Japanese history. Rare shocking pictures of the Second World War

Japanese atrocities - 21+

I present to your attention the photos that were taken by Japanese soldiers during the Second World War. Only thanks to quick and tough measures, the Red Army managed to tear out the Japanese army very painfully on Lake Khasan and the Khalkhin Gol River, where the Japanese decided to test our strength

Only thanks to a serious defeat, they put their ears back and postponed the invasion of the USSR until the moment the Germans took Moscow. Only the failure of the Typhoon operation did not allow our dear Japanese friends to arrange a second front for the USSR.

Trophies of the Red Army

Everyone has somehow forgotten about the atrocities of the Germans and their lackeys on our territory. Unfortunately.

Typical example:

I want to show on the example of Japanese photos what a joy it was - the imperial Japanese army. It was a powerful and well-equipped force. And its composition was well prepared, drilled, fanatically devoted to the idea of ​​domination of their country over all other monkeys. They were yellow-skinned Aryans, which was reluctantly recognized by other long-nosed and round-eyed superior people from the Third Reich. Together they were destined to divide the world for the benefit of the smallest.

In the photo - a Japanese officer and soldier. I draw your attention to the fact that all officers in the army had swords without fail. The old samurai clans have katanas, the new ones, without traditions, have an army sword of the 1935 model. Without a sword - not an officer.

In general, the cult of edged weapons among the Japanese was at its best. As the officers were proud of their swords, so the soldiers were proud of their long bayonets and used them where possible.

In the photo - practicing bayonet fighting on prisoners:

It was a good tradition, so it was applied everywhere.

(well, by the way, it also happened in Europe - the brave Poles practiced saber felling and bayonet techniques on captured Red Army soldiers in exactly the same way)

However, shooting was also practiced on prisoners. Training on captured Sikhs from the British Armed Forces:

Of course, the officers also flaunted the ability to use a sword. especially honing the ability to demolish human heads with one blow. Supreme chic.

In the photo - training in Chinese:

Of course, the Unter-Leshes had to know their place. In the photo - the Chinese greet their new masters as expected:

If they show disrespect - in Japan, a samurai could blow his head off any commoner who, as it seemed to the samurai, greeted him disrespectfully. In China it was even worse.

However, low-ranking soldiers also did not lag behind the samurai. In the photo - the soldiers admire the torment of a Chinese peasant flogged with their bayonets:

Of course, they chopped off their heads both for the sake of training and just for fun:

And for selfies:

Because it is beautiful and courageous:

The Japanese army especially developed after the storming of the Chinese capital - the city of Nanjing. Here the soul unfolded accordion. Well, in the Japanese sense, it's probably better to say like a cherry blossom fan. Three months after the assault, the Japanese slaughtered, shot, burned, and in various ways more than 300,000 people. Well, not a person, in their opinion, but the Chinese.

Indiscriminately - women, children or men.

Well, it’s true, it was customary to cut the men first, just in case, so as not to interfere.

And women - after. With violence and entertainment.

Well, children, of course.

The officers even started a competition - who will cut off more heads in a day. Purely like Gimli and Legolas - who will fill more orcs. Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun, later renamed Mainichi Shimbun. On December 13, 1937, a photograph of Lieutenants Mukai and Noda appeared on the front page of the newspaper under the heading "Competition to be the first to cut off the heads of 100 Chinese with sabers is over: Mukai has already scored 106 points, and Noda - 105." One point in the "bounty race" meant one victim. But we can say that these Chinese are lucky.

As mentioned in the diary of an eyewitness of those events, the leader of the local Nazi party, John Rabe, "the Japanese military chased the Chinese throughout the city and stabbed them with bayonets or sabers." However, according to a veteran of the Japanese imperial army who participated in the events in Nanjing, Hajime Kondo, for the most part, the Japanese "thought it was too noble for a Chinese to die from a saber, and therefore they often stoned them to death."

Japanese soldiers began to practice their popular "three clean" policy: "burn clean", "kill everyone clean", "rob clean".

More selfies. The warriors tried to document their bravery. Well, because of the prohibitions, I can’t post photos of more sophisticated fun, such as stuffing a cola into a raped Chinese woman. Because it's softer. The Japanese shows what kind of girl he has.

More selfies

One of the brave athletes with prey ^

And these are just the results of some outsider ^

Then the Chinese could not bury all the corpses for a long time.

The case was long. There are a lot of dead, but there is no one to bury. Everyone has heard about Tamerlane with the pyramids of skulls. Well, the Japanese are not far behind.

White got it too. The Japanese did not chime with the prisoners.

They were lucky - they survived:

But this Australian does not:

So if the brave Japanese crossed our border, one could imagine that they would be worthy comrades-in-arms of the Germans. In the photo - the result of the work of the German Einsatzkommando.

Because - just look at the photo

Persons over the age of 14 are subject to criminal liability if they have committed murder, caused grievous bodily harm, committed rape, robbery, drug distribution, arson, explosion, poisoning, or other crimes that seriously violate public order. Complicity in a crime is the joint intentional participation of two or more persons in the commission of a crime.

The death penalty, as a measure of punishment, was used in China for ridiculous and worthy deeds.

IN Ancient China In addition to the usual reasons for this, there was a law that threatened the death penalty for anyone who encroached on the use of saffron paint, they dyed royal clothes. For wearing clothes or jewelry with dragon figures. For distorting historical truth.

Later, it was used on cattle thieves, cigarette smugglers, pimps who sell pornography and show it - the latter is reasonable.

In the 1st millennium BC, each judge invented his own reprisals against criminals and prisoners. The most common were: sawing off the foot (first they sawed off one foot, the second time the recidivist caught the other), removal of the kneecaps, cutting off the nose, cutting off the ears, branding.

Criminals were burned at the stake, torn into two or four pieces by chariots, their ribs were broken, they were boiled in cauldrons, they were crucified (often they simply put them on their knees and tied their hands and left them in the sun).

Buried alive in the ground was especially popular. Often, in this way, prisoners were dealt with, archaeologists often discover characteristic burials of people buried alive (with open mouths, in crouched poses, sometimes ten people in one grave).

Castration was widely used, a significant part of the punished simply died shortly after the operation from blood poisoning.

Ancient China was the realm of what in Chinese is called “jou xing” - “self-mutilating punishments”: axes and axes, knives and saws for sawing off limbs, chisels and drills for removing kneecaps, sticks, whips, needles.

In the era of the Han Dynasty (II century BC - II century AD), beating with bamboo sticks or sending to hard labor appeared.

In the 7th century AD, during the reign of the Tang Dynasty, Chinese legislation was drawn up, which, with minor changes, lasted until the beginning of the 20th century.

In an effort to make the punishment heavier, the judges invented the execution, which was called "carry out five types of punishments." At the same time, the criminal should have been branded, cut off his arms or legs, beaten to death with sticks, and put his head on the market for all to see.

For especially grave crimes, it was supposed to execute not only the guilty, but also cut out his entire family - his father, mother, wife, concubines, brothers with wives, sisters with husbands, children.

They did not keep convicts in prisons - it was too expensive. The prison was a rather frail building without special protection, therefore, the stocks were the main way to protect against escapes.

The most common type of block is “kanga” (or “jia”). It was used very widely: several prisoners were chained into this neck block.

In the era of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the blocks were a rectangular board measuring a meter by a meter, with a round cutout for the neck in the center. This board consisted of two sliding parts and, after the neck of the criminal was inserted into it, it was closed with a lock, weighing about 10-15 kg.
In addition to the neck, hand blocks were also used, as well as metal handcuffs.

If the offender ever tried to escape or had the goal of torturing him, he for a long time they chained him to boards with a neck block, sometimes they left cuts on him so that he would be tormented by rats, bedbugs and lice.

Since the Tang Dynasty, the law has recognized three types of permissible torture:
1) Beating with sticks. The interrogated person was laid on the ground or tied while standing, and they began to beat with sticks on the buttocks and thighs, sometimes on the heels. The size and weight of the sticks were determined by the instructions, and in different eras was different.

2) Vice for the bones of the arms and legs - something like a Chinese finger trap, sticks connected by cords, between which the fingers of the accused were inserted. The executioner squeezed the sticks, breaking the phalanges of the fingers, also with legs.

3) Water torture, brainwashing. It differed from European torture in that water was poured into the nose; before torture, a person was hung up by his legs to cause swelling of the brain.

Sometimes they used a rack, torture with fire, red-hot iron, forced to swallow needles, pulled out nails. They hung them by the arms and pulled the tendons of all joints.

Executions:

1) Decapitation - it was feared more than strangulation, although it was the most painless. The Chinese believed that in the afterlife they would look like they met their death. The victim was stripped to the waist and put on his knees with his hands tied behind his back. After that, the executioner struck with a wide sword.

2) Strangulation.It was done in two ways:

A) The offender was tied to a pole, a rope was wrapped around his neck, the ends of which were in the hands of the executioners. They slowly twist the rope with special sticks, gradually strangling the convict. The strangulation could last for a very long time, as the executioners at times loosened the rope and allowed the almost strangled victim to take a few convulsive breaths, and then tightened the noose again.

B) “Cage”, or “standing pads” (“Li-jia”) - the device for this execution is a neck block, which was fixed on top of bamboo or wooden poles woven into a cage, at a height of about two meters. The convict was placed in a cage, and bricks or tiles were placed under his feet, so that they could then be slowly removed. The executioner removed the bricks, and the man hung with his neck clamped by a block, which began to choke him, this could go on for months, until all the supports were removed.

3) Sawing in half. To do this, the body of the criminal was tightly clamped into an open coffin, which was then placed vertically upside down. After that, they sawed from top to bottom with a long two-handed saw. The saw entered the crotch, and slowly moved down, tearing the muscles and entrails, crushing the bones. More often in the pictures you can see horizontal sawing.

4) Ling Chi凌遲 - "death by a thousand cuts" or"stings of sea pike"- the most terrible execution by cutting off small pieces from the body of the victim for a long period of time. Such an execution followed high treason and parricide, was used from the Middle Ages until 1905, during the Qing Dynasty. Lingchi, in order to intimidate, was carried out in public places with a large gathering of onlookers. In some cases, the victim was drugged with opium to prolong the torture, which happened, the victims even began to laugh without feeling unbearable torture, but this rarely happened.

IN early XIX century, an average of 15-20 people were sentenced to this execution throughout the country annually, in ancient times - more.

The convict, stripped naked, was tightly tied to a wooden pole, the executioners took knives and hacksaws. Then they began to cut off pieces of skin from the criminal.

The court usually determined in advance how many cut off pieces should be seized from the criminal, it happened a little, but it happened a lot:

1,2 - cut off the left and right eyebrows;

3.4 - cut meat from the left and right buttocks,

5.6 - cut off the left and right nipples and meat from the chest - was used most often.

7.8 - tear off the meat on the hands and finally saw off the hands;

8.9 - then saw off the arms to the elbow;

11.12 - feet;

13.14 - tear off pieces from the leg to the knee and then chop off;

15 - stomach with tearing out of the intestines;

16 - neck with throat cut at the end;

17.18 - pulling out from the arms to the shoulders;

19.20 - from the feet to the groin.

Death, as a rule, occurred in the middle of the execution.

In the Qing era, 36, 72, 120 and 1000, or even more, tearing off pieces of flesh were used.
In this case, the cries covered the body of the victim with a fine-mesh net. The mesh was pulled tighter, and the executioner's assistant with tongs grabbed a small piece that protruded into the cell and pulled it out. After that, another executioner cut it off with a sharp knife.

As a mercy, execution was sometimes carried out on a dead criminal.

On Chinese suicide:

A man driven to despair, wanting to avenge the insult or insult inflicted on him, committed suicide in the house or near the house of the offender.

Suicide out of revenge was often associated with superstitions that a person after death, turning into a spirit / demon, could more easily take revenge on the enemy than during life, in this case they preferred poison, starvation or suffocation.

The soul of a suicide could not rise to heaven and remained forever in the offender's house, bringing a curse on the guilty.

HThe members of the House are already aware that many postcards and letters from prisoners on Far East. The authors of almost all of these letters report that they are being treated well and that they are in good health. Judging by what we know about the situation of prisoners in certain areas of the Far East, it can be said with certainty that at least some of these letters were written under the dictation of the Japanese authorities.

I must regrettably inform the House that the information received by His Majesty's Government shows absolutely indisputably, as far as the vast majority of prisoners in Japanese hands are concerned, that the actual state of affairs is quite different.

The Chamber already knows that approximately 80 to 90 percent of Japanese interned civilians and military personnel are stationed in the southern region, which includes the Philippine Islands, the Dutch West Indies, Borneo, Malaya, Burma, Siam, and Indo-China. The Japanese government still does not allow representatives of neutral countries to visit the POW camps.

We could not get from the Japanese any information about the number of prisoners in various areas, nor their names.

His Majesty's Government have received information on the conditions of detention and work of prisoners of war in some parts of the area. This information was of such a gloomy nature that it could have thrown into dismay the relatives of prisoners and interned civilians in Japanese hands.

The Government considered it their duty to verify the accuracy of the information received before making it public.

Thousands of deaths

Now we are convinced of the reliability of the information received. It is my sad duty to inform the House that there are now many thousands of prisoners in Siam who hail from the British Commonwealth, and in particular from India.

The Japanese military forces them to live in a tropical jungle without good enough shelter, without clothes, food and medical care. The prisoners are forced to work on the laying of the railway and on the construction of roads in the jungle.

According to the information we have received, the prisoners' health is rapidly deteriorating. Many of them are seriously ill. Several thousand prisoners have already died. I can add to this that the Japanese informed us about the death of a little more than a hundred prisoners. Roads being built by prisoners go to Burma. The conditions I spoke about prevail throughout the construction.

Here is what one of the eyewitnesses says about the POW camp in Siam:

“I saw many prisoners, but they looked a little like people: skin and bones. The prisoners were half-naked, unshaven, long, regrown hair entangled in tatters.

The same witness said that the prisoners had neither hats nor shoes. I would like to remind the Chamber that this is taking place in an area with a tropical climate, in an almost deserted area where neither medical nor any other assistance from the population can be obtained.

We have information about the situation of prisoners in another part of this vast southern region. Information from Java indicates that prisoners held in unsanitary conditions in the camps are not protected from malaria. Food and clothing are not enough. This leads to a deterioration in the health of prisoners, who only sometimes manage to supplement their rations with something.

Information received from the northern region speaks of the complete exhaustion of most of the prisoners arriving from Java.

As for the conditions of detention in other parts of the southern region, I have no information that I could provide to the Chamber.

Before leaving the southern region, I must mention one exception. The information at our disposal suggests that conditions in the civilian internment camps are much better, at least bearable.

gross bullying

The Japanese government's refusal to grant neutral observers permission to inspect the camps in the southern area cannot be justified by plausible pretexts, since the Japanese government allowed neutrals to inspect the camps in the northern area, which includes Hong Kong, Formosa, Shanghai, Korea and Japan. We believe, however, that this examination did not touch sufficiently a large number camps.

His Majesty's Government have reason to believe that the conditions of prisoners in this area are generally tolerable, although the Minister of War has repeatedly pointed out that the food distributed is not enough to maintain health for a long time. I would like to add, however, that conditions in Hong Kong appear to be deteriorating.

If the trials experienced by the prisoners were limited only to what I have already told about, then this would be bad enough. But, unfortunately, the worst is yet to come.

We have a growing list of gross abuses and atrocities committed against individuals and groups. I would not like to burden the Chamber detailed story about atrocities. But to give an idea of ​​them, I unfortunately must give a few typical examples.

Let me first cite two cases of brutal treatment of civilians. An officer of the Shanghai Municipal Police, along with 300 other subjects of the allied countries, was sent by the Japanese to a camp for the so-called "politically unreliable" located on the Haifun road in Shanghai.

This officer aroused the displeasure of the Japanese gendarmerie against himself and was transferred to a station located in another part of the city. He returned from there distraught. Deep wounds on the arms and legs, left by the ropes, festered. He lost about 20 kilograms in weight. A day or two after his release, the officer died.

Execution of three prisoners

The second case occurred in the Philippine Islands. On January 11, 1942, three British subjects fled from a civilian internment camp in Santo Tomas (Manila).

They were caught and flogged.

On January 14, a military court sentenced them to death, despite the fact that the international convention provides in this case only for the imposition of disciplinary punishment. The prisoners were shot with automatic weapons. They died in agony, because the first wounds were not fatal.

I turn now to cases of brutal treatment of soldiers. The Japanese, having captured a group of Indian soldiers in Burma, tied their hands behind their backs and put them on the road. Then the Japanese began to stab the prisoners one by one with bayonets. Apparently, three wounds were inflicted on each.

By some miracle, one of the soldiers managed to escape and make his way to our troops. From him we learned about this torture.

In another case, a British officer of a regiment known to us, who was taken prisoner in Burma, was subjected to torture. They beat him in the face with a saber, then they tied him to a post and tied a rope around his neck. In order not to suffocate, he had to reach up all the time. Then the officer was subjected to new torture.

Fortunately for him, at this time the soldiers of the allied army went on the offensive, the Japanese fled, and the officer was rescued by British tankers.

Ship of Terror

The third case concerns a ship called the Lisbon Maru, which was used by the Japanese to transport 1,800 British prisoners of war from Hong Kong.

The ship "Lisbon Maru".

In one hold, two prisoners died where they lay, and no attempt was made to remove their corpses.

On the morning of October 1, 1942, the Lisbon Maru was torpedoed by an Allied submarine. Japanese officers, soldiers and sailors left the prisoners locked in the holds and left the ship, although it sank only a day after the torpedoing.

The vessel had several life belts and other life-saving gear. Only a part of the prisoners managed to escape from the holds and swim to the shore under the fire of Japanese soldiers. The rest (at least 800 people) died.

Enough has been said to give an idea of ​​the barbaric nature of our enemy, the Japanese. They violated not only the principles international law but also all norms of decent and civilized behavior.

His Majesty's Government has on many occasions, through the Swiss Government, made most vigorous representations to the Japanese Government.

The answers we have received are either evasive or cynical or simply unsatisfactory.

We had the right to expect that the Japanese government, having learned about these facts, would take measures to improve the conditions of the prisoners. The Japanese know well enough that a civilized power is obliged to protect the life and health of prisoners captured by its army. They showed this by their treatment of prisoners during the Russo-Japanese War and the War of 1914-1918.

Let the Japanese government consider that the behavior of the Japanese military authorities in the present war will not be forgotten.

It is with the deepest regret that I should have made this statement in the House of Commons. But after consultation with those allies who equally victims of these unspeakable atrocities, His Majesty's Government felt it their duty to make the facts public.

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Japan did not support the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, and cruel jailers were free to do anything with prisoners: starve them, torture and mock them, turning people into emaciated half-corpses

When, after the surrender of Japan in September 1945, Allied forces began to free prisoners of war from Japanese concentration camps, a horrific sight met their eyes.

The Japanese, who did not support the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, mocked the captured soldiers, turning them into living skeletons covered with leather.

The emaciated prisoners were constantly tortured and humiliated by the Japanese.

The inhabitants of the camps with horror pronounced the names of the guards, who became famous for their special sadism. Some of them were subsequently arrested and executed as war criminals.

The prisoners in the Japanese camps were fed extremely poorly, they were constantly starving, most of the survivors were in an extreme state of exhaustion by the time of liberation.

Tens of thousands of starving prisoners of war were constantly subjected to abuse and torture. The picture shows torture devices found in one of the prisoner of war camps by the Allied troops who liberated the camp.

The tortures were numerous and inventive. For example, “water torture” was very popular: the guards first poured a large volume of water into the prisoner’s stomach through a hose, and then jumped on his swollen stomach.

Some of the guards were especially notorious for their sadism. The picture shows Lieutenant Usuki, known among the prisoners as the "Black Prince".

He was an overseer at the construction of the railway, which the prisoners of war called the "road of death." Usuki beat people for the slightest offense or even without any guilt. And when one of the prisoners decided to run away, Usuki personally cut off his head in front of the rest of the prisoners.

Another brutal overseer - a Korean nicknamed "Mad Half-Blood" - also became famous for brutal beatings.

He literally beat people to death. He was subsequently arrested and executed as a war criminal.

Very many British prisoners of war in captivity were subjected to amputation of the legs - both because of cruel torture, and because of the numerous inflammations that could be caused by any wound in a humid warm climate, and in the absence of adequate medical care, the inflammation quickly developed into gangrene.

The picture shows a large group of amputee prisoners after being released from the camp.

Many prisoners by the time of release literally turned into living skeletons and could no longer stand up on their own.

The horrifying pictures were taken by officers of the allied forces who liberated the death camps: they were supposed to be evidence of Japanese war crimes during World War II.

During the war, more than 140,000 Allied troops were captured by the Japanese, including representatives from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Great Britain, India and the United States.

The labor of prisoners was used by the Japanese in the construction of the highway, railways, airfields, for work in mines and factories. The working conditions were unbearable and the amount of food was minimal.

Particularly terrible fame was enjoyed by the "road of death" - a railway line built on the territory of modern Burma.

More than 60,000 Allied prisoners of war were involved in its construction, about 12,000 of them died during construction from starvation, disease and abuse.

The Japanese overseers abused the prisoners as best they could.

About 36,000 prisoners of war were transported to central Japan, where they worked in mines, shipyards, and munitions factories.

The captives ended up in the camp in the clothes in which they were captured by the Japanese troops. They were not given other things: only sometimes, in some camps, they received work clothes, which were worn only during work.

The rest of the time the prisoners wore their own things. Therefore, by the time of liberation, most of the prisoners of war remained in perfect rags.

japanese thriller brutality movies

Before starting a review of the theme of cruelty in Japanese cinema, in my opinion, it is worth paying attention to how cruelty and violence were manifested 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 the manifestation of cruelty in different periods Japanese history- from antiquity to today. Violence 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 were, part of Everyday life 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 the manifestation of cruelty is the behavior of the samurai. A samurai could kill absolutely any person who, as it seemed to the samurai, showed disrespect to him or made any mistake in his actions. There were absolutely normal situations when samurai chopped off for no apparent reason ordinary people heads. Their barbaric cruelty was neither condemned nor punished. During the hostilities, the samurai resorted to various tortures, mockery and humiliation of the enemy. The rape and murder of women was considered absolutely common practice. For the samurai, this was not something too cruel and immoral, it was one of the ways to humiliate the enemy.

Also a prime example manifestations of cruelty can serve as torture of the Edo period (1603 - 1868). In medieval Japan, torture was common as a punishment or interrogation of a prisoner. They were quite common among the inhabitants and were not perceived by the Japanese as a manifestation of cruelty. Most often, torture was used on a person to obtain from him a confession to a crime. Before 1742, there were too cruel tortures in Japan, such as tearing out the nostrils, chopping off fingers, dipping limbs in boiling oil. But in 1742, the "Code of a Hundred Articles" was adopted, which abolished such cruel measures. After that, only four types of torture remained Prasol A.F. From Edo to Tokyo and back. - M .: Astrel, 2012. - 333 .. The easiest was beating with sticks. The victim was stripped to the waist, put on his knees and started to beat her on the shoulders and back. During this procedure, a doctor was present in the room. Torture was applied to the prisoner until he told the truth or confessed to his deed. Ibid. S. 333..

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

Torture by binding with a rope was considered the third most cruel. The defendant was twisted into a “shrimp” position and left like that for about 3-4 hours.

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

I would also like to say a few words about 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;

beheading when the body was not handed over to relatives;

decapitation 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 should be noted that cruelty Japanese torture Vasily Golovnin noted in his diaries: “... in the Japanese criminal law it is ordered, in case of denial of the accused, to use the most terrible torture that malice could invent in barbarian times ...” Golovnin V. M. Notes of fleet captain Golovnin about his adventures in captivity at 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 forcible 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 "A true description of the practice of torture", which contained a description of the practice of using torture against a prisoner. In the treatise, the author gave a description of the main tortures before the Edo era - torture by water, fire, torture in the "water prison" and torture of the "wooden horse". The rejection of these methods and the transition to new types of torture, which we described earlier, the author of the treatise considered as a real evolution. Important information for us is the role assigned by the author of the treatise to torture. Torture was not considered punishment or revenge for committed crime. Torture was one part of the crime investigation. Torture was intended to bring the prisoner to repentance and was not considered a barbaric practice. It was one of the parts litigation Sakuma Osahiro. A true description of the practice of torture. [ Electronic resource]. - Access Mode: http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/Documenty/Japan/XIX/1880-1900/Sakuma_Osahiro/frametext.htm.

Cruelty was also applied to people who were trained in 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 revealing bloody period of the manifestation of cruelty by the Japanese is the first half of the 20th century, when the country was actively military activities. Cruelty was manifested both to enemies and to close people. For example, during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), some soldiers killed their children and wives so as not to doom 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, devotion to their emperor.

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

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

In 1937, an event took place that was called the "Nanjing Massacre". It all started with the fact that the Japanese stabbed about 20 thousand young people of military age with bayonets so that they would not be able to fight against Japan in the future. The Japanese did not spare either the elderly, or children, or women. They were not just killed, they were abused in the dirtiest ways. Women were exposed brutal violence people had their eyes and other organs torn out. Eyewitnesses say that Japanese soldiers raped all 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, more bloody types of murder were used Terentiev N. The center of war in the Far East. [Electronic resource]. - Access mode:

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

The Japanese showed toughness in Manila as well. Many people were shot dead, some were burned alive, after having been doused with gasoline.

With their victims, the soldiers were photographed "for memory". 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. An estimated 300,000 women passed through the comfort stations, many of whom were under the age of 18. But, as Japanese scientists note, no one was forced into prostitution by force, the girls went to work at the comfort station only of their own free will.

It is also worth noting the special unit for the development of bacteriological weapons or Detachment 731. The bacteria of plague, typhoid, dysentery and other deadly diseases were tested on civilians. Japanese scientists used the term "logs" in relation to the experimental subjects. Scientists conducted experiments not only in scientific purposes, but also for the sake of interest. The degree of atrocity cannot be ascertained. But you can also look at it from the other side, many scientists say that the Japanese did all these atrocities for the benefit of their own compatriots. They didn't want their soldiers to get sick and looked for ways to treat various ailments.

One more fact can explain the cruelty of soldiers. At that time, the orders within the Japanese army were very harsh. For any oversight, 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 top. Naturally, the young officers could only throw out the 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 loyalty to the emperor. In order to show their devotion to the emperor, the Japanese soldiers went to any lengths. shock troops special attacks or kamikazes went to certain death for the sake of the emperor.

If we talk about modernity, then cruelty is manifested in our days. Of course, these are not the atrocities that took place in medieval Japan or during the Second World War. But sometimes it is very strange to see that in one of the most developed countries in the world they show such strange outbursts of cruelty towards their citizens.

Modern entertainment programs can serve as a striking example. In them, people are forced to swim in boiling water, perform various tasks that are harmful to health. On many TV shows, you can see how people break their limbs and, what is most strange, the viewers of such TV shows bring great pleasure. During these programs, we can hear the perky laughter of the audience. A favorite joke of the Japanese is the falling floor - when a person steps on it, the floor falls through and the person falls into boiling water. The Japanese like to use such jokes during various kinds of awards. The test-check has gained fame when people come for an interview and after a while a “drowned boy” approaches them in silence. Employers, therefore, study the applicant's reaction to the job.

Do not forget about a serious problem in the life of Japanese schoolchildren. It has long been known that in the Japanese education system there is a school bullying or ijime- bullying, harassment, harassment. Some schoolchildren are bullied by their peers to the point of suicide. Ijime aimed at the psychological suppression of the individual. For bullying, a child is usually chosen who is somehow different from others. Moreover, children of quite successful parents are involved in bullying. Year after year, the number of bullying against schoolchildren continues to grow, and Nurutdinova A.R. has not yet been very successful in solving this problem. Beyond the "Japanese Miracle", or "Ijime": the social disease of Japanese life and the education system. - M.: 2012. .

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

It is also worth noting the fundamental differences in the perception of cruelty by the Japanese and Western people. For the Japanese, the manifestation of cruelty, as we have already mentioned, was quite common, so they treated him with calmness. In addition, people from childhood were introduced with the awareness that it may be necessary to sacrifice oneself for the sake of others. It also had an effect on 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 it was perceived with little or 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 audience also treats scenes of violence in films quite calmly.

For our work, the analysis of the manifestation of cruelty is important in that it shows the difference in the concept of cruelty among Western people and among the Japanese. We have seen 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 work of many directors.