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A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
The Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war (POW) from the municipalities of Bagac and Mariveles on the Bataan Peninsula to Camp O'Donnell via San Fernando.
Sook Ching was a mass killing that occurred from 18 February to 4 March 1942 in Singapore after it fell to the Japanese. It was a systematic purge and massacre of 'anti-Japanese' elements in Singapore, with the Singaporean Chinese particularly targeted by the Japanese military during the occupation. However, Japanese soldiers engaged in indiscriminate killing, and did not try to identify who was 'anti-Japanese.' Singapore was a crucial strategic point in World War II. From 8 February to 15 February, the Japanese fought for control of the city. The combined British and Commonwealth forces surrendered in a stunning defeat to the outnumbered Japanese on 15 February which led to its fall. The loss of Singapore was and still is Britain's largest surrender in history.
During its imperial era, the Empire of Japan committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity across various Asian-Pacific nations, notably during the Second Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars. These incidents have been referred to as "the Asian Holocaust", and as "Japan's Holocaust". The crimes occurred during the early part of the Shōwa era, under Hirohito's reign.
The Bombing of Darwin, also known as the Battle of Darwin, on 19 February 1942 was the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia. On that day, 242 Japanese aircraft, in two separate raids, attacked the town, ships in Darwin Harbour and the town's two airfields in an attempt to prevent the Allies from using them as bases to contest the invasion of Timor and Java during World War II.
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact definition is not unanimously agreed upon. Mass graves are usually created after many people die or are killed, and there is a desire to bury the corpses quickly for sanitation concerns. Although mass graves can be used during major conflicts such as war and crime, in modern times they may be used after a famine, epidemic, or natural disaster. In disasters, mass graves are used for infection and disease control. In such cases, there is often a breakdown of the social infrastructure that would enable proper identification and disposal of individual bodies.
There was considerable Axis naval activity in Australian waters during the Second World War, despite Australia being remote from the main battlefronts. German and Japanese warships and submarines entered Australian waters between 1940 and 1945 and attacked ships, ports and other targets. Among the best-known attacks are the sinking of HMAS Sydney by a German raider in November 1941, the bombing of Darwin by Japanese naval aircraft in February 1942, and the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour in May 1942. About 40 Allied merchant ships were damaged or sunk off the Australian coast by surface raiders, submarines and mines. Japanese submarines also shelled three Australian ports and submarine-based aircraft flew over several Australian capital cities.
During World War II, the Allies committed legally proven war crimes and violations of the laws of war against either civilians or military personnel of the Axis powers. At the end of World War II, many trials of Axis war criminals took place, most famously the Nuremberg Trials and Tokyo Trials. In Europe, these tribunals were set up under the authority of the London Charter, which only considered allegations of war crimes committed by people who acted in the interests of the Axis powers. Some war crimes involving Allied personnel were investigated by the Allied powers and led in some instances to courts-martial. Some incidents alleged by historians to have been crimes under the law of war in operation at the time were, for a variety of reasons, not investigated by the Allied powers during the war, or were investigated but not prosecuted.
The Parit Sulong Massacre was a Japanese war crime committed by members of the Imperial Japanese Army on 22 January 1942 in the village of Parit Sulong, British Malaya. Soldiers of the Imperial Guards Division summarily executed approximately 150 wounded Australian and Indian prisoners of war who had surrendered.
Balalae Airport is a small civil airport on Balalae island operated by Solomon Airlines. It is located in the northwest of the Solomon Islands, part of the Shortland Island Group and south of Bougainville Island. It serves the nearby Shortland Islands and Fauro Island. It's a 1.75 km long sandy coral airstrip only 5 feet above sea level with a small customs area. It was built by prisoners of war, mostly British captured during the siege of Singapore, under the command of the Japanese during their occupation of the Solomons to protect the stronghold of Rabaul. In about June 1943, all Allied prisoners remaining on the island were killed and buried in mass graves. 436 bodies of unidentified soldiers were exhumed post-war. During 1943, Admiral Yamamoto planned to arrive on the airport from Rabaul to increase morale after the defeat at the Battle of Guadalcanal. He was shot down while passing Bougainville Island during Operation Vengeance, during the Guadalcanal campaign.
This is a timeline of events that occurred during World War II in 1943.
Members of the United States Armed Forces have violated the law of war after the signing of the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the signing of the Geneva Conventions. The United States prosecutes offenders through the War Crimes Act of 1996 as well as through articles in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The United States signed the 1999 Rome Statute but it never ratified the treaty, taking the position that the International Criminal Court (ICC) lacks fundamental checks and balances. The American Service-Members' Protection Act of 2002 further limited US involvement with the ICC. The ICC reserves the right of states to prosecute war crimes, and the ICC can only proceed with prosecution of crimes when states do not have willingness or effective and reliable processes to investigate for themselves. The United States says that it has investigated many of the accusations alleged by the ICC prosecutors as having occurred in Afghanistan, and thus does not accept ICC jurisdiction over its nationals.
In March 1944, a force of three Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) heavy cruisers raided Allied shipping in the Indian Ocean, the codename of this operation was Operation SA No.1. The cruisers departed Japanese-held territory on 1 March with the support of other IJN vessels and aircraft. On 9 March, they encountered and sank the British steamer Behar, with the heavy cruiser Tone picking up over 100 survivors. Fearing detection, the Japanese force subsequently returned to the Netherlands East Indies (NEI), arriving on 16 March. Two days later, most of Behar's crew and passengers were murdered on board Tone. Following the war the commander of the raid, Rear Admiral Naomasa Sakonju, was executed for this war crime and Tone's captain Haruo Mayuzumi was sentenced to seven years imprisonment.
Balalae Island is an island of the Shortland Islands Group in the Western Province of Solomon Islands.
The Palawan massacre occurred on 14 December 1944, during World War II, near the city of Puerto Princesa in the Philippine province of Palawan. Allied soldiers, imprisoned near the city, were killed by Imperial Japanese soldiers. Only eleven men managed to survive.
Before the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific, the island of Borneo was divided into five territories. Four of the territories were in the north and under British control – Sarawak, Brunei, Labuan, an island, and British North Borneo; while the remainder, and bulk, of the island, was under the jurisdiction of the Dutch East Indies.
The Enemy Airmen's Act was a law passed by Imperial Japan on 13 August 1942 which stated that Allied airmen participating in bombing raids against Japanese-held territory would be treated as "violators of the law of war" and subject to trial and punishment if captured by Japanese forces. This law contributed to the deaths of hundreds of Allied airmen throughout the Pacific and Asian theaters of World War II. Shortly after World War II, Japanese officers who carried out show trials and illegal executions under the Enemy Airmen's Act were found guilty of war crimes.
Gustavus Henry March-Phillipps, was the founder of the British Army's No. 62 Commando, also known as Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF), one of the forerunners of the Special Air Service (SAS). He was also noteworthy as being one of Ian Fleming's main inspirations for the character of James Bond.
Japan during World War II Japan's involvement in World War II encapsulates a significant period in the history of the Empire of Japan, marked by significant military campaigns and geopolitical maneuvers across the Asia-Pacific region. Spanning from the early 1930s to 1945, this tumultuous era witnessed Japan's expansionist policies and aggressive military actions, including the invasion of the Republic of China, the annexation of French Indochina, and the subsequent incursion into British India. The Pacific War, a major theater of World War II, further intensified Japan's engagements, leading to significant confrontations with Allied forces in the Pacific Ocean. Ultimately, the conflict culminated in the Surrender of Japan, a momentous event that marked the end of hostilities and reshaped the global landscape.
Chungkai War Cemetery, also known as Chung Kai War Cemetery, is a war cemetery in Tha Ma Kham near Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Established in the 1950s, the cemetery hosts the graves of 1,426 British and 313 Dutch prisoners of war who died during World War II. It was originally a prisoner of war camp on the Burma Railway.
References
- ↑ "The Sad Story of Balalae Island | Tony Wheeler's Travels". Tony Wheeler's Travels |. 2012-02-28. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ↑ "Balalae island, a tragic story of loss during WW2 – WW2Wrecks.com" . Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ↑ "Balalae Island Gunners | COFEPOW". www.cofepow.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ↑ McCrery, Nigel (2011). The Coming Storm: Test and First-Class Cricketers Killed in World War Two. Vol. 2. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1526706980.
- ↑ "Balalae: aeronautical relics of the World War II in an airfield with a macabre past". Exploring | Counting Stars. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ↑ "The Sad Story of Balalae Island | Tony Wheeler's Travels". Tony Wheeler's Travels |. 2012-02-28. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ↑ "Rosary beads from Allied soldiers' mass grave : Ballale Island". www.awm.gov.au. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
- ↑ "Roll of Honour" . Retrieved 2009-09-18.