War crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Empire of Japan
Japanese war crimes
Part of the territorial conquests of the Empire of Japan
Bodies of victims along the Qinhuai River, out of Nanjing's west gate during the Nanjing Massacre
Location
In and around East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific
Date
1927–1945[1]
Attack type
war crimes, mass murder, and other crimes against humanity
Deaths
c. 30,000,000[2]
Perpetrator
Empire of Japan
Motive
Imperialism
Japanese nationalism
Ultranationalism
Racism
Trials
Tokyo Trial, and others
During its imperial era, the Empire of Japan committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity across various Asian-Pacific nations, notably during the Second Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars. These incidents have been referred to as "the Asian Holocaust",[3][4] and as "Japan's Holocaust".[5] The crimes occurred during the early part of the Shōwa era, under Hirohito's reign.
The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) were responsible for a multitude of war crimes leading to millions of deaths. War crimes ranged from sexual slavery and massacres to human experimentation, starvation, and forced labor, all either directly committed or condoned by the Japanese military and government.[6][7][8][9][10] Evidence of these crimes, including oral testimonies and written records such as diaries and war journals, has been provided by Japanese veterans.[11]
The Japanese political and military leadership knew of its military's crimes, yet continued to allow it and even support it, with the majority of Japanese troops stationed in Asia either taking part in or supporting the killings.[12]
The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service participated in chemical and biological attacks on civilians during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, violating international agreements that Japan had previously signed, including the Hague Conventions, which prohibited the use of "poison or poisoned weapons" in warfare.[13][14]
Since the 1950s, numerous apologies for the war crimes have been issued by senior Japanese government officials. Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has acknowledged the country's role in causing "tremendous damage and suffering" before and during World War II, particularly the massacre and rape of civilians in Nanjing by the IJA.[15] However, the issue remains controversial, with some members of the Japanese government, including former prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzō Abe, having paid respects at the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors all Japanese war dead, including convicted Class A war criminals. Furthermore, some Japanese history textbooks provide only brief references to the war crimes,[16] and certain members of the Liberal Democratic Party have denied some of the atrocities, such as the government's involvement in abducting women to serve as "comfort women", a euphemism for sex slaves.[17][18]
^Rigg, Bryan Mark (2024). Japan's Holocaust: History of Imperial Japan's Mass Murder and Rape During World War II. Knox Press. pp. 13–14, 23, 54, 190–191, 289. ISBN 9781637586884.
^Rigg, Bryan Mark (2024). Japan's Holocaust: History of Imperial Japan's Mass Murder and Rape During World War II. Knox Press. pp. 190–191, 276, 312. ISBN 9781637586884.
^Blumenthal, Ralph (7 March 1999). "The World: Revisiting World War II Atrocities; Comparing the Unspeakable to the Unthinkable". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 21 March 2011. Retrieved 26 July 2008.
^Kang, K. Connie (4 August 1995). "Breaking Silence: Exhibit on "Forgotten Holocaust" Focuses on Japanese War Crimes". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
^Rigg, Bryan Mark (2024). Japan's Holocaust: History of Imperial Japan's Mass Murder and Rape During World War II. Knox Press. pp. 13–14, 282, 294. ISBN 9781637586884.
^"Japanese War Crimes". The National Archives (U.S.). 15 August 2016. Archived from the original on 1 October 2011. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
^"Pacific Theater Document Archive". War Crimes Studies Center, University of California, Berkeley. Archived from the original on 18 July 2009.
^"Bibliography: War Crimes". Sigur Center for Asian Studies, George Washington University. Archived from the original on 16 August 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2010.
^Gruhl, Werner (2007). Imperial Japan's World War Two: 1931–1945. Transaction Publishers. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-7658-0352-8.
^"Voices of the "Comfort Women": The Power Politics Surrounding the UNESCO Documentary Heritage". The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. March 2021. Archived from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
^Drea, Edward (2006). Researching Japanese War Crimes(PDF). National Archives and Records Administration for the Nazi Warcrimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group. p. 28. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
^Rigg, Bryan Mark (2024). Japan's Holocaust: History of Imperial Japan's Mass Murder and Rape During World War II. Knox Press. p. 266. ISBN 9781637586884.
^"Japan bombed China with plague-fleas". BBC News. 25 January 2001. Archived from the original on 28 March 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
^Keiichi, Tsuneishi (24 November 2005). "Unit 731 and the Japanese Imperial Army's Biological Warfare Program". Japan Focus. Archived from the original on 27 January 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
^"Q8: What is the view of the Government of Japan on the incident known as the "Nanjing Massacre"?". Foreign Policy Q&A. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Archived from the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
^Kasahara, Tokushi. "Reconciling Narratives of the Nanjing Massacre in Japanese and Chinese Textbooks" (PDF). Tsuru Bunka University. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
^Tabuchi, Hiroko. "Japan's Abe: No Proof of WWII Sex Slaves". The Washington Post. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2007.
^"Japan's Abe Denies Proof of World War II Sex Slaves". The New York Times. 1 March 2007. Retrieved 1 March 2007.
and 27 Related for: Japanese war crimes information
warcrimes the charter also defined crimes against peace and crimes against humanity, which are often committed during wars and in concert with war crimes...
regarding the definition of Japanesewarcrimes. Warcrimes have been broadly defined as violations of the laws or customs of war, which involves acts using...
From 1919 to 1991, a multitude of warcrimes and crimes against humanity were carried out by the Soviet Union and its armed forces. They include acts...
crimes against peace, conventional warcrimes, and crimes against humanity, leading up to and during the Second World War. The IMTFE was modeled after the...
of warcrimes since 1864, the crimes committed fall under other aspects of international and Japanese law. For example, many of the alleged crimes committed...
This is a list of warcrimes committed during World War II. The Axis powers (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan) were some of the most systematic...
the Dutch authorities and the Japanese, Japanese assets in the archipelago were frozen. The Dutch declared war on Japan following the 7 December 1941...
reserves the right of states to prosecute warcrimes, and the ICC can only proceed with prosecution of crimes when states do not have willingness or effective...
The Khabarovsk warcrimes trials were the Soviet hearings of twelve Japanese Kwantung Army officers and medical staff charged with the manufacture and...
Nanjing WarCrimes Tribunal was established in 1946 by the government of Chiang Kai-shek to judge Imperial Japanese Army officers accused of crimes committed...
summarizes the warcrimes that have violated the laws and customs of war since the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. Since many warcrimes are not prosecuted...
Pacific War and the Surrender of Japan. The Empire of Japan had been expanding its territory since the First Sino-Japanese and the Russo-JapaneseWar, before...
World War I (1914–1918), belligerents from both the Allied Powers and Central Powers violated international criminal law, committing numerous warcrimes. This...
and Imperial Japanesewarcrimes. The group was created by the Nazi WarCrimes Disclosure Act (NWCDA), passed in 1998, and the Japanese Imperial Government...
Kong's WarCrimes Trials Collection". The University of Hong Kong. Retrieved 20 January 2021. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Japanese occupation...
of the Allied Powers to investigate the warcrimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during the invasion, occupation, and...
This is a list of war apology statements issued by Japan regarding warcrimes committed by the Empire of Japan during World War II. The statements were...
Israeli warcrimes are the violations of international criminal law, including warcrimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide, which the...
Italian warcrimesJapanesewarcrimes Internment of German Americans List of Axis personnel indicted for warcrimes List of warcrimes Nazi crimes against...
Twenty-eight Japanese military and political leaders were charged with Class A crimes, and more than 5,500 others were charged with Class B and C crimes, as lower-ranking...
number of crimes committed in the same year by Japanese was 546,934 cases. Within these statistics, Japanese committed 6,925 violent crimes, of which...
Russian warcrimes are violations of international criminal law including warcrimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide which the official...
up to investigate conventional warcrimes ("Class B") and crimes against humanity ("Class C") committed by the Japanese forces after the 9 March 1945 coup...
of crimes recorded was 2,853,739. This number decreased to less than one-third by 2017 with 915,042 crimes being recorded. In 2013, the overall crime rate...