Japan’s Gestapo: Murder, Mayhem and Torture in Wartime Asia

230 Pages·2009·1.862 MB·English

by  Mark Felton

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JAPAN’S GESTAPO
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For my son William,
without whom this book would have been
written much more quickly
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JAPAN’S
GESTAPO
Murder, Mayhem and Torture
in Wartime Asia
by
Mark Felton
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First published in Great Britain in 2009 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS
Copyright # Mark Felton, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-84415-912-3
The right of Mark Felton to be identified as Author of this Work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedortransmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including
photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.
Typeset in 11/13pt Sabon by
Concept, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Printed and bound in England by
CPI UK
Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of Pen & Sword
Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Wharncliffe
Local History, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics,
Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and
Frontline Publishing.
For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
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Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
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Contents
Acknowledgements 6
Introduction 7
Chapter One Big Brother 9
Chapter Two Organ of Terror 25
Chapter Three Slaves for the Emperor 36
Chapter Four Bridge House 47
Chapter Five Resistance is Futile 67
Chapter Six Double Tenth 84
Chapter Seven Sex Slaves 98
Chapter Eight Slaughter of the Innocents 111
Chapter Nine Asian Auschwitz 121
Chapter Ten The Bomber Boys 135
Chapter Eleven Kempeitai Kamikazes 154
Chapter Twelve Leave No Survivors 165
Chapter Thirteen End Game 190
Chapter Fourteen Bearing the Unbearable 204
Bibliography 210
Index 215
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Acknowledgements
A great debt of thanks to the great team at Pen and Sword Books,
particularly to Brigadier Henry Wilson, my editor Bobby Gainher,
my copy editor George Chamier and to Jonathan Wright and Jon
Wilkinson for all of their hard work. My thanks to Jill Durney,
of the Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury in New
Zealand for the hours spent rooting through the dusty archives and
disintegratingrecords of the InternationalMilitaryTribunalfor the
Far East. Thanks to David Parker, OBE, Director of Information
and Secretariat at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
regarding information on civilian internees in Shanghai. A great
many thanks to Ron Taylor and the wonderful members of the Far
EastPrisonersofWarAssociation(FEPOW)whohavebeensuchan
important source of information. I should also like to extend my
thanks to ‘Hap’ Halloran for relating his experiences of being
shot down over Japan and held prisoner by the Kempeitai, and to
Shirley Felton for her bibliographical research. Many thanks to the
Photograph Archive at the Imperial War Museum in London, and
the staff at the National Archives (Public Record Office) at Kew,
andattheAustralianWarMemorial,Canberra.Finally,Ithankmy
wife Fang Fang for her support and encouragement of my writing,
and her love.
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Introduction
This book is not for the fainthearted or easily disgusted. What
follows through these pages is a glimpse into the dark heart of
humanity. It is a catalogue of Man at his very worst. Recounted in
these chapters are examples of hair-raising brutality that raised the
bar of depravity at a time when the whole world seemed to have
gone mad, when nations clashed and the little person counted for
verylittle.Bloodalmostdripsfromthepages,andthescreamsofthe
long dead echo down the decades to us now in the security and
comfort of the twenty-first century.
ThevillainsatthecentreofthisbookareJapan’swartimemilitary
police, a vast and nefarious organization called the Kempeitai, or
‘Corps of Law Soldiers’. This book is by no means the definitive
storyof thisdepravedandhatefulorganization,butratherprovides
aglimpseofthemyriadactivitiesthattheKempeitaiwasintimately
involved in all over occupied Asia. The crimes of the Kempeitai
rival those of Germany’s Gestapo in their breadth and savagery,
and in many cases the Kempeitai went much further down the path
of pure evil.
IliveinacitywheretheKempeitaionceruledwithawillofiron.
In Shanghai today there are many buildings still in existence that
once were important parts of the Kempeitai empire. There are no
plaques recording this dark historyas one might expect in Berlin or
Singapore, but nonetheless these rather nondescript and down-at-
heel buildings that now huddle together with other old structures
as the city around them rises into the sky in the form of glittering
glass skyscrapers still have the aura of hate about them. North of
theBund,thefamous‘MillionDollarSkyline’of1930sShanghai,is
Suzhou Creek, and across the famous Garden Bridge is an area of
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Japan’s Gestapo
buildingsthatinitsheydaywasaveryupmarketareaofthecitybut
todayisratherforlorn.Closetotheriverstandsalargewhite1930s
apartment building called Bridge House. This was the main torture
centre for the Kempeitai during the Second World War, where, as
youwillseeasyoureadon,terriblethingsweredonetoChineseand
Westernnationalsinsideitsbasementsandconvertedapartments.In
its courtyard the crackle of rifle fire was often heard reverberating
off the walls as firing squads daily dispatched the broken and
bleeding victims of Japan’s mad experiment with empire.
IfanybuildingisfullofrestlessspiritsinShanghaitodayitshould
beBridgeHouse,atruehouseofthedead.Todayfamiliesliveinside
this place of sadism and murder, ignorant of the building’s bloody
past. No one lives in the Lubjanka in Moscow or at Gestapo head-
quarters at Prinz Albrecht Strasse in Berlin today, but in Shanghai
historyhasawayof slippingintoobscurity,andthesinsofthepast
areeasilyexpungedfromthepresent.BridgeHouseisinmanyways
afittingmemorialtotheKempeitai,becauselikeBridgeHousemost
of these murderers escaped retribution after the war was over and
most managed to metamorphose into something harmless and low-
key in the post-war world.
The Kempeitai was the product of Japan’s hysterical hatred,
mistrust and fear of the West. It was also a reflection of the vast
inferiority complex many Japanese retained about the Western
Powers and their intentions towards Japan. The Kempeitai was the
culmination of all these complicated feelings and political theories,
and an expression of Japan’s belief in the innate superiority of the
Sacred Islands and the ideologies that propped up Japan’s imperial
ambitions. Millions died at the hands of the Kempeitai, but who in
the world has ever heard of this organization? Like the war in Asia
itself, the Kempeitai have become just a footnoteto history, known
only to academics and historians. Even the Japanese know little of
its crimes, or the extent of its brutality. Read on and be disgusted,
because that is how we should feel. And until Japan apologizes
for her wartime record, we should keep reminding them of how
disgusted we still are.
Shanghai
November2008
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Chapter One
Big Brother
The Emperor is a Revealed God among men, a Manifest
Deity for us.
State Shinto belief, Japan
A man sat in a wooden chair with his head resting on his chest.
Blooddrippedfromhismouthandchin.Hishairwaslonganddirty
andhungacrosshiseyeslikeaveil.Hewasstrippedtothewaist,his
torso oily with sweat. The man groaned and slowly raised his head
to look at his inquisitors. There were two of them. One sat before
the man on a chair, wearing an army shirt, breeches and riding
boots,hissleevesrolledup,acigaretteinhisrighthand.Thesecond,
dressed similarly to the seated man, stood in the shadows, for the
room was small and airless, holding a thick wooden club in his
hands.Themantiedtothechairmoanedagainandmutteredsome-
thing in English. The seated inquisitor leaned forward and cocked
hiseartowardstheEnglishman’slips,listeningintently.Suddenlyhe
jumpedupandyelled,‘Liar!Youlietomeagain?Youthinkthatwe
donotalreadyknowthetruth?’Hisaccentwasheavy,andheturned
to his comrade and grunted an order in Japanese. The man with
the club stepped forward and with a sharp intake of breath he
brought the club down on to the Englishman’s exposed back again
and again, the blows raining down with rhythmic regularity, the
strokeswell-practisedmanytimesoverinthisdark,dankroom.The
Englishman screamed as the wood bit into his flesh, and he twisted
and fought like a trapped animal, but his bindings were strong and
held him firmly pinned to the chair which was itself bolted securely
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