Unbelievably Inhumane Japanese Torture Methods Used During World War II

Unbelievably Inhumane Japanese Torture Methods Used During World War II

Many nations committed many terrible acts during WWII. However, Japanese transgressions in that period stand out as especially horrific and brutal. Not only did the Japanese use inhuman methods as part of their interrogations, but full units were set up for experimenting on living human beings. The following is a list of truly sickening methods and human experiments committed by the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII.

Japanese Soldiers Ate Prisoners Alive

There have been many well-documented reports of Japanese soldiers dining on their enemies. Supplies were running low throughout the Pacific Theater, so the Japanese began selecting prisoners at work camps to consume. In some cases, soldiers cut flesh from still-living prisoners.

While some cannibal soldiers were themselves starving, others had ample provisions and only engaged in cannibalism as a means to terrorize prisoners or strengthen the soldiers' bonds with one another by engaging in this taboo act as a group.

Women Were Assaulted, Forcibly Impregnated, Then Dissected Alive



Soldiers forcibly impregnated female prisoners, whose condition was then used to "study" pregnant women and fetuses. The Japanese were keen on knowing if syphilis could be transmitted between mother and child, so pregnant prisoners were intentionally infected with the disease.

Pregnant women were vivisected, and female prisoners were also subjected to grisly sexual experimentation.

Japanese Doctors Removed 'Fresh' Organs from Living Prisoners



At the infamous Unit 731 where Japanese scientists conducted abhorrent acts on mainly Chinese POWs, it was common practice to remove subjects' organs or to cut off their limbs without the administration of painkillers or anesthetics.

One particularly ghastly act was the removal of a prisoner's stomach, after which the esophagus and small intestine would be directly linked. Others had their limbs removed and then reattached elsewhere on their body as a pointless, cruel "experiment." Some had samples of their brains and livers removed while they were still alive.

Prisoners Were Slowly Impaled On Growing Bamboo Shoots

Quick-growing bamboo provided a natural tool to slowly harm and eventually end prisoners. Japanese soldiers tied Allied prisoners down over a bed of sharpened bamboo shoots. Bamboo can grow a couple of inches per day, and the persistent plant can penetrate flesh.

Over days, the bamboo climbed right through the soldiers, impaling them, until they expired.

Prisoners Were Terminated In Centrifuges Or High-Pressure Chambers



How long can a person survive without food and water? In addition to dehydration and nutrition deprivation, Japanese scientists toyed with the fragility of prisoners' lives by spinning them in centrifuges until their insides could no longer handle it.

They were also curious about the amount of pressure that human bodies could withstand, so prisoners were placed into high-pressure chambers while the pressure dial was cranked up.

The Japanese Froze Prisoners' Limbs And Then Stripped Them To The Bone

To run "tests" on frostbite's effects, doctors froze the prisoners' appendages, then doused the limbs with hot water to observe the painful results. In some cases, the flesh would be stripped away, revealing only bare bone, with the prisoner still alive.

Doctors would then amputate the limb and move on to the next.

The Japanese Army Used The Plague As A Biological Weapon

Prisoners were intentionally infected with syphilis and gonorrhea, sometimes by means of forced sexual contact. Meanwhile, plague-carrying fleas and diseased items were dropped on various civilian Chinese targets. Historians believe that the deliberate outbreaks, which afflicted whole towns, ended the lives of at least 30,000 people.

These citizens were also subjected to approximately a dozen diseases, including cholera and anthrax. Plague-carrying fleas were bred at Unit 731 and elsewhere as part of biological warfare programs.

Human Prisoners Were Injected With Animal Blood



Horse blood was administered to prisoners to determine if wounded Japanese soldiers could be given animal blood as a substitute for human blood. Of course, this did not work, and prisoners perished.

In another blood-based "experiment," prisoners were injected with sea water, but that too proved to abruptly end their lives.

Prisoners Were Subjected To Water-Based Torment

During interrogations, Japanese soldiers would place tubes down a prisoner's throat and turn on the water spigot until water leaked from the victim's nostrils. In addition to inducing a terrifying feeling of drowning, water intoxication can be fatal. 

Prisoners Were Burned Alive



Japanese scientists curious about human resilience to extreme temperatures exposed living prisoners to heat to "study" the effects of heat and burns on the human body.

Japanese Scientists Exposed Prisoners To X-Rays Until They Perished

Japanese "scientists" also subjected prisoners to high dosages of X-rays until they passed from radiation poisoning.

Prisoners Were Crucified

According to Iris Chang, an American-born Chinese journalist and historical writer, the Japanese would crucify some of their prisoners, nailing them to trees, electrical posts, or wooden boards. 

People Were Hung But Not In The Traditional Way

Hanging is a fairly common and well-known form of execution. The method can be used as a form of systematic harm when the drop isn't enough to break the neck. As a result, the person suffers drawn-out asphyxiation.

The Japanese would hang prisoners by their tongues or thumbs and leave them for days - or until whatever appendage they'd been hung by broke apart.