ns, were taken on board the Japanese cruiser Tone whose captain had received orders to 'dispose of all prisoners'. The prisoners were hit in the stomach with rifle butts or kicked in the testicles and as they lay squirming on the deck, were then beheaded. The American freighter David H. Atwater, sunk by the U-552 (Kptlt. Erich Topp) off the coast of Virginia on April 2, 1942, the crew were machined-gunned as they took to the lifeboats. Only three of the 27 crew survived the massacre. The crew of the German destroyer Erich Giese, sunk during the Battle for Narvik, swimming desperately in the water, were fired upon by British destroyers trying to prevent them reaching shore and joining up with German troops already there. The British cargo ship Kwantung sunk by the I-156 south of Java was carrying 96 crew and some 40 military personnel. Machine-gunned while in the lifeboats, only 35 survived to be rescued.
Savage deeds were committed by all armies and navies during World War II but only when committed by Germans or Japanese were they classed as war crimes by the Allies.
DEATH ON RAMREE ISLAND (February 19, 1945)
Twelve miles off the coast of Burma (Myanmar) lies the fifty by twenty mile wide island of Ramree. In the capture of the island by the British 4th, 26th, 36th and 71st Indian Brigades, RAF and Navy Task Force units, the Japanese occupiers were driven into the sweltering and fetid central area of mangrove swamps. In the thick impenetrable forest of the swamp, the 900 or so Japanese soldiers, many suffering from tropical diseases, were trapped in deep black mud, infested with scorpions, millions of mosquitoes and worst of all, salt water crocodiles. Those trying to escape the swamps were shot down by Royal Navy marines. In spite of calls to give themselves up, they refused. With no food or drinking water hundreds died within days. Many were taken by the crocodiles. The capture of Ramree Island officially ended on February 22, 1945. In the end only about twenty Japanese survived, all too badly wounded even to commit hari-kari.
THE MANCHURIAN SLAUGHTER
On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. Having extracted their terrible revenge on Germany, they were now fired by a desire to punish Japan, the second instigator of World War II. Aided by the Mongolian Peoples Republic Army, they attacked the Japanese Kwantung Army in northern Manchuria. The fighting was ferocious and vengeful, the Nippon soldiers attacking in hordes, arms linked, into a withering fire of machine gun bullets. Many, armed with explosives, threw themselves under the tanks of the advancing Red Army at the same time shouting their Emperors name. The few soldiers who were captured showed no hesitation in committing hara-kiri by exploding hidden grenades and at the same time killing many of their captors. The Soviet and Mongolian soldiers unfortunate enough to be captured by the Japanese, faced a swift and terrible death. Their bodies were mutilated, eyes gouged out and genitals removed before decapitation. The Red Army suffered 8,219 killed and over 22,000 wounded. The Kwantung Army lost 7,483 killed and around 70,000 wounded. When the northern Kwantung Army laid down its arms and surrendered, Stalin took his revenge. The 640,000 prisoners, including 148 generals, were transported to Siberia and there put to work on forced labour projects. Some 62,000 of these prisoners died while in Soviet captivity. During the war (1937-1945) Japanese military losses were 1,140,429 killed in action in all theatres.
When Russia invaded Manchuria in 1945, the Japanese Government ordered that Pingfan (the Japanese experimental Biological and Germ Warfare Centre in occupied Manchuria) be destroyed. This complex was established by General Shiro Ichii and an Imperial prince and cousin of Emperor Hirohito. The documentation authorizing the building of this establishment, which occupied an area of six square kilometres, carried the Imperial Seal of the Emperor. Prisoners in the holding cells were first killed and all Chinese and Manchurian slave labourers who we