Japan’s Holocaust: History of Imperial Japan’s Mass Murder and Rape During World War II

Japan’s Holocaust is a comprehensive exploration of Japan’s mass murder and sexual crimes during the Pacific and Asian Wars from 1927 to 1945.

Japan’s Holocaust combines research conducted in over eighteen research facilities in five nations to explore Imperial Japan’s atrocities from 1927 to 1945 during its military expansions and reckless campaigns throughout Asia and the Pacific. This book brings together the most recent scholarship and new primary research to ascertain that Japan claimed a minimum of thirty million lives, slaughtering far more than Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Japan’s Holocaust shows that Emperor Hirohito not only knew about the atrocities his legions committed, but actually ordered them. He did nothing to stop them when they exceeded even the most depraved person’s imagination, as illustrated during the Rape of Nanking as well as many other events. Japan’s Holocaust will document in painful detail that the Rape of Nanking was not an isolated event during the Asian War but rather representative of how Japan behaved for all its campaigns throughout Asia and the Pacific from 1927 to 1945.

Mass murder, rape, and economic exploitation was Japan’s modus operandi during this time period, and whereas Hitler’s SS Death’s Head outfits attempted to hide their atrocities, Hirohito’s legions committed their atrocities out in the open with fanfare and enthusiasm. Moreover, whereas Germany has done much since World War II to atone for its crimes and to document them, Japan has been absolutely disgraceful with its reparations for its crimes and in its efforts to educate its population about its wartime past. Shockingly, Japan continues, in general, to glorify is criminals and its wartime past.

“Rigg’s thorough exploration of Japanese atrocities in China and during the Pacific War drives home the totality and scale of the utter depravity of the Japanese government and its armed forces. He makes it clear that this trait was ingrained in the very culture of the Imperial Army and pervasive in every locale and against everyone it encountered, civilian or military. One cannot fully understand the conflict without comprehending this aspect of the Japanese approach to war.” —Colonel Jon T. Hoffman USMC (Retired), author of Chesty: The Story of Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller and Once a Legend: Red Mike Edson of the Marine Raiders

“Once again Bryan Rigg has shown himself to be a distinguished military historian, writing with passion, power, and flair about Japanese actions in Asia and the Pacific during World War II. His grasp of the battles and atrocities are deep, his passion for the codes of war fierce as only one schooled in those codes and respectful of them as essential to the morality of war can be. His portrayal of the battles and mass–murder actions are vivid and his grasp of their geopolitical implications insightful. I learned a lot, and I thought ever more deeply about the ethics of war.” —Michael Berenbaum, author of The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and distinguished professor of Jewish Studies at American Jewish University

“Exploding onto the historical scene with Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers Bryan Rigg exposed a long–held secret. In this book, he exposes an international tragedy of epic proportions, and exposes the shameful, willful, and determined ignorance of the history he has chronicled by the nation responsible for it. An instant classic.” —Colin D. Heaton, author of Above the Pacific: Three Medal of Honor Fighter Aces of World War II Speak

“Most discussions of the Holocaust of World War II center around the atrocities perpetrated by Nazi Germany. Much less studied or even acknowledged is the Holocaust perpetrated by Imperial Japan. Historian Bryan Rigg has documented in his exhaustive research possibly the definitive work on the subject. The reader will learn about the sick culture of Japan in the first part of the twentieth century that gave rise to a warrior society that decreed Emperor Hirohito an infallible god, and the Japanese race as the superior militaristic race destined to rule the world. Rigg documents the wanton killings of civilians, the widespread rape committed by the Japanese troops and the sickening treatment of POWs in violation of the Hague Convention to which Japan was a signatory. In addition, the Japanese military was instructed to die rather than surrender or else lose their honor. Even more sobering is the failure of Japan, unlike Germany, to this day to acknowledge the horrors that they committed from the 1920s through the end of the war. Japan’s Holocaust is must reading for any student of World War II.” —Retired Captain (USN) Lee R. Mandel, author of A Pacifist at Iwo Jima: Rabbi Roland Gittelsohn from Pulpit to the U.S. Marine Corps’ Bloodiest Battle

“Japan’s Holocaust is a very important and groundbreaking work. Rigg has done tremendous
research once again.” —Richard Frank, author of Downfall and Tower of Skulls