Japanese war crimes
Japanese war crimes of World War II
Both before and during World War II, the Empire of Japan committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity across various Asian–Pacific nations, most notably during the Second Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars. These crimes have been referred to as "the Asian Holocaust" or "Japan's Holocaust", as well as the "Rape of Asia". Most of these crimes occurred during the early part of the reign of Emperor Hirohito. Deaths are estimated at between 19 million and 30 million.
The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) were responsible for war crimes which resulted in millions of deaths, ranging from sexual slavery and massacres to unethical human experimentation, torture, starvation and forced labour. Evidence of these crimes, including oral testimonies and written records such as diaries and war journals, has been provided by Japanese veterans. In many instances, the Japanese political and military leadership, knowing about the atrocities committed by their own troops, continued to either condone or, in some cases, even justify them. Most of the Japanese troops who were stationed in the Asia-Pacific region either took part in or did not oppose these crimes.
The Air Service of the IJA participated in chemical and biological attacks on civilians during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, violating international agreements that Japan had signed, including the Hague Conventions, which prohibited the use of "poison or poisoned weapons" in warfare.
Since the 1950s, numerous apologies for the war crimes have been issued by senior Japanese government officials, which have been criticized by some as insincere.
The public source identifies “Japanese war crimes” as japanese war crimes of World War II. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Japanese, crimes and World.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q701321. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Japanese war crimes” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.