Japan's Holocaust: The Forgotten Legacy of Death and Destruction
Bryan Mark Rigg
President at RIGG Wealth Management/ Historian of World War II and Holocaust Books
Many people today remain unaware of Japan's own Holocaust, a dark chapter in history that unfolded from 1927 to 1945. I begin the timeline in 1927 because that's when Japan started occupying parts of northern China directly under Emperor Hirohito's leadership, leading to a series of horrific events including rape, mass slaughter, torture, colonization, and economic exploitation. While some may contest the use of the term "Holocaust" to describe Japan's mass murder, there are strong precedents supporting this choice. My research builds upon Iris Chang's assertion that the Rape of Nanking qualifies as World War II's "Forgotten Holocaust" and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary's definition of Holocaust as "mass slaughter." Additionally, the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in China refers to it as a "Human Holocaust." Thus, using the term Holocaust accurately characterizes Japan's actions during World War II.
As a Jewish historian, I don't find the use of this term offensive. While the word "Holocaust" is now universally associated with Nazi mass murder and genocide, many Jewish scholars, especially in Israel, prefer the term "Shoah," which means "catastrophe" in Hebrew and uniquely describes the Nazi extermination of Jews.
Adolf Hitler is known for the murder of 11.7 million people, including 6 million Jews and 3.7 million Russian prisoners of war. In contrast, Emperor Hirohito's military was responsible for more than 30 million deaths, with the vast majority being Chinese (at least 20 million), though some scholars estimate the Japanese mass slaughter at over 40 million. Unlike the Nazis, the Japanese didn't employ industrialized death factories with gas chambers, poison chemicals, and crematoria. They used knives, bayonets, swords, and bullets, which necessitated a larger workforce. The Rape of Nanking (campaign from 1937 to 1938 from Shanghai to Nanking), where Imperial Japanese Army forces killed 300,000 citizens and POWs and raped at least 80,000 women and girls, is one well-known example, but it wasn't unique. From 1937 to 1945, approximately five million Japanese soldiers and sailors conducted countless mass-murder and rape operations across China and other Asian territories.
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Unfortunately, the Rape of Nanking was a common Japanese operation. Wherever Imperial Japanese troops went, they acted as ruthless killers, tormentors, and rapists. Over my 25 years of studying WWII history, I have been appalled by the widespread sexual violence perpetrated by Japanese soldiers, often considering it a badge of honor. The victims, primarily girls as young as 15, endured unspeakable horrors. Beyond rape, Japanese soldiers murdered infants with bayonets, practiced swordplay by decapitating POWs, destroyed libraries and homes, looted civilian food and livestock, and inflicted gruesome tortures. My book has 400 pages dedicated to this topic and includes 50 photographs to document these atrocities, many of which have never been made public until now.
The XIV U.S. Army Corps, after investigating Japanese atrocities in Manila, declared: "Japan...is truly an enemy of the civilized world." Everywhere Imperial Japanese soldiers went, they sowed the seeds of malevolence. It's high time that the world recognizes these crimes and their victims. By 1944-45, the Allied Forces, particularly the United States Navy, Army, and Marine Corps, cleansed the world of Japan's filth and put an end to its "mad ambition" of world domination. The fact that Hirohito was never held accountable for war crimes and executed remains a grave injustice. To help modern readers comprehend the full extent of this devastation, I will elucidate why Imperial Japanese military personnel behaved as they did, recounting events on par with the horrors of Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz, or Babi Yar. Hirohito and Hitler, along with their legions, exhibited a shared malevolence, and due to having 18 years to perpetrate their atrocities, the Japanese murdered, raped, and tortured far more people than Hitler's SS. These crimes and their victims have been forgotten for far too long, and I am committed to rectifying that.
To delve deeper into Japan's Holocaust and the war in Asia and the Pacific during World War II, I invite you to explore my book, "Japan's Holocaust." https://www.amazon.com/Japans.../dp/B0CLKZNPTC/ref=sr_1_2... #WorldWarII #japan #HolocaustEducation #WW2 #militaryhistory #WWIII #wwiihistory #worldwar2 #worldwartwo #worldwartwohistory #japanesehistory #chinesehistory #sinojapanesewar #genocide #imperialjapan #Hirohito
The Greenwood Group LLC/USMC Veteran
1 年Hirohito was known to be fully complicit in all of Japan's horrrfic actions in China, Korea and everywhere else during that period. MacArthur's decision to not prosecute was , in his and the U.S's opinion, the best way to stabilize the Japanese society, politically, socially and financially. In retrospect, it was simply the lesser of evils and the decision, in a practical, non-political sense, was probably correct. Acknowledging it now as what it really was is both necessary and appropriate to remind the world that evil must be treated as such and the Hirohito delemma was done in the light of stabilization, not approval. Well done, Bryan!
Advisor - Available for consulting roles. What does daybreak and the promise it brings inspire you to do?
1 年Thank you. It's sad but seems true that mankind can be the most vicious predator against their own kind. It's interesting. We as the highest order have the most developed brain with its reasoning, emotional & intellectual abilities made possible from a sophisticated neocortex. Generally, as a rule, observing other species in nature that are considered a lower order .. well .. they are more cooperative with each other instead of .. anything goes to feel satisfied because of ... Even at the feeding grounds various species feed together, peacefully. That doesn't mean all is well. Natural predators do exist to feed on others. My view is the cliche those who forget history are doomed to repeat it applies. So, we, I, have to put our, my, past experiences in the proper context so there's healing and not stealing. There's enough for everyone. We were given life to learn how to support it not take it because of some sundry or fickled reason. We all have the power of life or death over someone, should we use it, and if we do, why is that? Does the taking or ruining someone's life or what they have make mine better? I have to live with myself. So, not really. Plus, it's unlawful. It's the counting or score keeping that gets us.
Part-Time Janitor
1 年As you know Japan also slaughtered Marines and Construction Workers on Wake Island. But they took some Navy and Marines back to China to work as slave laborers in their prison camps. Among them was a Pfc Harrison who was in my Company at Camp Geiger. He was also captured again in Korea but he escaped..He taught a class on surviving if captured. When he was Commander of the guard I was Sergeant of the Guard and was told by my Plt Commander to not ask him any questions about his captivity in 2 wars. He was a very quiet man who drank heavily alone at the Staff NCO club and often seen him struggling to walk to the Staff Barracks. He also served in Vietnam and received a commission. He lived in California when I was there and thought about contacting him but I was a nobody in the Marines and just another teenager among the Infantry ranks and he probably didn't remember me.
Freelance Journalist & Writer | Writing, Editing and Photography | Aspiring YouTube script writer and grant writer. Air Force veteran
1 年I have no doubt. They have a long, bloody history as enemies, something that is not easily forgotten in Asia…
Freelance Journalist & Writer | Writing, Editing and Photography | Aspiring YouTube script writer and grant writer. Air Force veteran
1 年Japan’s brutal occupation and attempted cultural genocide of Korea, begun in 1910, was a grim precourser…