Summit Gist

Lieutenant General Hisao Tani being executed for war crimes, Mount Yuhuatai, Nanjing, China, 26 Apr 1947 Shooting by one rifleman from behind (though in this case it appears a pistol was used). It’s better illustrated in  this  photograph. Two men on either side control the convict with a rope behind his arms, keeping him upright for the executioner to shoot him. I agree that it certainly looks a bit peculiar from at least a Western point of view, and I wasn’t at all certain what was going on in this photograph either until I saw the one I linked today. So this picture would appear to have been taken just  after  Tani had been executed, with at least the right most “rope man” having just let go of the rope. Hisao Tani-Japanese War Criminal Tani was born 22 December 1882 in Okayama Prefecture. He graduated from the 15th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1903 and from the 24th class of the Army War College, where he became an instructor in 1924. The C...

Two Chinese soldiers guarding a captured.Japanese soldier in Changde, Hunan Province, China // Nov-Dec 1943 Most ironic thing was that the KMT was encouraged to take prisoners to use as bargaining chip with Japan. When Red Cross went to Japan, Japan straight up said no Japanese soldiers were taken and those captured aren't Japanese (Basically implying that a real Japanese wouldnt surrender) The troops viewed every POW as a coward, because they themselves were taught that surrendering is cowardice and a disgrace, they were taught to not surrender at all. This characterized the Imperials as brutal to POWs. Women's rights in Imperial Japan was abysmal, where poor families can basically sell their daughters to brothels as legalized slaves. This way of life extended into their conquered territories as the comfort women. However, the overarching cause for these is the military, who sought to popularize their rule by claiming tenets to nationalism and racism, and combined with a corru...

The moment a Chinese man is executed by a Japanese soldier during the Nanking Massacre; Nanjing, China, December 1937. The Japanese Imperial Army, if not the entire nation of Japan at that time, stricty adhered to what is known as Bushido, or 'the warrior way of life'. Essentially, they were brainwashed into believing that the Japanese people were the dominant race and that the nation of Japan was invincible. The Bushito mentality is what permitted the Japanese to justify carrying out the atrocious acts that they did, without having to suffer from any moral or ethical reprocussions. Through committing these atrocious acts (murding, raping, and even sometimes cannibalizing) they would gain the strength of their enemies. It's some pretty backwards stuff, but surprisingly not.much different from the mentality of modern lslamic radicals. Oh, I'm well aware of Bushido...it just blows my.mind that they regressed from what we would all agree to as "civilized" warfare...