Japanese death camps: how British prisoners were turned into living skeletons during World War II

Until December 7, 1941, there was not a single military conflict with an Asian army in American history. There were only a few minor skirmishes in the Philippines during the war with Spain. This led to underestimation of the enemy American soldiers and sailors.
The US Army heard stories of the brutality with which the Japanese invaders treated the Chinese population in the 1940s. But before the clashes with the Japanese, the Americans had no idea what their opponents were capable of.
Routine beatings were so common that it is not even worthy of mention. However, in addition, captive Americans, British, Greeks, Australians and Chinese had to face slave labor, forced marches, cruel and unusual torture, and even dismemberment.
Below are some of the most shocking atrocities committed by the Japanese army during World War II.
15. CANNIBALISM

It’s no secret that during times of famine people begin to eat their own kind. Cannibalism occurred in the expedition led by Donner, and even the Uruguay rugby team that crashed in the Andes, the subject of the film The Alive. But this always happened only in extreme circumstances. But it is impossible not to shudder when hearing stories about eating the remains of dead soldiers or cutting off parts from living people. The Japanese camps were deeply isolated, surrounded impenetrable jungle, and the soldiers guarding the camp often went hungry just like the prisoners, resorting to horrendous means to satisfy their hunger. But for the most part, cannibalism occurred due to mockery of the enemy. A report from the University of Melbourne states:
“According to the Australian lieutenant, he saw many bodies that were missing parts, even a scalped head without a torso. He states that the condition of the remains clearly indicated that they had been dismembered for cooking."
14. NON-HUMAN EXPERIMENTS ON PREGNANT WOMEN


Dr. Joseph Mengele was a famous Nazi scientist who experimented on Jews, twins, dwarfs and other concentration camp prisoners for which he was wanted international community after the war to be tried for numerous war crimes. But the Japanese had their own scientific institutions, where they carried out equally terrible experiments on people.
The so-called Unit 731 conducted experiments on Chinese women who were raped and impregnated. They were purposefully infected with syphilis so that they could find out whether the disease would be inherited. Often the condition of the fetus was studied directly in the mother's womb without the use of anesthesia, since these women were considered nothing more than animals to be studied.
13. SCARDING AND SUTUPING OF THE GENITALIA IN THE MOUTH


In 1944, on the volcanic island of Peleliu, a soldier Marine Corps While having lunch with a friend, I saw the figure of a man heading towards them along open area battlefields. As the man approached, it became clear that he was also a Marine soldier. The man walked bent over and had difficulty moving his legs. He was covered in blood. The sergeant decided that he was just a wounded man who had not been taken from the battlefield, and he and several colleagues hurried to meet him.
What they saw made them shudder. His mouth was sewn shut and the front of his trousers was cut. The face was distorted with pain and horror. Having taken him to the doctors, they later learned from them what really happened. He was captured by the Japanese, where he was beaten and brutally tortured. The Japanese army soldiers cut off his genitals, stuffed them into his mouth, and sewed him up. It is unknown whether the soldier was able to survive such a horrific outrage. But reliable fact is that instead of intimidation, this event produced reverse effect, filling the hearts of the soldiers with hatred and giving them additional forces to fight for the island.
12. SATISFYING DOCTORS’ CURIOSITY


People practicing medicine in Japan did not always work to alleviate the plight of the sick. During World War II, Japanese "doctors" often performed brutal procedures on enemy soldiers or ordinary citizens in the name of science or simply to satisfy curiosity. Somehow they became interested in what would happen to the human body if it was twisted for a long time. To do this, they placed people in centrifuges and spun them sometimes for hours. People were thrown against the walls of the cylinder and the faster it spun, the more pressure was exerted on internal organs. Many died within a few hours and their bodies were removed from the centrifuge, but some were spun until they literally exploded or fell apart.
11. AMPUTATION

If a person was suspected of espionage, then he was punished with all cruelty. Not only soldiers of Japan's enemy armies were subject to torture, but also residents of the Philippines, who were suspected of providing intelligence information for the Americans and British. The favorite punishment was to simply cut them alive. First one arm, then perhaps a leg and fingers. Next came the ears. But all this did not lead to a quick death so that the victim suffered for a long time. There was also the practice of stopping bleeding after cutting off a hand, when several days were given for recovery to continue torture. Men, women and children were amputated; no one was spared from the atrocities of the Japanese soldiers.
10. TORTURE BY DROWNING


Many believe that waterboarding was first used by US soldiers in Iraq. Such torture is contrary to the country's constitution and appears unusual and cruel. This measure may be considered torture, but it may not be considered that way. Definitely for a prisoner it is ordeal, but it does not put his life at risk. The Japanese used waterboarding not only for interrogation, but also tied prisoners at an angle and inserted tubes into their nostrils. Thus, the water went directly into their lungs. It didn't just make you feel like you were drowning, like waterboarding, but the victim actually seemed to drown if the torture went on for too long.
He could try to spit out enough water so as not to choke, but this was not always possible. Waterboarding was the second most common cause of death for prisoners after beatings.
9. FREEZING AND BURNING

Another type of inhumane research on the human body was the study of the effects of cold on the body. Often, as a result of freezing, the skin fell off the victim's bones. Of course, the experiments were carried out on living, breathing people who had to live with limbs from which the skin had fallen off for the rest of their lives. But not only the impact was studied low temperatures on the body, but also high. They burned the skin on a person’s hand over a torch, and the prisoner ended his life in terrible agony.
8. RADIATION


X-rays were still poorly understood at the time, and their usefulness and effectiveness in diagnosing disease or as a weapon were in question. Irradiation of prisoners was used especially frequently by Detachment 731. Prisoners were gathered under a shelter and exposed to radiation. They were taken out at certain intervals to study the physical and psychological effects of the radiation. With particularly large doses of radiation, part of the body burned and the skin literally fell off. The victims died in agony, as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki later, but much more slowly.
7. BURNING ALIVE


Japanese soldiers from small islands in the southern part Pacific Ocean were hardened cruel people who lived in caves, where there was not enough food, there was nothing to do, but there was a lot of time to cultivate hatred of enemies in their hearts. Therefore, when American soldiers were captured by them, they were absolutely merciless to them. More often American sailors were subjected to burning alive or partial burial. Many of them were found under rocks where they were thrown to decompose. The prisoners were tied hand and foot, then thrown into a dug hole, which was then slowly buried. Perhaps the worst thing was that the victim's head was left outside, which was then urinated on or eaten by animals.
6. BEHAVIORATION


In Japan it was considered an honor to die from a sword. If the Japanese wanted to disgrace the enemy, they brutally tortured him. Therefore, for those captured, dying by beheading was lucky. It was much worse to be subjected to the tortures listed above. If ammunition ran out in battle, the Americans used a rifle with a bayonet, while the Japanese always carried a long blade and a long curved sword. Soldiers were lucky to die from decapitation and not from a blow to the shoulder or chest. If the enemy found himself on the ground, he was chopped to death, rather than his head being cut off.
5. DEATH BY TIDE


Since Japan and its surrounding islands are surrounded by ocean waters, this type of torture was common among the inhabitants. Drowning is a terrible type of death. Even worse was the expectation of imminent death from the tide within a few hours. Prisoners were often tortured for several days in order to learn military secrets. Some could not stand the torture, but there were also those who only gave their name, rank and serial number. Prepared for such stubborn people special kind of death. The soldier was left on the shore, where he had to listen for several hours to the water getting closer and closer. Then, the water covered the prisoner's head and, within a few minutes of coughing, filled the lungs, after which death occurred.
4. TORTURE WITH BAMBOO


Bamboo grows in hot tropical areas and grows noticeably faster than other plants, several centimeters per day. And when the devilish mind of man invented the most terrible way to die, it was impalement. The victims were impaled on bamboo, which slowly grew into their bodies. The unfortunates suffered from inhuman pain when their muscles and organs were pierced by the plant. Death occurred as a result of organ damage or blood loss.
3. COOKING ALIVE


Another activity of Unit 731 was exposing victims to small doses of electricity. With a small impact it caused a lot of pain. If it was prolonged, then the internal organs of the prisoners were boiled and burned. Interesting fact The thing about the intestines and gall bladder is that they have nerve endings. Therefore, when exposed to them, the brain sends pain signals to other organs. It's like cooking the body from the inside. Imagine swallowing a hot piece of iron to understand what the unfortunate victims experienced. The pain will be felt throughout the body until the soul leaves it.
2. FORCED WORK AND MARCHES


Thousands of prisoners of war were sent to Japanese concentration camps, where they lived the life of slaves. The large number of prisoners was a serious problem for the army, since it was impossible to supply them with sufficient food and medicine. In concentration camps, prisoners were starved, beaten, and forced to work until they died. The lives of the prisoners meant nothing to the guards and officers monitoring them. Moreover, if work force was needed on an island or another part of the country, the prisoners of war had to march hundreds of kilometers there in unbearable heat. Countless soldiers died along the way. Their bodies were thrown into ditches or left there.
1. FORCE TO KILL COMRADES AND ALLIES


Most often, beatings of prisoners were used during interrogations. The documents state that at first the prisoner was spoken to in a friendly manner. Then, if the interrogating officer understood the futility of such a conversation, was bored or simply angry, then the prisoner of war was beaten with fists, sticks or other objects. The beating continued until the torturers got tired. In order to make the interrogation more interesting, they brought in another prisoner and forced him to continue under pain. own death from beheading. Often he had to beat a prisoner to death. Few things in war were as difficult for a soldier as causing suffering to a comrade. These stories filled the Allied troops with even greater determination in the fight against the Japanese.

This is what the unlimited power of money leads to... Why are Japanese hated in neighboring countries?

During World War II, it was common for Japanese soldiers and officers to cut down civilians with swords, bayonet them, rape and kill women, kill children and the elderly. That is why, for the Koreans and Chinese, the Japanese are a hostile people, murderers.

In July 1937, the Japanese attacked China, starting the Sino-Japanese War, which lasted until 1945. In November-December 1937, the Japanese army launched an attack on Nanjing. On December 13, the Japanese captured the city, there was a massacre for 5 days (the killings continued later, but not as massive), which went down in history as the “Nanjing Massacre.” During the massacre carried out by the Japanese, more than 350 thousand people were slaughtered, some sources cite the figure as half a million people. Tens of thousands of women were raped, many of them killed. The Japanese army acted on the basis of 3 “clean” principles:

The massacre began when Japanese soldiers took 20 thousand Chinese of military age out of the city and bayoneted them all so that they would never be able to join the Chinese army. The peculiarity of the massacres and abuses was that the Japanese did not shoot - they conserved ammunition, killed and maimed everyone with cold steel.

After this, massacres began in the city; women, girls, and old women were raped and then killed. Hearts were cut out from living people, bellies were cut, eyes were gouged out, they were buried alive, heads were cut off, even babies were killed, madness was happening in the streets. Women were raped right in the middle of the streets - the Japanese, intoxicated with impunity, forced fathers to rape their daughters, sons to rape their mothers, samurai competed to see who could kill the most people with a sword - a certain samurai Mukai won, killing 106 people.

After the war, the crimes of the Japanese military were condemned by the world community, but since the 1970s, Tokyo has been denying them; Japanese history textbooks write about the massacre that many people were simply killed in the city, without details.

Singapore massacre

On February 15, 1942, the Japanese army captured the British colony of Singapore. The Japanese decided to identify and destroy “anti-Japanese elements” in the Chinese community. During Operation Purge, the Japanese checked all Chinese males of military age, the execution lists included Chinese men who participated in the war with Japan, Chinese employees of the British administration, Chinese who donated money to the China Relief Fund, Chinese natives of China, etc. d.

They were taken out of the filtration camps and shot. Then the operation was extended to the entire peninsula, where they decided not to “ceremoniously” and, due to the lack of people for the inquiry, they shot everyone. Approximately 50 thousand Chinese were killed, the remaining ones were lucky, the Japanese did not complete Operation Purge, they had to transfer troops to other areas - they planned to destroy the entire Chinese population of Singapore and the peninsula.

Massacre in Manila

When in early February 1945 it became clear to the Japanese command that Manila could not be held, the army headquarters was moved to the city of Baguio, and they decided to destroy Manila. Destroy the population. In the capital of the Philippines, according to the most conservative estimates, more than 110 thousand people were killed. Thousands of people were shot, many were doused with gasoline and set on fire, the city's infrastructure, residential buildings, schools, and hospitals were destroyed. On February 10, the Japanese carried out a massacre in the Red Cross building, killing everyone, even children, and the Spanish consulate was burned along with its people.

The massacre also took place in the suburbs; in the town of Calamba, the entire population was destroyed - 5 thousand people. Monks and nuns of Catholic institutions and schools were not spared, and students were also killed.

Comfort station system

In addition to the rape of tens, hundreds, thousands of women, the Japanese authorities are guilty of another crime against humanity - the creation of a network of brothels for soldiers. It was common practice to rape women in captured villages; some of the women were taken away, few of them were able to return.

In 1932, the Japanese command decided to create “comfortable station houses”, justifying their creation by the decision to reduce anti-Japanese sentiment due to mass rape on Chinese soil, by caring for the health of soldiers who needed to “rest” and not get sexually transmitted diseases. First they were created in Manchuria, in China, then in all the occupied territories - in the Philippines, Borneo, Burma, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and so on. In total, from 50 to 300 thousand women passed through these brothels, and most of them were minors. Before the end of the war, no more than a quarter survived, morally and physically disfigured, poisoned with antibiotics. The Japanese authorities even created the proportions of “service”: 29 (“clients”): 1, then increased to 40: 1 per day.

Currently, the Japanese authorities deny this data; previously, Japanese historians spoke about the private nature and voluntariness of prostitution.

Death Squad - Squad 731

In 1935, as part of the Japanese Kwantung Army, the so-called. "Detachment 731", its goal was to develop biological weapons, delivery vehicles, and testing on humans. It worked until the end of the war; the Japanese military did not have time to use biological weapons against the USA, and even the USSR, only thanks to the rapid offensive Soviet troops in August 1945.

Shiro Ishii - Commander of Unit 731

victims of unit 731

More than 5 thousand prisoners and local residents, they called them “logs”.

People were cut alive for “scientific purposes”, infected with the most terrible diseases, then “opened” while still alive. They conducted experiments on the survivability of “logs” - how long would they last without water and food, scalded with boiling water, after irradiation with an X-ray machine, withstand electrical discharges, without any cut out organ, and much more. other.

The Japanese command was ready to use biological weapons on Japanese territory against American troops, sacrificing civilian population- the army and leadership had to evacuate to Manchuria, to the “alternate airfield” of Japan.

The Asian people have still not forgiven Tokyo, especially in light of the fact that in recent decades Japan has refused to acknowledge more and more of its war crimes. Koreans recall that they were even forbidden to speak their native language, they were ordered to change their native names to Japanese (the “assimilation” policy) - approximately 80% of Koreans accepted Japanese names. Girls were taken to brothels; in 1939, 5 million people were forcibly mobilized into industry. Korean cultural monuments were taken away or destroyed.

Sources:
http://www.battlingbastardsbataan.com/som.htm
http://www.intv.ru/view/?film_id=20797
http://films-online.su/news/filosofija_nozha_philosophy_of_a_knife_2008/2010-11-21-2838
http://www.cnd.org/njmassacre/
http://militera.lib.ru/science/terentiev_n/05.html

Massacre in Nanjing.

Like any crime of capitalism and state ambitions, the Nanjing massacre should not be forgotten.

Prince Asaka Takahito (1912-1981), it was he who issued the order to “kill all prisoners”, giving official sanction to the “Nanking Massacre”

In December 1937, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army brutally murdered many civilians in Nanjing, then the capital of the Republic of China.

Despite the fact that after the war a number of Japanese soldiers were convicted of the Nanjing massacre, since the 1970s the Japanese side has pursued a policy of denying the crimes committed in Nanjing. Japanese school history textbooks simply write vaguely that “many people were killed” in the city.

The Japanese began by taking 20 thousand men of military age out of the city and bayoneting them so that in the future they “could not take up arms against Japan.” Then the occupiers moved on to exterminating women, old people, and children.

In December 1937 Japanese newspaper, who described the exploits of the army, enthusiastically reported on the valiant competition of two officers who bet who would be the first to kill more than a hundred Chinese with his sword. The Japanese, as hereditary duelists, requested additional time. A certain samurai Mukai won, killing 106 people against 105.

Mad samurai completed sex with murder, gouged out eyes and tore out the hearts of still living people. The murders were carried out with particular cruelty. Firearms, which was in service with Japanese soldiers, was not used. Thousands of victims were stabbed with bayonets, their heads were cut off, people were burned, buried alive, women had their bellies ripped open and their insides turned out, and small children were killed. They raped and then brutally killed not only adult women, but also little girls and old women. Witnesses say that the sexual ecstasy of the conquerors was so great that they raped all the women in a row, regardless of their age, in broad daylight on busy streets. At the same time, fathers were forced to rape their daughters, and sons were forced to rape their mothers.

A peasant from Jiangsu province (near Nanjing) tied to a post to be shot.

In December 1937, the capital of Kuomintang China, Nanjing, fell. Japanese soldiers began to practice their popular "three out" policy:

“burn it clean,” “kill everyone clean,” “rob it clean.”

When the Japanese left Nanjing, it turned out that the transport ship could not land on the shore of the river bay. He was disturbed by thousands of corpses floating along the Yangtze. From memories:

“We just had to use the floating bodies as a pontoon. To board the ship, we had to walk over the dead.”

In just six weeks, about 300 thousand people were killed and more than 20,000 women were raped. Terror exceeded all imagination. Even the German consul, in an official report, described the behavior of the Japanese soldiers as “brutal.”

The Japanese bury living Chinese in the ground.

A Japanese soldier entered the monastery courtyard to kill Buddhist monks.

In 2007, documents from one of the international charitable organizations who worked in Nanjing during the war. These documents, as well as records confiscated from Japanese troops, show that Japanese soldiers killed more than 200,000 civilians and Chinese troops in 28 massacres, and at least another 150,000 people were killed in in some cases during the infamous Nanjing massacre. The maximum estimate of all victims is 500,000 people.

According to evidence presented at the Tokyo war crimes court, Japanese soldiers raped 20,000 Chinese women (an underestimate), many of whom were later killed.

Hmembers of the Chamber are already aware that in Lately Many postcards and letters arrived in Britain from prisoners in the Far East. The authors of almost all of these letters report that they are treated well and that they are healthy. Based on what we know about the situation of prisoners in certain areas Far East, it is safe to say that at least some of these letters were written under the dictation of the Japanese authorities.

I must unfortunately inform the House that the information received by His Majesty's Government shows absolutely beyond doubt, so far as the vast majority of prisoners in Japanese hands are concerned, that the actual state of affairs is quite different.

The House already knows that approximately 80 to 90% of Japanese civilians and military personnel interned are located in the southern region, which includes the Philippine Islands, the Dutch West Indies, Borneo, Malaya, Burma, Siam and Indo-China. The Japanese government still does not allow representatives of neutral countries to visit prison camps.

We could not obtain from the Japanese any information about the number of prisoners located in various areas, nor their names.

His Majesty's Government have received information regarding the conditions of detention and work of prisoners of war in some parts of this area. This information was of such a grim nature that it might have caused concern to the relatives of prisoners and interned civilians in Japanese hands.

The government considered it its responsibility to verify the accuracy of the information received before making it public.

Thousands of deaths

We are now convinced of the reliability of the information received. It is my sad duty to inform the House that there are now many thousands of prisoners in Siam, originally from British Commonwealth, in particular from India.

The Japanese military forces them to live in conditions tropical jungle without good enough shelter, without clothing, food and medical care. Prisoners are forced to work on the gasket railway and on the construction of roads in the jungle.

According to the information we have received, the prisoners' health is rapidly deteriorating. Many of them are seriously ill. Several thousand prisoners have already died. I can add to this that the Japanese informed us of the death of a little more than a hundred prisoners. Roads built by prisoners go to Burma. The conditions I spoke about prevail throughout the entire construction period.

Here is what one eyewitness says about the prisoner of war camp in Siam:

“I saw a lot of prisoners, but they looked little like people: skin and bones. The prisoners were half naked, unshaven, their long, overgrown hair was tangled in tatters.”

The same witness said that the prisoners had neither hats nor shoes. I would like to remind the House that this is happening in an area with tropical climate, in an almost deserted area, where it is impossible to receive either medical or any other help from the population.

We have information about the situation of prisoners in another part of this huge southern region. Evidence from Java suggests that prisoners held in unsanitary conditions in camps are not protected from malaria. Food and clothing are not enough. This leads to a deterioration in the health of prisoners, who only sometimes manage to supplement their rations with something.

Information received from the northern region indicates the complete exhaustion of most of the prisoners arriving from Java.

Regarding the conditions of detention of prisoners in other parts of the southern region, I do not yet have information that I could report to the House.

Before I finish with the southern region, I must mention one exception. The information at our disposal suggests that conditions in the civilian internment camps are much better, or at least tolerable.

Gross bullying

The Japanese Government's refusal to grant neutral observers permission to inspect the camps in the southern region cannot be justified on plausible grounds, since the Japanese Government allowed neutrals to inspect the camps in the northern region, which includes Hong Kong, Formosa, Shanghai, Korea and Japan. We believe, however, that this inspection did not affect a sufficiently large number of camps.

His Majesty's Government has reason to believe that the conditions of detention of prisoners in this area are generally tolerable, although the Minister of War has more than once pointed out that the food being issued is not enough to maintain health for a long time. I would like to add, however, that conditions for prisoners in Hong Kong appear to be deteriorating.

If the trials experienced by the prisoners were limited only to what I have already described, then that would be bad enough. But unfortunately, the worst is yet to come.

We have a growing list of gross abuses and atrocities committed against individuals and groups. I would not like to burden the House with a detailed account of the atrocities. But to give an idea of ​​them, I unfortunately must give a few typical examples.

I will first cite two cases of brutal treatment of civilians. A Shanghai municipal police officer, along with 300 other nationals of the Allied countries, was sent by the Japanese to a camp for the so-called “politically unreliable”, located on the Haifun Road in Shanghai.

This officer aroused the discontent of the Japanese gendarmerie against himself and was transferred to a station located in another part of the city. He returned from there distraught. The deep wounds on the arms and legs left by the ropes festered. He lost about 20 kilograms in weight. A day or two after his release, the officer died.

Execution of three prisoners

The second case occurred in the Philippine Islands. On January 11, 1942, three British nationals escaped from a civilian internment camp in Santo Tomas (Manila).

They were caught and flogged.

On January 14, a military court sentenced them to death, despite the fact that international convention provides in this case only the imposition disciplinary punishment. The prisoners were shot with automatic weapons. They died in agony, since the first wounds were not fatal.

I turn now to cases of brutal treatment of soldiers. The Japanese, having captured a group of Indian soldiers in Burma, tied their hands behind their backs and sat them down by the road. Then the Japanese began to bayonet the prisoners one by one. Each was apparently inflicted with three wounds.

By some miracle, one of the soldiers managed to escape and make his way to our troops. From him we learned about this torture.

In another case, a British officer of a well-known regiment who was captured in Burma was subjected to torture. They beat him in the face with a saber, then tied him to a post and tied a rope around his neck. In order not to suffocate, he had to constantly reach up. Then the officer was subjected to further torture.

Fortunately for him, at this time the Allied army soldiers went on the offensive, the Japanese fled, and the officer was rescued by British tank crews.

Ship of Terror

The third case involved a ship called the Lisbon Maru, which was used by the Japanese to transport 1,800 British prisoners of war from Hong Kong.

The ship "Lisbon Maru".

In one hold, two prisoners died where they lay, and no attempt was made to remove their corpses.

On the morning of October 1, 1942, the Lisbon Maru was torpedoed by an Allied submarine. Japanese officers, soldiers and sailors left the prisoners locked in the holds and abandoned the ship, although it sank only a day after the torpedoing.

The ship had several life belts and other life-saving equipment. Only some of the prisoners managed to escape from the holds and swim to the shore under fire from Japanese soldiers. The rest (at least 800 people) died.

What has been said is enough to get an idea of ​​the barbaric character of our enemy - the Japanese. They trampled not only principles international law, but also all norms of decent and civilized behavior.

His Majesty's Government, through the Swiss Government, made many energetic representations to the Japanese Government.

The answers we receive are either evasive, cynical, or simply unsatisfactory.

We had the right to expect that the Japanese government, having learned about these facts, would take measures to improve the conditions of detention of prisoners. The Japanese know well enough that a civilized power is obliged to protect the life and health of prisoners captured by its army. They showed this by their treatment of prisoners during Russo-Japanese War and the wars of 1914 - 1918.

Let the Japanese government take into account that the conduct of the Japanese military authorities in the current war will not be forgotten.

It is with the deepest regret that I had to make this statement in the House of Commons. But after consultation with those Allies who are equally the victims of these unspeakable atrocities, His Majesty's Government have considered it their duty to make these facts public.

Until December 7, 1941, there was not a single military conflict with an Asian army in American history. There were only a few minor skirmishes in the Philippines during the war with Spain. This led to American soldiers and sailors underestimating the enemy.
The US Army heard stories of the brutality with which the Japanese invaders treated the Chinese population in the 1940s. But before the clashes with the Japanese, the Americans had no idea what their opponents were capable of.
Routine beatings were so common that it is not even worthy of mention. However, in addition, captive Americans, British, Greeks, Australians and Chinese had to face slave labor, forced marches, cruel and unusual torture, and even dismemberment.
Below are some of the most shocking atrocities committed by the Japanese army during World War II.
15. CANNIBALISM

It’s no secret that during times of famine people begin to eat their own kind. Cannibalism occurred in the expedition led by Donner, and even the Uruguay rugby team that crashed in the Andes, the subject of the film The Alive. But this always happened only in extreme circumstances. But it is impossible not to shudder when hearing stories about eating the remains of dead soldiers or cutting off parts from living people. The Japanese camps were deeply isolated, surrounded by impenetrable jungle, and the soldiers guarding the camp often starved as well as the prisoners, resorting to horrendous means to satisfy their hunger. But for the most part, cannibalism occurred due to mockery of the enemy. A report from the University of Melbourne states:
“According to the Australian lieutenant, he saw many bodies that were missing parts, even a scalped head without a torso. He states that the condition of the remains clearly indicated that they had been dismembered for cooking."
14. NON-HUMAN EXPERIMENTS ON PREGNANT WOMEN

If a person was suspected of espionage, then he was punished with all cruelty. Not only soldiers of Japan's enemy armies were subject to torture, but also residents of the Philippines, who were suspected of providing intelligence information for the Americans and British. The favorite punishment was to simply cut them alive. First one arm, then perhaps a leg and fingers. Next came the ears. But all this did not lead to a quick death so that the victim suffered for a long time. There was also the practice of stopping bleeding after cutting off a hand, when several days were given for recovery to continue torture. Men, women and children were amputated; no one was spared from the atrocities of the Japanese soldiers.
10. TORTURE BY DROWNING

Another type of inhumane research on the human body was the study of the effects of cold on the body. Often, as a result of freezing, the skin fell off the victim's bones. Of course, the experiments were carried out on living, breathing people who had to live with limbs from which the skin had fallen off for the rest of their lives. But not only the effects of low temperatures on the body were studied, but also high ones. They burned the skin on a person’s hand over a torch, and the prisoner ended his life in terrible agony.
8. RADIATION

In the Middle Ages, a key role in politics and public life belonged to the church. Against the backdrop of the flourishing of architecture and scientific technology, the Inquisition and church courts persecuted dissidents and used torture. Denunciations and executions were widespread. Women were especially helpless and powerless. Therefore, today we will tell you about the most terrible medieval tortures for girls.

Their life was not like fairy world knightly novels. Girls were more often accused of witchcraft and, under torture, confessed to acts they did not commit. Sophisticated corporal punishment amazes with savagery, cruelty and inhumanity. The woman has always been to blame: for infertility and a large number of children, for an illegitimate child and various bodily defects, for healing and violation of biblical rules. Public corporal punishment was used to obtain information and intimidate the population.

The most terrible torture of women in the history of mankind

Most instruments of torture were mechanized. The victim was in terrible pain and died from his injuries. The authors of all the terrible instruments knew the structure of the human body well, each method caused unbearable suffering. Although of course these tools were used not only on females, they suffered more than others.

Pear of suffering

The mechanism was a metal bulb divided into several segments. There was a screw in the middle of the bulb. The device was inserted into the offending woman's mouth, vagina or anus. The screw mechanism opened the segments of the pear. As a result, internal organs were damaged: vagina, cervix, intestines, pharynx. A very terrible death.

The injuries caused by the device were incompatible with life. Usually torture was used on girls accused of having connections with the devil. At the sight of such a weapon, the defendants admitted to cohabitation with the devil, using the blood of babies in magical rituals. But confessions did not save the poor girls. They still died in the flames of the fire.

Witch chair (Spanish chair)

Applied to girls convicted of witchcraft. The suspect was secured with belts and handcuffs on an iron chair, in which the seat, back, and sides were covered with spikes. The person did not die immediately from loss of blood; the thorns slowly pierced the body. The cruel suffering did not end there; hot coals were placed under the chair.

History has preserved the fact that at the end of the 17th century, a woman from Austria, accused of witchcraft, spent eleven days in agony on such a chair, but she died without confessing to the crime.

Throne

A special device for long-term torture. The “throne” was a wooden chair with holes in the back. The woman's legs were fixed in the holes, and her head was lowered down. The uncomfortable position caused suffering: blood rushed to the head, the muscles of the neck and back became tense. But there were no traces of torture left on the suspect’s body.

A fairly harmless weapon, reminiscent of a modern vice, caused pain, broke bones, but did not lead to the death of the person being interrogated.

Stork

The woman was placed in an iron device that allowed her to be fixed in a position with her legs pulled to her stomach. This position caused muscle spasms. Prolonged pain and cramps slowly drove me crazy. Additionally, the victim could be tortured with a hot iron.

Shoes with spikes under the heel

The torture shoes were secured to the leg with shackles. By using special device spikes were screwed into the heel. The victim could stand on his toes for some time to relieve the pain and prevent the thorns from penetrating deeply. But it is impossible to stand in this position for a long time. I was expecting a poor sinner strong pain, blood loss, sepsis.

"Vigil" (torture by insomnia)

For this purpose, a special chair with a pyramid-shaped seat was created. The girl was seated on the seat; she could not sleep or relax. But the inquisitors found more effective method to gain recognition. The bound suspect was seated in such a position that the tip of the pyramid penetrated the vagina.

The torture lasted for hours; the unconscious woman was revived and returned to the pyramid, which tore her body and injured her genitals. To intensify the pain, heavy objects were tied to the victim’s legs and a hot iron was applied.

Goats for witches (Spanish donkey)

The naked sinner was seated on a pyramid-shaped wooden block, and a weight was tied to her feet to enhance the effect. The torture caused pain, but unlike the previous one, it did not tear the woman’s genitals.

Water torture

This method of inquiry was considered humane, although it often led to the death of the suspect. A funnel was inserted into the girl's mouth and a large amount of water was poured in. Then they jumped on the unfortunate woman, which could cause a rupture of the stomach and intestines. Boiling water and molten metal could be poured through the funnel. Ants and other insects were often placed into the victim's mouth or vagina. Even an innocent girl confessed to any sins in order to avoid a terrible fate.

Pectoral

The torture device is similar to a chest ornament. Hot metal was placed on the girl’s chest. After interrogation, if the suspect did not die from painful shock and did not confess to a crime against faith, charred flesh remained instead of the chest.

The device, made in the form of metal hooks, was often used to interrogate girls caught in witchcraft or manifestations of lust. This instrument could be used to punish a woman who cheated on her husband and gave birth out of wedlock. A very tough measure.

Witch bathing

The inquiry was carried out during the cold season. The sinner was seated in a special chair and tied tightly. If the woman did not repent, dipping was carried out until she suffocated under the water or froze.

Was there torture of women in the Middle Ages in Rus'?

In medieval Rus' there was no persecution of witches and heretics. Women were not subjected to such sophisticated torture, but for murders and state crimes they could be buried up to their necks in the ground, punished with a whip so that their skin was torn to shreds.

Well, that's probably enough for today. We think that now you understand how terrible medieval torture was for girls, and now it is unlikely that any of the fair sex will want to travel back to the Middle Ages to the valiant knights.