The Second Sino-Japanese War and Human Right Violations of Imperial Japan Army between 1937 and 1945

Arda Deniz AksularWar Crimes and Human Rights Violations of Imperial Japan Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War(1937-1945)

1Background of WarJapanese Imperial Policy: ColonizationJapanese Administrative Reform (Tanzimat) 1889Meiji Restoration, Rapid modernizationWestern support (in the beginning), idea of cleaning the area from the WestChinese late nationalismNation state building processNotions of self determinationRussian, British, French provocations

2

International Law is Binding The Japan: Hague Conventions,1899 and 1907Geneva Protocol, 1925Treaty in Relation to the Use of Submarines and Noxious Gases in Warfare,1922Versailles Peace Treaty and a resolution adopted by the League of Nations on, 1938Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1929* League of Nations3

Hague Conventions 1899-1907Article 5 Banned the use of certain types of modern technology in war: bombing from the air, chemical warfare, and hollow point bullets.Chapter II was titled as The prisoners of the war. Provided some rights and it gave responsibilities for hostile state. Main idea: Behaving humanly to the prisoners.

4

Though not negotiated in The Hague, the Geneva Protocol is considered an addition to the Convention.It bans the use of all forms of chemical and biological warfare in its single section, entitled Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare.5Geneva Protocol, 1925

Washington Treaty in Relation to the Use of Submarines and Noxious Gases in Warfare,1922

Preventing the use in war of noxious gases and chemicals.

Article 171The use of asphyxiating, poisonous orother gases and all analogous liquids, materials or devices being prohibited, their manufacture and importation are strictly forbidden in Germany. 6LoN Adopted Resolution of Versailles Peace Treaty

Versailles, 1919Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928 (Pact of Paris)Prohibited the use of war as an instrument of national policy.Became ineffective but still remains as a binding treaty under international law.7

8Leauge of NationsFounded as a result of Versailles Treaty (1919-1920)Goals included upholding the new found Rights of Man such as right of non whites, rights of women, rights of soldiers, disarmament, preventing war through collective security, settling disputes between countries through negotiation, diplomacy and improving global quality of life.Included 58 countries. Lacked its own armed force and so depended on the great powers to enforce its resolutions, to keep economic sanctions or to provide an army.However, the members were still reluctant to do so: Musollinis attack to Red Cross.Was terminated by the WWII.

Starting of WarNone of them could stop JapanJapanese invasion to Manchuria Mukden incident in 1931Marco polo incident and full scale war in 1937

9

Human Right Violations & War CrimesIn 1935, Japan declared that it cancelled all treaties in the seas.In 1937, Japan bombed and invaded the northern parts of China.Chinese were regarded as sub-humanNationalist & communist resistance Mass murder of 300.000 people Rape, lootingUNIT 731, a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army was established. It undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War. (Need for superiority against West)Several experiments were held by the unit: Vivisection, weapon testing and germ warfare attacks. These operations caused epidemic plague outbreaks.Khabarovsk War Crime Trials: In 1941, some 40 members of Unit 731 air-dropped plague (veba)-contaminated fleas on Changde.

1011

An ongoing raping in Nanjing, 1937.Human Right Violations & War Crimes

Operations were done by the directs of emperor, outside of the Japan territory.Weapons were never used against Westerners.(fear of retaliation & idea of Asian subordination)CasualtiesWar included nearly 10 millions of soldiers from both sides. The Japan causalities were near 2.1 million while the Chinese side lost 3.2 millions of soldiers. Nearly, 17.530.000 civil people were wounded, lost or died in these conflicts. The war became one of the mighty examples of the war crimes. Historians estimate up to 300.000 Chinese were mass murdered in the Nanjing Massacre after the fall of Nanjing in 1937.

12

End of The WarJapans expansion on Pacific had been considered by the US and the petroleum sales were cancelled. By the time, Japan considered the US as the primary thread for a Pacific Japan empire. So the Japan organized a sudden attack to Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged into the greater conflict of World War II. The USSR, the US and the UK started to support China against Japanese invasion forces. Japan could not measure the geographical hugeness and power of Chinese population. Guerilla Warfare succeed and Mao Zedong rised as a leader: Wilder Japanese attack, Chinese civil warPeoples Republic of China The Second Sino-Japanese war was finished by the surrender of Japan in 1945 after the usage of two atomic bombs by the US.

13

Acquittal: Valuable CrimeThe International Military Tribunal (known as Tokyo Trials-1945)Khabarovsk War Crime Trials (USSR-1949)

Both of these super powers provided immunity for the Japanese war criminals in exchange for access to the (majorly biochemical) data collected by them.14

Justice?Evolution of International LawLoN UNTwo important conventions:The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons (1972)Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention)The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) 1997Influence of Kellogg Briand Pact in UN CharterArticle 33, 39 and 51 frames the crimes against peace and it provides mission for the UN Security Council.

15

Realities: Major Obstacles in the HRTotalitarian regimesAuthoritarian cultural codesObedience without questPolitics & western thought-Superiority of actionImperial interests and ethnical&national tendencies

It is extremely hard to consider the international law without a paradigm of international politics

16

Massacres go onBefore the time of 1945, Japan already lost the superiority thanks to the Chinese resistance and the termination of economic fleet.

17

US used Napalm in Vietnam, 1972

EndCan law do something about the Fascism in ourselves?How can we make law working in ourselves?18