Japanese War Crimes

In December 1937, in the capital of China, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking and within weeks not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured and murdered more than 300,000 Chinese civilians. Amazingly, the story of this atrocity- one of the worst in world history- continues to be denied by the Japanese government.

Some of the cruelest deeds of Japan's war in Asia did not occur on the battlefield, but in quiet, antiseptic medical wards in obscure parts of China. Far from front lines and prying eyes, Japanese doctors and their assistants subjected human guinea pigs to gruesome medical experiments in the name of science and Japan's wartime chemical and biological warfare research. Author Hal Gold draws upon a wealth of sources to construct a portrait of the Imperial Japanese Army's most notorious medical unit, giving an overview of its history and detailing its most shocking activities.

A Financial Times Best Book of 2017 “A shrewd and knowing book.” —Robert D. Kaplan, The Wall Street Journal “A compelling and impressive read.” —The Economist “Skillfully crafted and well-argued.” —Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Financial Times “An excellent modern history...

In December 1937, the Chinese capital, Nanjing, falls and the Japanese army unleash an orgy of torture, murder, and rape. Over the course of six weeks, hundreds of thousands of civilians and prisoners of war are killed. At the very onset of the atrocities, the Danish supervisor at a cement plant just outside the city, 26-year-old Bernhard Arp Sindberg, opens the factory gates and welcomes in 10,000 Chinese civilians to safety. He becomes an Asian equivalent of Oskar Schindler, the savior of Jews in the Holocaust.

一九九一年の金学順さんの告発に衝撃をうけた著者は関係文書を丹念に収集分析し，九五年刊行の『従軍慰安婦』で「慰安婦制度」の主体が軍であったことを明らかにした．しかし「軍慰安婦」たちの苦難を否定する声は今も後を絶たない．

1937年，日本軍は中国での戦線を拡大し，戦争の泥沼に突き進んだ．その一大汚点としての南京事件．殺戮・略奪・強姦の蛮行はいかなるプロセスで生じ，推移し，どんな結果を招いたのか．

敗戦直後，GHQ占領下に開所したスガモプリズン．外の世界が大きく移り変わるなか，戦犯たちは獄中で何を思い，何を見つめていたのか．戦争裁判の実態，刑務所管理の構造，戦犯の自治や言論活動，そして朝鮮人・台湾人戦犯の問題．