Japan’s Gestapo: Murder, Mayhem and Torture in Wartime Asia
£0.90
The book opens by explaining the origins, organization, and roles of the Kempeitai apparatus, which exercised virtually unlimited power throughout the Japanese Empire. Author Mark Felton reveals their criminal and collaborationist networks that extorted huge sums of money from hapless citizens and businesses. They ran the Allied POW gulag system that treated captives with merciless and murderous brutality. Other Kempeitai activities included biological and chemical experiments on live subjects, the Maruta vivisection campaign, and widespread slave labor, including “Comfort Women” drawn from all races. Their record of reprisals against military and civilians was unrelenting. For example, Colonel Doolittle’s raid on Tokyo in 1942 resulted in a campaign of revenge not just against captured airmen but thousands of Chinese civilians. Their actions amounted to genocide on a grand scale. Felton backs up his text with firsthand testimonies from survivors who suffered at the hands of this evil organization. He examines how the guilty were brought to justice and the resulting claims for compensation. As a result, Japan’s Gestapo provides comprehensive evidence of the ruthlessness of the Kempeitai against the white and Asian peoples under their control.
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by billeeboy
My Da fought in Burma and liberated Jap POW camps. Until his dying day he hated them. Not PC but we didn’t see what he saw. This mob outdid anything the SS / Gestapo did. Torturing people for weeks on end. Making guys build railways, dig coal down mines etc on a cup of rice a day and no medication. I understand if you don’t publish this but my Da’s opinion was the Americans should have dropped 100 atom bombs on Japan. I was shocked though at McArthur’s orders not to take any territory until he had grandstanded in Tokyo Bay at the formal surrender. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of our boys died in those two weeks. Shameful.
by Mrs. TK Ellis
I have just finished reading this book and found it to be an interesting trip through a dark period of history. It is informative and appears to be well supported by records, survivor testimony and war crimes investigators. The style of writing was fluid and well put together.
The subject of the book is unimaginably dark and disturbing and does focus on the violence inflicted upon the regime’s victims. The book gives a brief history of the Kempeitei, the invasion of China before the start of the World War 2 and the invasion of Japan’s neighbours during the war. One of the things that did surprise me, was how paranoid the Japanese troops were and how they saw non-existent plots everywhere and how this paranoia seemed to feed their capacity for cruelty.
The book also highlights the fact that many of the perpertrators of these terrible crimes escaped justice and have been allowed to continue to live their lives in freedom. It is also disturbing to realise that, unlike the Germans, the Japanese have never formally apologised to their victims or paid out any money to those who suffered at their hands.
I would recommend this book to those who have an interest, but would warn that it is incredibly dark reading matter and should not be undertaken by those with a nervous disposition.
by Joseph
Hideous. Most depressing thing is that most of the torturers escaped any punishment due to financial restraints.
by David Moncrieff
An eye opener. Although I knew how badly the Japanese treated not just Prisinors of war , but all the native populations which they conquered. The big Japanese companies that are still household names today benefited from the slave labour. The terrible treatment and conditions all these people had to endure was all instructed from the top level. Shcocking
by terry taylor
This poor effort should have been called ” what I think of the Japanese ” . It is essentially the meanderings of a jingoistic xenophobe who was obviously writing to a deadline and who has produced a diatribe against the JApanese army . It is hurried and very poorly researched . To fill in the scholership gaps he has fictionalised many of the events telling us that this is how it was and that this vignette that the author has imagined took place many times throughout the war . Worst of all is when the author describes the emotions of the Japanese soldiers calling them ” sadistic ” ” laughing contemptuously ” . Finally the author demands that the present day Japanese government apologises and makes retribution for the deaths of all the POWs that were in its care during the war . As an esssy appearing in a Boys Own comic it would probably be acceptable .
For a detailed and well researched account of the events of this time the books ” Forgotten Wars ” and later ” Forgotten Armies ” are the best available and written by two excellent authors .
by Gloria Jones
Good book
by marie
My husbands book wouldn’t be something i would read but his opinion well written but very gruesome.
by gunner
Not as good as i thought it was going to be.