Introductory Essays - National Archives

[Pages:44][ ] RESEARCHING JAPANESE WAR CRIMES

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS

Researching Japanese War Crimes Records

Introductory Essays

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Researching Japanese War Crimes Records

Introductory Essays

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Edward Drea Greg Bradsher Robert Hanyok

James Lide Michael Petersen

Daqing Yang

Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group Washington, DC

Published by the National Archives and Records Administration for the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group, 2006

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Researching Japanese war crimes records : introductory essays / Edward Drea ... [et al.].

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN: 1-880875-28-4 1. World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities -- Japan--Sources. 2. World War, 1939-1945-- Destruction and pillage--Japan--Sources. 3. War crimes--Japan--Sources. 4. United States. National Archives and Records Administration. I. Drea, Edward J., 1944- II. United States. Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group. D804.J3R396 2006 940.54'05072--dc22

2006027580

"In a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners." -- Albert Camus

Contents

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About the Cover: Diary of a Japanese Army Medical Doctor, 1937....................... ix Daqing Yang

1. Introduction ................................................................................................... 3 Edward Drea

2. Documentary Evidence and the Studies of Japanese War Crimes: An Interim Assessment.....................................................................................................21 Daqing Yang

3. Recently Declassified Records at the U.S. National Archives Relating to Japanese War Crimes....................................................................................................57 James Lide

4. Japanese War Crimes Records at the National Archives: Research Starting Points.............................................................................................................79 NARA staff

5. Wartime COMINT Records in the National Archives about Japanese War Crimes in the Asia and Pacific Theaters, 1978?1997....................................111 Robert Hanyok

6. The Exploitation of Captured and Seized Japanese Records Relating to War Crimes, 1942-1945......................................................................................151 Greg Bradsher

7. A "Constantly Recurring Irritant": Returning Captured and Seized Japanese Records, 1946-1961.....................................................................................169 Greg Bradsher

8. The Intelligence that Wasn't: CIA Name Files, the U.S. Army, and Intelligence Gathering in Occupied Japan.......................................................................197 Michael Petersen

About the Contributors.......................................................................................231

About the cover

Diary of a Japanese Army Medical Doctor, 1937

Daqing Yang

The diary was compact: a total of fifty-six pages in a 3x5" notebook that fit easily inside a pocket.* Its author, Hosaka Akira, was an army medical doctor attached to the 3rd Infantry Battalion, 20th Regiment, 16th Division in the Shanghai Expedition Army. The diary begins on August 24, 1937, when "mobilization was ordered at 4 pm." It ends on December 7, a day when fighting lasted from morning till night, and soldiers became very tired. At that time, Hosaka's unit was in the vicinity of Nanjing, the capital of China, which would fall a week later and subsequently draw world attention for the massive atrocities committed there by the Japanese troops, an event widely known as the "Rape of Nanking."

Roughly a week before the diary ended abruptly, Hosaka recorded the following:

At 10:00 on 29 November 1937 we left to clean out the enemy in Chang Chou and at noon we entered the town. An order was received to kill the residents and eighty (80) of them, men and women of all ages, were shot to death [at dusk]. I hope this will be the last time I'll ever witness such a scene. The people were all gathered in one place. They were all praying, crying, and begging for help. I just couldn't bear watching such a pitiful spectacle. Soon the heavy machine guns opened fire and the sight of those people screaming and falling to the ground is one I could not face even if I had had the heart of a monster. War is truly terrible. [Allied Translator and Interpreter Section translation.]

An examination of the original entry reveals that this page had been cut loose by a sharp object at some point. It is likely that the author removed this page when he returned to Japan during the war for fear that it might cause trouble with military censors. * The diary is found in NA, RG 153, entry 180, War Crimes Branch, China War Crimes File, 1945-48, box 5, folder: Field Diary Kept by Member of Japanese Medical Corps.

 I Researching Japanese War Crimes

In late 1945, Hosaka sent the diary by registered mail to Col. Alva C. Carpenter, head of the legal section of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP). He left his return address on the envelope. To make his handwriting legible, Hosaka copied the November 29 entry in clearer handwriting on a separate sheet of paper, which was then attached to the opposite page in the diary.

The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal investigated atrocities committed by the Japanese Army in the Rape of Nanking. SCAP dispatched Col. Carpenter to China to gather evidence. Hosaka's diary was apparently not included in the evidence for the prosecution. Despite his reference to a major atrocity against Chinese civilians a week before the battle of Nanjing and in the general vicinity, officially the Rape of Nanking began on December 13th, the day the city fell, and was spatially confined to Nanjing and its immediate vicinity.

In the early 1980s, Japanese journalist Honda Katsuichi claimed that the brutal behavior of Japanese troops in Nanjing was by no means an isolated incident as some in Japan claimed. Instead, it fit into a pattern of Japanese atrocities in the Lower Yangtze area against Chinese since the battle of Shanghai. Honda came to this conclusion after extensive interviews with Chinese survivors and examining existing Japanese records.

Hosaka's diary of the Japanese atrocity in Changzhou has been corroborated by several Japanese sources that became available in recent years. The diary of Makihara Nobuo was discovered by a Japanese citizen group and published in 1988 together with the diaries of several other veterans. Makihara, a twenty-two year old private first class belonging to the 3rd Platoon of the Machine Gun Company of the 20th Infantry Regiment, 16th Division, wrote on November 29, 1937:

Depart from the village at 9:00 a.m. Various units compete to enter the town. The tank unit also starts. In contrast with yesterday, there are no traces of the enemy at all. Enter the town magnificently, passing an impressive temple (even though there are many temples in China)...

Because Wu Jing is an anti-Japanese stronghold, we carry out "mopping up" [st] operations in the entire town, killing all men and women without distinction. The enemy is nowhere to be seen, either because they have lost the will to fight after their defense line at Wu Xi was breached or they are holding strong positions further ahead. So far I haven't seen a town so impressive as this one...

A squad leader in the Machine Gun Company of the 3rd Battalion (where Hosaka also served) named Kitayama also published his diary but did not record the massacre on that same day. This was probably due to the fact that he and another soldier went

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