The March of Death. Along the March [on which] these prisoners were photographed, they have their hands tied behind their backs. The March of Death was about May 1942, from Bataan to Cabanatuan, the prison camp.
Australian and Dutch prisoners of war at Tarsau in Thailand. The four men are suffering from beri beri.
Following Japan's brutal invasion of China in 1937, Japanese soldiers frequently rounded up Chinese to provide them with bayonet practice. After the fall of Nanking (Nanjing), these unfortunate Chinese were herded into one of many slaughter pits and are shown providing Japanese soldiers with bayonet practice using live victims. This photograph was taken by a Japanese and processed in a Japanese-owned photographic shop. A Chinese photographic technician made copies that were smuggled out of China.
The Japanese were especially brutal in their treatment of captured Allied airmen and members of special forces, such as commandos. A Japanese soldier, Yasuno Chikao, prepares to behead Australian Sergeant Leonard G. Siffleet at Aitape in New Guinea in 1943. The Australian commando from "M" Special Unit was captured while his small patrol was operating deep behind enemy lines. This atrocity cannot be justified on the ground that Sergeant Siffleet and his team were spies. All were in uniform when captured. In the case of other Allied prisoners of war, the Japanese killed many of them by starvation, bashings, and forced labour. Yasuno Chikao escaped the hangman by failing to survive the war.
When watching this film. The only thought that kept popping in my head were This is Karma for the brutality of their ancestors.
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