The Japanese routinely executed prisoners of war on a whim; they beat, tortured, decapitated, and even cannibalized prisoners of war.
The Australians troops were horrified to find that the Japanese had been eating both the wounded and dead Australians who had been left behind on the previous day. Corporal Bill Hedges describes the ghastly scene:
"The Japanese had cannibalised our wounded and dead soldiers..We found them with meat stripped off their legs and half-cooked meat in the Japanese dishes (pots)".
One of Corporal Hedges closest comrades was among the butchered bodies. He said:
"I was heartily disgusted and disappointed to see my good friend lying there, with the flesh stripped off his arms and legs; his uniform torn off him."
Shortly afterwards, the Australian corporal was appalled to discover that the Japanese had not resorted to cannibalism because of starvation. He said:
"We found dumps with rice and a lot of tinned food. So they weren't starving and having to eat flesh because they were hungry."
http://www.users.bigpond.com/battleforAustralia/JapWarCrimes/TenWarCrimes/Murder_Cannibalism_Kokoda.htmlThere was also a little thing called The Bataan Death March. The General most directly responsible was executed after the war.
That was just some of the stuff done to us or our allies, what they did to the people of the nations they conquered is almost unimaginable. If you have a strong stomach, or are a sadist, look up 'Nanking'. The Japanese military engaged in an orgy of rape, brutal killing and torture of civilians that lasted for weeks and yielded somewhere between 200,000 and 370,000 victims. You can find images of rows of heads, of infants piled up after being bayoneted, of children after rape, torture and death, of villagers in the act of digging the holes where they will be buried alive...and on and on.
While Germany had Dr. Josef Mengele, Japan had Shiro Ishii, head of the Unit 731. This was where civilians and prisoners were gathered for experimentation. The experimentation included:
-vivisections being performed on live, unanesthetized vicims
-victims being placed in a pressure chamber until they exploded from the inside
-being set on by flame throwers
-being infected by various plagues and diseases and checked to see how the disease progressed
-being hung upside down to see how long it would take to die
-being exposed to extreme cold to develop frostbite and then gangrene
After the war, the US played a pivotal role in covering up all of this in exchange for the data this unit produced, just like the US did with the Nazis, even incorporating the Nazis into the various government programs (Operation Paperclip) and the space program.
Most Americans are well aware of the things that Germany did during the war, but not nearly as many know about the Japanese. Make no mistake, the Japanese were beyond brutal, and the things we might have done to them don't even begin to compare. They don't even begin to compare AT ALL. Thank God they were stopped.