How the Japanese Army punish the traitors in World War

 

How the Japanese Army punish the traitors in World War

 If one looks at the Japanese record of murder and abuse during WW2, it is easy to make the assertion that traitors would be punished brutally.

The Kenpeitai (Military Police Corps),and the civilian Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu ( Special High Police) were responsible for counter espionage and anything deemed anti Japanese in Japan and the occupied territories.

Both forces used excessive torture as a way of making their victims confess to the charges that were brought against them.

Kempeitai or also known as Kenpeitai was the infamous Japanese military police from 1881 to 1945.

In Japanese-occupied territories, this police force was in charge of arresting and executing those who were suspected of being anti-Japanese.

They were notorious for their brutal treatment of prisoners during WW2.

Many historians refer to them as Japan’s version of the Gestapo, the official secret police of Nazi Germany.

They were trained under Japan’s War Ministry and even had an interrogation manual provided by their government.

One of the cautions stated in the manual, “Care must be exercised when making use of rebukes, invective or torture as it will result in his telling falsehoods and making a fool of you.”

Mark Felton in his book Japan’s Gestapo: Murder, Mayhem and Torture in Wartime Asia noted that the uniformity in methods of torture practiced by the kempeitai throughout the Japanese occupation zone suggested a definite policy adopted by the armed forces at the direct instigation of the government in Tokyo.

“Often, kempeitai investigators cared little whether confessions were made voluntarily or made under duress so torture served a useful and normally quick role in confirming kempeitai suspicions. Essentially, if you were arrested by the kempeitai your fate was usually already sealed.

Methods of torture and interrogation deployed by the kempeitai during World War II:

Waterboarding

This form of torture was commonly used by Japanese as well as German officials during WWII.

It involves water being poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilised captive.

This would cause the person to experience the sensation of drowning.

At Woosung prison camp in Shanghai in early 1942, there was a Japanese army interpreter who worked for the Kempeitai.

He was infamously known for using the water treatment on American and British prisoners.

Nicknamed ‘The Beast of the East’, Isamu Ishihara developed his own version of waterboarding.

The steps include “Prop a ladder on a slope, tie the prisoner to it, feet higher than head, pound something into his nostrils to break the bones so he had to breathe through his mouth, pour water into his mouth till he filled up and chocked, and then it was talk or suffocate.

Rice torture

The Japanese kempeitai also pumped uncooked rice into their victims.

During the Japanese occupation of Borneo, there were at least 15 kempeitai operatives stationed near, Sabah under the command of Warrant Officer Murakami Seisaku.

The victim would be starved for several days and then have a large amount of uncooked rice forced down his throat.

Then, they would put a hose in the victim’s mouth and he would swallow a large amount of water which cause the rice to expand.

This would cause excruciating pain as the stomach stretched to its limit, and the pain would often continue for days as the rice was digested.

The resulting stress on the digestive tract would also cause internal and rectal bleeding.

This method of torture was one of the ways used on those interrogated in Sandakan.

Flogging or beating

The Double Tenth Incident or Double Tenth Massacre took place on Oct 1943 in Singapore.

After a raid on Singapore Harbour , 57 civilians were arrested and tortured by the Japanese military police on suspicion for aiding the raid.

One of them was Anglican Bishop of Singapore, Dr Leonard Wilson.

He was flogged till he was unconscious by seven Japanese operatives.

While the bishop survived, 15 other men died.

Flogging was the most common of the cruelties deployed not only at Kempeitai headquarters, but also at POWs camps as well as on prison ships or hell ships.

Moreover, there was no limitation in creativity when it came to the size or shape of the flogging instruments.
It could be a piece of wood that looked like a baseball bat, a hose, riding crop or a bamboo bat.

In Sandakan, beatings were made more painful and terrifying by the use of wet sand.

The interrogators would smear wet sand over the victim and press it into the skin when he was beaten with a wooden sandal.

This abraded the skin and made the whole beaten area red, raw and bleeding.

Sometimes, the captives were forced to beat their fellow captives.

In many times, these men were beaten into unconsciousness only to be revived in order to be beaten again.

All of the times, they suffered lacerations, broken bones and injuries from these beatings.

In an unknown number of times, these prisoners were beaten to death.

Electric shock

After the war, it was revealed that there were five ways the kempeitai operatives tortured their victims using electric shock.

Darius Rejali in his book Torture and Democracy explained,

“One involved tying an EE5 telephone to the feet. This device was an old ‘lineman telephone’, consisting of two binding posts to which one connected wires and a crank to generate a ring. When it rang, it delivered a shock. The shock lasted four to five minutes. Three other electro-tortures used the main power grid to electrify metal chairs, brass tabletops, and metal rings on the fingers. A fifth was exclusively for women; the torturer thrusts an electrode ‘shaped like a curling iron up her vagina’.”

So traitors would be dealt with fairly ruthlessly by the Japanese during WW2.