for

. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. On August 27, 1947, Inouye was executed by

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...

on the

gallows A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...

at Hong Kong's

Stanley Prison Stanley Prison (c. January 1937, previously known as Hong Kong Prison at Stanley) is one of the six maximum security facilities in Hong Kong. History Built in 1937, Stanley Prison is currently the oldest institution still in service (the old ...

. His last word was " Banzai!"

Legacy

Inouye was one of arguably only two Canadians in history to have faced prosecution for war crimes (the second being

Omar Khadr Omar Ahmed Said Khadr ( ar, عمر أحمد سعيد خضر; born September 19, 1986) is a Canadian citizen who at the age of 15 was detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay for ten years, during which he pleaded guilty to the murder of U ...

, who in 2010 pleaded guilty to what the

Guantanamo military commission ThGuantanamo military commissionswere established by President George W. Bush – through a Military Order – on November 13, 2001, to try certain non-citizen terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison. To date, there have been a total of e ...

termed war crimes committed in Afghanistan, though he has since been pardoned).Human Right Watch "Omar Khadr’s ordeal: When a war crime isn’t a war crime"
/ref>

Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Inouye, Kanao 1916 births 1947 deaths Canadian people executed abroad Canadian people convicted of war crimes Canadian people of Japanese descent Executed Canadian collaborators with Imperial Japan Executed military personnel Japanese people executed for war crimes Imperial Japanese Army personnel of World War II Imperial Japanese Army soldiers Military discipline and World War II People executed by the British military by hanging People executed for treason against the United Kingdom People from Kamloops Racially motivated violence against white people

Early life in Canada

War years

Conviction and execution

Legacy

See also

Citations