was an ex-soldier of 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 a former detainee of both Siberian Internment by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

during 1945–1950 and

Fushun War Criminals Management Centre Fushun War Criminals Management Centre (), also known as Liaodong No. 3 Prison or Liaoning No. 3 Prison, was the site of the 're-education' of Manchukuo, Kuomintang and Japanese Empire prisoners of war, held by China from 1950 onwards. It was ...

in China during 1950–1956. He was known for his extensive war crimes testimony, including his alleged involvement in the

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 ...

. His testimony appeared in the 2001 film ''

Japanese Devils ''Japanese Devils'' (or ''Riben Guizi'' ) is a Japanese documentary about the war crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army between 1931 and 1945. The documentary is a series of interviews with 14 Japanese veterans of the Second Sino-Japan ...

'' and the 2007 film ''

Iris Chang Iris Shun-Ru Chang (March 28, 1968November 9, 2004) was a Chinese American journalist, author of historical books and political activist. She is best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, ''The Rape of Nanking'', and ...

: The Rape of Nanking'' (although he was not involved in the

Nanjing Massacre The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the ...

). He was a member of the Association of Returnees from China.

Testimony

Kaneko started giving public testimony around 1996, at the age of 76. According to his testimony, he joined the army in 1940, and spread cholera into the water system of

Linqing Linqing () is a county-level city under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Liaocheng in western Shandong Province, China. Geography and climate It is located north-northwest of Liaocheng. The city is situated at the confluenc ...

in September 1943. In an interview with the Japan Times on 26 September 1996, Yasuji stated "I murdered 100 people or more by

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 ...

." He also stated that he murdered and raped many Chinese people. He testified during an interview with English professor and activist Yun Chung-Ok in December 2000: " Comfort women were expensive. Therefore, I kidnapped, raped, and killed the Chinese women." In an interview with the Washington Post he claimed that he raped many Chinese women during the invasion of China.
In the Japanese documentary ''

,'' which features 14 Japanese soldiers retelling their roles in war crimes committed by Japan 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 opposing ...

, Kaneko describes an incident in which he and his unit surrounded and wiped out an entire village for the thrill of it, rather than any threat it offered. The reviewer notes that all soldiers interviewed in Minori Matsui's film were ex-

POWs A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

of the Chinese government and subjected to a long " re-education" that may call their testimony into question. However, the ''Japan Times'' reviewer,

Mark Schilling Mark Schilling (born 1949) is an American film critic, journalist, translator, and author based in Tokyo, Japan. He has written for ''The Japan Times'', ''Variety'', and ''Screen International''. Biography Schilling began working for ''The Japan ...

felt that "they give impression of being not communist-controlled robots but elderly men who have little time and nothing to lose" .

Controversy

According to Japanese historian

Ikuhiko Hata is a Japanese historian. He earned his PhD at the University of Tokyo and has taught history at several universities. He is the author of a number of influential and well-received scholarly works, particularly on topics related to Japan's role ...

, Kaneko's testimony is not consistent with well-known historical facts. His division was located in Qingdao, so he could not have been a member of Unit 731, which was located in

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

, far Northern China.

「終戦特集を検証する-「空想虚言症」の記憶にさいなまれる『朝日新聞』」諸君 30(11) 1998.11 Hata concluded that if Kaneko did commit any atrocities, it was on his own initiative. Kaneko responded by saying that Hata had not experienced the horrors of war and did not know what it was like.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaneko, Yasuji 1920 births 2010 deaths Nanjing Massacre Japanese mass murderers Japanese rapists Comfort women Imperial Japanese Army personnel of World War II Japanese war crimes Japanese activists Military personnel of the Second Sino-Japanese War Siberian internees Prisoners and detainees of China War criminals

Testimony

Controversy

See also

References