Units of the German army committed some horrific atrocities however they were predominantly ad hoc. The allied POW's (Soviets excluded) had a 98% chance of survival if incarcerated in Germany. Germany committed terrible attrocities against the Soviets et al yet the Soviets reciprocated in kind by incarcerating Germans and their own people in Gulag's for many years. The Soviets under Stalin murdered millions and was a form of cleansing whether or not "ethnic" however cleansing all the same. The Italians did not sit anywhere near the others as far as Barbarism goes however they too had some bad instances of maltreatment to allied POW's which was isolated to individual "Officers" and not collective mistreatment. The Japanese military on the other hand committed appalling attrocities that were committed not only on combatants, but men and women, young and old, children, pregnant women, new born babies, nurses, doctors and of course the total barbarism metered out to POW's from the outset of hostilities in any given battle. Between 32% & 35% of all POW's of the Japanese died! I could go on for hours however I will leave the list of Japanese attrocities to support my choice of the Japanese as the worst overall. Credit for this article below is to ww2pacific.com. Full details are available at http://www.ww2pacific.com/atrocity.html The site is well worth the visit. A SHORT LIST OF THE DOCUMENTED AND PROVEN ATTROCITIES COMMITTED BY THE JAPANESE FORCES IN THEIR QUEST FOR A NEW CO-PROSPERITY SPHERE UNDER THE GUISE OF: “ASIA FOR THE ASIATICS” Nanking, China. Over 200,000 Chinese men used for bayonet practice, machine gunned, or set on fire. Thousands more were murdered. 20,000 women and girls were raped, killed or mutilated. The massacre of a quarter million people was an intentional policy to force China to make peace. It did not happen. World opinion, which until this time had accepted modern Japan's desire to oversee backward China, was repelled in horror. New officers were indoctrinated to the expectations of war by beheading Chinese captives. The last stage of the training of combat troops was to bayonet a living human and a trial of courage for the officers. Prisoners were blindfolded and tied to poles; soldiers dashed forward to bayonet their target at the shout of "Charge!" Combat medical units moved to China where live bodies were plentiful. If the class was in sutures, a Chinaman was shot in the belly for doctors to practice. Amputations? - then arms were removed. Living people was more instructive than work on cadavers, (a dead body to e dissected) the students need to get used to blood and screaming. Bacterial warfare experiments conducted by an infamous medical unit moved to Manchuria. Bombs of anthrax and plague were tested on Chinese cities until the results were so good that too many Japanese soldiers also died. This unit also practiced vivisection. See more details of unit 731, along with web citations for those with the stomach. Korean Comfort Women "forced by the Imperial Japanese Army to repeatedly provide sex for Japanese soldiers throughout Asia are said to number between 80,000 and 200,000. Many of the victims were underage at the time, and either died in despair or suffered health impairments. These women, who suffer from mental and physical pain, not to mention social isolation and prejudice, are now seeking an official apology from the Japanese government and individual compensation as a measure to rehabilitate their honour." - Aug 2002 Malaya. Japanese troops decapitated 200 wounded Australians and Indians left behind when Australian troops withdrew through the jungle from Muar. Singapore. Japanese soldiers bayonet 300 patients and staff of Alexandra military hospital 9 Feb 1942. British women had their hands behind their backs and repeatedly raped. All Chinese residents were interviewed and 5,000 selected for execution. Wake Island. A construction crew of 1,200 mostly Idaho youths, captured when Wake Island fell, were shipped to Japanese prison camps. Five were beheaded to encourage good behaviour on the trip. The Japanese decided to keep 100 of the civilian contractors on the island to complete the airbase, which became functional in 1943. When US Navy planes attacked the island, the Japanese commander executed the civilians. Dutch East Indies. Those Dutch accused of resisting Japan or participating in the destruction of the oil refineries had arms or legs chopped off. 20,000 men were forced into the ocean and machine gunned. 20,000 women and children were repeatedly raped, then many were killed. Dutch Borneo. The entire white population of Balikpapan was executed. Java. The entire white male population of Tjepu was executed. Women were raped. Survivors of USS Edsall (DD-219) are beheaded. Philippines. Any soldier captured before the surrender was executed. The Bataan Death March -- 7,000 surrendered men died. Those that could not keep up the pace were clubbed, stabbed, shot, beheaded or buried alive. Once the prison camp had been reached, disease, malnutrition and brutality claimed up to 400 American and Filipinos – EACH DAY. Thailand. 15,000 military prisoners and 75,000 native labourers died building a railroad between Bangkok and Rangoon. Bridge Over the River Kwai. Doolittle Raid, Japan. Three of eight US airmen captured were executed. Doolittle Raid, China. 25,000 Chinese in villages through which the US flyers escaped were slaughtered in a three month reign of terror. Midway. Japanese destroyers rescued three U.S. naval aviators; after interrogation, all three were murdered. Attu. Japanese troops overran the medical aid station; after killing the doctors, they bayoneted the wounded. Makin Atoll (Kiribati). Nine of Carlson's Marine raiders were left behind, hid for two weeks and surrendered. They were beheaded a few weeks later when a ship was not available to take them to a prisoner of war camp. USS Sculpin. Forty-two of submarine Sculpin's crew were picked up by Yamagumo. One, severely wounded, was thrown overbroad. Survivors were forced to work in the copper mines at Ashio until released at the end of the war. Indian Ocean. Capt Ariizumi, ComSubRon One, commanded submarine I-8 in the Indian Ocean. On March 26th, 1944, he collected from the water and massacred 98 unarmed survivors of the Dutch merchantman Tjisalak he'd sunk south of Colombo. He repeated this performance with 96 prisoners from the American Jean Nicolet in the Maldives on July 2nd. He destroyed the lifeboats and dived, leaving 35 bound survivors on deck. 23 managed to untie their bonds and swim all night to be rescued by the Royal Indian Navy. Capt Ariizumi committed hara-kiri while his squadron was being escorted to Yokosuka by the U.S. Navy. I-26 is also known to have rammed merchant lifeboats from Richard Hovey and machine-gunned those in the water. 3Aug45. Japanese hospital ship Tachibana searched by Charrette (DD-581) when observed throwing weighted bags overboard. Found thirty (30) tons of ammunition, mortars, and machine guns in Red Cross boxes along with 1,500 soldiers released from hospital on Kai bound for Soerabaja. Japan. Eight US airmen were used for medical dissection at Kyushu Imperial University with organs removed while the prisoners were still alive. Bushi, the way of the soldier, was the creed of the Japanese in the Pacific War. It was not that long ago. The story of atrocities created under a pagan code is suppressed today in the interests of good will with a business partner. Less we forget. Civilization in only a veneer over other instincts of mankind. History tells mass murder comes in many names, of Attila, Genghis Khan, and Tamerlane. Hundreds of Indians and settlers were slaughtered like buffalo. Within the living lifetime: Stalin purged twenty-some millions of his own people. Mao may have topped him during 1949-76. Nazi gave final solution to five or six millions. Kurds have lost millions. The Chamer Rouge killed 1.6 million. Less we forget. Hope for peace, but be prepared to resist savagery. ________________________________________ One Act of Compasion : While the Japanse were destroying the US forces in the Philippines, a pilot dropped a message saying they intended to destroy the facility next to the base hospital and that we should we move the patients. We did. They did. ________________________________________ Additional reading. The Knights of Bushido: the Shocking History of Japanese War Atrocities by Lord Edward Fredrick Russell, Dutton, 1958. Companion volume to his The Scourge of The Swastika. Some items from the book. • Jan 1942. Dutch naval POWs taken to the spot where their ship had fired on a Japanese destroyer, decapitated and thrown into the sea. • 16Feb42. British evacuees from Singapore on the island of Bauka surrendered to a Japanese detail. The 26 soldiers were executed, the 22 Army nurses were marched into the sea and machine gunned, the twelve stretcher cases were bayoneted. -- Story told by the surviving nurse, who, though shot, was washed ashore. • March 1942. Kota Radja, Indonesia. Dutch prisoners put on a barge, towed out to sea, shot and thrown overboard. • 7 Oct 43. Wake Island. On the order of RAdm Sakibara, 96 prisoners were blindfolded, hands tied behind their backs and massacred. • Oct 1944. New Guinea. A battalion commander confessed after the war, "I asked if I could get an American POW and kill him." Two were delivered, blindfolded, stabbed with a bayonet and decapitated with shovels. • 12 Nov 44. New Britain. US fighter pilot made a forced landing. Beheaded, flesh cut form his body, cut into small pieces, fried and served to a large group of officers. • 14 Dec 44. Palawan, Philippines. About 100 army and 50 marines had been warned if the US invades, they would be killed. When American planes attacked, Lt. Sato led 50 soldiers to pour buckets of gasoline on the entrances to shelters and ignite it. As the men came out they were bayoneted, shot or clubbed. -- Told by one of five survivors who escaped through a fence, shedding his burning clothes. Last Man Out. • 12 Nov 45. Guam. The flesh of LTjg H___, aviator, was served to an infantry battalion. [The Japanese order for this communion-like sacrifice was captured.] Russell concentrates on events sanctioned by higher authorities as documented by War Crimes Trial, whereas I have extracted events from readings. Although many leaders practiced human treatment, the norm was total indifference, and bestial behaviour was a totally accepted. Use of Allied prisoners of war for slave labour by Japanese companies is discussed in: "Unjust Enrichment" by Linda Goetz Holmes, 2001. Her 1994 book, "4000 Bowls of Rice: A Prisoner of War Comes Home", is about Allied prisoners of the Japanese who built the Burma Railway. "Last Man Out: Glenn McDole, USMC, Survivor of the Palawan Massacre in World War II" by Bob Wilbanks.
I voted Japan on the basis on Army. Though the Nazis state were responsible for the worst systemmatic atrocities, their army, on the whole weren't. However, the Imperial Japanese army (and a much much lesser degree the Imperial Navy and Imperial Air Force) was responsible for most of the atrocities carried during the war - against civilians, POWs and fighting soldiers. From Nanking to the Burma Railway, it were the soldiers from the very top to the very bottom who did the raping, the torturing, the killing, and the general mistreatment of everyone. EDIT: I posted this whilst Spidge was posting the above - so it seems that I was generally right.
I remember when this question was asked elsewhere, the exclusion of America & Britain was questioned.
Voted for the Japs. No wonder many of the surviving veterans cannot forgive. They were murdering b******* Regards Hugh
I too voted Japanese. That was a truly awful catalogue of depravity. I have read a little of the concentration camps and the Russian treatment of their own soldiers never mind any others, but the links that Spidge has posted here and elsewhere of the many Japanese atrocities just leave me speechless. Forgive me for asking but were there any reported cases of British or American barbarities? I have read a couple of what I took to be fairly isolated revenge attacks but I suppose in reality ..... CTNana
I voted Japanese army as well. Was surprised at how uncaring the Vichy French were in North Africa. Charles Lamb's War in a Stringbag gives a detailed account of his captivity.
I would say there would have been however few and far between. Revenge may have taken over in some. Australians and Americans in New Guinea were known to kill the Japanese twice as they many times pretended to be dead then threw grenades or shot troops when they checked the dead. They did not want to be POW's so their request was often obliged.
You also have to add in the Koreans on the side of the Japanese as they were often the lowest form of guards used by the Japs at prison camps and also while the prisoners were on working parties such as the Burma railroad. I also vote the Japanese, i'm reading 'Surviving the Sword' at the moment and at times it just brings tears to your eyes on what those poor guys went through. Sniper
