The most terrible medieval torture for girls. Real Chinese torture and executions

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 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. A special type of death was prepared for such stubborn people. 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. In addition, if labor 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 of his own death by 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.

japanese thriller violence cinema

Before starting an overview of the topic of cruelty in Japanese cinema, in my opinion, it is worth paying attention to how cruelty and violence manifested themselves in Japan in real life, and can we say that cruelty is part of the Japanese character. It is worth noting that we can see manifestations of cruelty in different periods Japanese history- from antiquity to today. Cruelty manifested itself in different areas Japanese life.

The things that will be described above, such as the behavior of samurai, torture, executions, and other manifestations of violence, have been part of the daily life of the Japanese for a long time. All this is reflected in the art of cinema, as it often depicts the realities of society.

A striking example of cruelty is the behavior of samurai. A samurai could kill absolutely any person who, as it seemed to the samurai, showed disrespect towards him or made any mistake in his actions. Situations were absolutely normal when samurai without apparent reason chopped off ordinary people heads. Their barbaric cruelty was not condemned or punished. During hostilities, samurai resorted to various tortures, mockery and humiliation of the enemy. Rape and murder of women was considered an absolutely common practice. For samurai, this was not something too cruel and immoral, it was one of the ways to humiliate the enemy.

Also a shining example manifestations of cruelty can serve as torture during the Edo era (1603 - 1868). In medieval Japan, torture was common as punishment or interrogation of a prisoner. They were quite common among residents and were not perceived by the Japanese as a sign of cruelty. Most often, torture was used to extract a confession from a person for committing a crime. Until 1742, Japan had very cruel tortures, such as tearing out nostrils, cutting off fingers, and plunging limbs into boiling oil. But in 1742, the “Code of One Hundred Articles” was adopted, which abolished such cruel measures. After this, only four types of torture remained: Prasol A.F. From Edo to Tokyo and back. - M.: Astrel, 2012. - 333.. The easiest thing was beating with sticks. The victim was stripped to the waist, put on his knees and began to beat her on the shoulders and back. A doctor was present in the room during this procedure. Torture was applied to the prisoner until he told the truth or confessed to what he had done. Ibid. P. 333..

Pressure torture was also used. Stone slabs were placed on the victim’s lap; each slab weighed 49 kilograms. A case is described when a prisoner withstood the pressure of 10 slabs - it is believed that this is the maximum weight that a prisoner could withstand. Ibid. P. 333..

Torture by tying with rope was considered the third most cruel. The defendant was twisted into the “shrimp” position and left there for approximately 3-4 hours.

And the last type of torture is hanging from a rope. This technique was used extremely rarely. Ibid. pp. 334 - 335. .

I would also like to say a few words regarding the death penalty. There were six main types of execution, which depended on the severity of the crime committed. Types of death penalty:

cutting off the head when the body was handed over to relatives;

cutting off the head when the body was not handed over to relatives;

beheading and public display;

burning at the stake;

execution on the cross;

cutting off the head with a bamboo saw and public demonstration 5 Prasol A.F. From Edo to Tokyo and back. - M.: Astrel, 2012. - 340 - 341. .

It is worth noting that the cruelty of Japanese torture was noted in his diaries by Vasily Golovnin: “... in the Japanese criminal law it is commanded, in the event of denial of the accused, to use the most terrible tortures that evil could invent in barbaric times...” Golovnin V. M. Notes of a fleet captain Golovnin about his adventures in captivity of the Japanese. M.: Zakharov, 2004.. In addition to Golovnin, the cruelty of the Japanese towards the guilty was also noted by the Americans, who participated in the forced opening of Japan in the second half of the 20th century.

In 1893, Sakuma Osahiro, a representative of a family of city government employees, compiled a treatise called “A True Description of the Practice of Torture,” which contained a description of the practice of torturing a prisoner. In the treatise, the author described the main tortures before the Edo era - torture by water, fire, torture in the “water prison” and torture of the “wooden horse”. The author of the treatise considered the abandonment of these methods and the transition to new types of torture, which we described earlier, as a real evolution. Important information for us is the role that the author of the treatise assigns to torture. Torture was not considered punishment or revenge for a crime committed. Torture was one part of the investigation of the crime. Torture was intended to bring the prisoner to repentance and was not considered a barbaric practice. This was one part of Sakuma Osahiro's trial. A true account of the practice of torture. [ Electronic resource]. - Access mode: http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/Dokumenty/Japan/XIX/1880-1900/Sakuma_Osahiro/frametext.htm.

Cruelty was also used against people who studied various crafts and arts. The teacher could punish the student in the most cruel way, but this was done only for the benefit of the student. For example, a variety of tortures could be applied to a guilty geisha, the main thing was not to cause any harm to her face and not to disfigure the girl.

Of course, the most indicative bloody period of Japanese cruelty was the first half of the 20th century, when the country was actively involved in military activities. Cruelty was shown both to enemies and to loved ones. For example, during Russo-Japanese War(1904-1905) some soldiers killed their children and wives so as not to condemn them to starvation. But it is worth noting that the Japanese did not consider this a manifestation of cruelty, but on the contrary, it was a manifestation of nobility and devotion to their emperor.

Japanese soldiers showed incredible cruelty towards their enemies. The numbers speak for themselves: according to average estimates, about 300,000 people died during the Nanjing operation, 250,000 people died during the Zhejiang-Jiangxi operation, in addition, Japanese soldiers killed about 100,000 Filipinos and 250,000 Burmese. It is believed that Japanese wartime soldiers had a "three to three clear" policy, namely "burn the clear", "kill all the clear", "rob the clear". And looking at what the Japanese soldiers did, it becomes clear that the Japanese soldiers observed these slogans very clearly.

The complete destruction of entire cities and villages was absolutely normal for Japanese soldiers. Japanese researcher Teruyuki Hara wrote the following about the intervention in Siberia: “Of all cases “ complete elimination The burning of the village of Ivanovka was the largest in scale and the most cruel.”

In 1937, an event occurred that became known as the Nanjing Massacre. It all started with the Japanese bayoneting about 20 thousand young men of military age so that they would not be able to fight against Japan in the future. The Japanese did not spare the elderly, children or women. They were not just killed, they were mocked in the dirtiest ways. Women were subjected to brutal violence, people's eyes and other organs were torn out. Eyewitnesses say that Japanese soldiers raped all the women in a row: both very young girls and old women. The weapons that the soldiers had were practically not used to kill victims, since other, bloodier types of murder were used Terentyev N. The outbreak of war on Far East. [Electronic resource]. - Access mode:

http://militera.lib.ru/science/terentiev_n/05.html.

The Japanese also showed toughness in Manila. Many people were shot, some were burned alive after being doused with gasoline.

The soldiers took photographs with their victims “as a souvenir.” The faces of the soldiers in these photographs do not express an iota of remorse.

During the wars, the Japanese actively created and used “comfort stations” - places where Japanese soldiers “relaxed” with women. It is estimated that about 300,000 women passed through the “comfort stations,” many of whom were under 18 years old. But, as Japanese scientists note, no one was forced into prostitution; the girls went to work at the comfort station only of their own free will.

It is also worth noting the special development unit bacteriological weapons or detachment 731. Bacteria of plague, typhoid, dysentery and other deadly diseases were tested on civilians. Japanese scientists used the term “logs” to refer to their experimental subjects. Scientists conducted experiments not only for scientific purposes, but also for fun. The extent of the atrocity cannot be determined. But you can also look at this from the other side, many scientists say that the Japanese committed all these atrocities for the benefit of their own compatriots. They didn't want their soldiers to get sick and were looking for treatment options for various diseases.

The cruelty of the soldiers can be explained by one more fact. At that time, the rules within the Japanese army were very harsh. For any mistake, a soldier could be punished. Most often these were blows or slaps, but sometimes the punishment could be more severe. During the exercises, cruelty and humiliation also reigned in the army. Young soldiers were “cannon fodder” for the elite. Naturally, the young officers could only take out their accumulated aggression on the enemy. This, in fact, was one of the tasks of such a cruel upbringing of Seiichi Morimura. Devil's kitchen. - M.: Progress, 1983. .

Do not forget about the factor of devotion to the emperor. In order to show their loyalty to the emperor, Japanese soldiers went to great lengths. Special attack or kamikaze shock troops went to certain death for the sake of the emperor.

If we talk about modernity, then cruelty manifests itself even today. Of course, these are not the same atrocities that occurred in medieval Japan or during World War II. But sometimes it is very strange to see that one of the most developed countries in the world shows such strange impulses of cruelty towards its citizens.

A striking example is modern entertainment programs. In them, people are forced to swim in boiling water and perform various tasks that are harmful to health. On many TV shows you can see people breaking their limbs and, what’s strange, such TV shows bring great pleasure to the audience. During these programs we can hear the cheerful laughter of the audience. A favorite Japanese joke is the falling floor - when a person steps on it, the floor collapses and the person falls into boiling water. The Japanese like to use such jokes during various kinds of awards. A well-known test is when people come for an interview and after a while a “drowned boy” approaches them in silence. Employers thus study the applicant's reaction to the workplace.

Let's not forget about a serious problem in the lives of Japanese schoolchildren. It has long been known that in the Japanese system of education there is school bullying or ijime- bullying, harassment, bullying. Some schoolchildren are driven to suicide by bullying from peers. Ijime aimed at psychological suppression of the individual. For bullying, they usually choose a child who is different from others in some way. Moreover, children of fairly successful parents participate in bullying. Year after year, the number of bullying of schoolchildren continues to grow, and Nurutdinova A.R. has not yet been very successful in solving this problem. On the other side of the “Japanese miracle”, or “Ijime”: a social disease of Japanese life and the education system. - M.: 2012. .

Lately The cruelty of the Japanese towards dolphins is increasingly discussed in the world. Dolphin hunting season is open in the country from September to April, and the Japanese kill a huge number of fish during this time. The world community is outraged by the behavior of the Japanese. But it is worth noting that for the Japanese this is a long-standing tradition that has become part of everyday life, and not a manifestation of cruelty towards animals.

Thus, we see that cruelty has been present in the life of the Japanese since ancient times, and often what was considered cruel and immoral for a Westerner was not such for the Japanese. Therefore, we can say that Japanese and Western people have different concepts and attitudes towards cruelty.

It is also worth noting the fundamental differences in the perception of cruelty between the Japanese and Westerners. For the Japanese, the manifestation of cruelty, as we have already mentioned, was quite common, so they treated it with calm. In addition, people from childhood were inculcated with the awareness that there may be a need to sacrifice oneself for the sake of others. This also influenced a rather calm perception of death. Unlike Western people, death for the Japanese was not something terrible and terrible, it was a transition to new stage and therefore she was perceived with practically no fear. Apparently this is why Japanese directors depict scenes of cruelty in their works, because they do not see anything terrible in them. And the Japanese viewer also treats scenes of violence in films quite calmly.

For our work, the analysis of the manifestation of cruelty is important because it shows the difference in the concept of cruelty among Westerners and among the Japanese. We saw that often what seems cruel to Westerners seems completely normal to the Japanese. Besides, historical events, which we described above, served as material for the works of many directors.

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 the fairy-tale world of chivalric romances. 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 a more effective way to achieve confession. 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.

When talking about the crimes of Nazism during World War II, many often overlook the Nazi allies. Meanwhile, they became famous for their cruelty no less. Some of them - for example, Romanian troops - actively participated in pogroms against Jews. And Japan, which was an ally of Germany before last day war, has stained itself with such cruelties that even some of the crimes of German fascism pale in comparison.

Cannibalism
Chinese and American prisoners of war repeatedly alleged that Japanese soldiers ate the bodies of prisoners and, even worse, cut off pieces of flesh for food from people who were still alive. Often the guards of the prisoner of war camps were malnourished, and they resorted to such methods to solve the food problem. There are testimonies from those who saw the remains of prisoners with the flesh removed from the bones for food, but not everyone still believes in this terrible story.

Experiments on pregnant women
At a Japanese military research center called Unit 731, captured Chinese women were raped into becoming pregnant and then subjected to cruel experiments. Women were infected infectious diseases, including syphilis, and monitored whether the disease would be passed on to the child. Women were sometimes subjected to abdominal dissection to see how the disease affected the unborn child. However, no anesthesia was used during these operations: the women simply died as a result of the experiment.

Brutal torture
There are many known cases where the Japanese tortured prisoners not for the sake of obtaining information, but for the sake of cruel entertainment. In one case, a captured wounded Marine had his genitals cut off and stuffed into the soldier's mouth before he was released. This senseless cruelty of the Japanese shocked their opponents more than once.

Sadistic curiosity
During the war, Japanese military doctors not only carried out sadistic experiments on prisoners, but often did this without any, even pseudoscientific, purpose, but out of pure curiosity. This is exactly what the centrifuge experiments were like. The Japanese were interested in what would happen to the human body if it was rotated for hours in a centrifuge at high speed. Tens and hundreds of prisoners became victims of these experiments: people died from bleeding, and sometimes their bodies were simply torn apart.

Amputations
The Japanese abused not only prisoners of war, but also civilians and even their own citizens suspected of spying. A popular punishment for spying was cutting off some part of the body - most often a leg, fingers or ears. The amputation was carried out without anesthesia, but at the same time they carefully ensured that the punished survived - and suffered for the rest of his days.

Drowning
Immersing an interrogated person in water until he begins to choke is a well-known torture. But the Japanese moved on. They simply poured streams of water into the prisoner's mouth and nostrils, which went straight into his lungs. If the prisoner resisted for a long time, he simply choked - with this method of torture, literally minutes counted.

Fire and Ice
Experiments on freezing people were widely practiced in the Japanese army. The limbs of prisoners were frozen until they were solid, and then skin and muscle were cut from living people without anesthesia to study the effects of cold on tissue. The effects of burns were studied in the same way: people were burned alive with burning torches, skin and muscles on their arms and legs, carefully observing tissue changes.

Radiation
All in the same notorious unit 731, Chinese prisoners were driven into special cells and subjected to powerful X-rays, observing what changes subsequently occurred in their bodies. Such procedures were repeated several times until the person died.

Buried alive
One of the most brutal punishments for American prisoners of war for mutiny and disobedience was burial alive. The person was placed upright in a hole and covered with a pile of earth or stones, leaving him to suffocate. The corpses of those punished in such a cruel way were discovered more than once by Allied troops.

Decapitation
Beheading an enemy was a common execution in the Middle Ages. But in Japan this custom survived until the twentieth century and was applied to prisoners during the Second World War. But the most terrible thing was that not all executioners were skilled in their craft. Often the soldier did not complete the blow with his sword, or even hit the executed man on the shoulder with his sword. This only prolonged the torment of the victim, whom the executioner stabbed with a sword until he achieved his goal.

Death in the waves
This type of execution, quite typical for ancient Japan, was also used during World War II. The executed person was tied to a pole dug in the high tide zone. The waves slowly rose until the person began to choke, and finally, after much suffering, drowned completely.

The most painful execution
Bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world; it can grow 10-15 centimeters per day. The Japanese have long used this property for ancient and terrible executions. The man was chained with his back to the ground, from which fresh bamboo shoots sprouted. For several days, the plants tore apart the sufferer’s body, dooming him to terrible torment. It would seem that this horror should have remained in history, but no: it is known for certain that the Japanese used this execution for prisoners during the Second World War.

Welded from the inside
Another section of experiments carried out in part 731 was experiments with electricity. Japanese doctors shocked prisoners by attaching electrodes to the head or torso, immediately giving a large voltage or exposing the unfortunate people to a lower voltage for a long time... They say that with such exposure a person had the feeling that he was being fried alive, and this was not far from the truth : Some of the victims' organs were literally boiled.

Forced labor and death marches
The Japanese prisoner of war camps were no better than Hitler's death camps. Thousands of prisoners who found themselves in Japanese camps worked from dawn to dusk, while, according to stories, they were provided with very little food, sometimes without food for several days. And if slave labor was needed in another part of the country, hungry, exhausted prisoners were driven, sometimes a couple of thousand kilometers, on foot under the scorching sun. Few prisoners managed to survive the Japanese camps.

Prisoners were forced to kill their friends
The Japanese were masters of psychological torture. They often forced prisoners, under threat of death, to beat and even kill their comrades, compatriots, even friends. Regardless of how this psychological torture ended, the will and soul of a person were forever broken.