ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Final//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <title> World War II : Japanese war crimes and attrocities -- he Three Alls </title> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="title" content=" World War II : Japanese war crimes and attrocities -- the Three Alls " > <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/imagef/gif/faviconh.ico"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/imagef/gif/faviconh.ico"> <META NAME="Description" CONTENT=" The Japanese in China after occupying large areas of the country, but failing to decisesly defeat the Chinese Army, adopted the "Three Alls" (sankô sakusen) policy to subgegate the country. The Japanese policy was most agressively implemented in northeastern China. Details on the Japanese effort only emerged after the War as a result of a book published by a Japanese POW. The effort was initiated by Ryûkichi Tanaka (1940). The fullest implementation was in north China by Yasuji Okamura. He divided occupied northern China into pacified, semi-pacified and unpacified areas. The Imperial Army Headquarters issued order number 575 (December 2, 1941). Okamura as part of the strategy burned villages, confiscating grain to deny food to insurgents, and used Chinese peasants as alave work force to construct concentration hamlets. Other projects included trench lines, containment walls, moats, watchtowers and roads. These construction projects were conducted on a vast scale. The brutal treament of these Chinese workers resulted in deaths on a vast scale. With photos and text. "> <META NAME="KeyWords" CONTENT="World War II, Second world war, Pacific War, Second Sino-Japanese War. Japanese invasioin of China, war crimes, attrocities, brutality, Tree Alls, Japanese army, China, Japan, Chinese civilins, conventions, prevalence, boy, boys, children, girl, girls, caps, military, history, historical, fashion, "> </head> <BODY BGCOLOR="#000066" TEXT="#FFFF00" LINK="#FF0000" VLINK="#99CCFF"> <br> <br> <img src="/imagef/gif/cih-pur.png"> <br> <br> <HR> <br> <br> <br> <br> <center><h1>World War II: Japanese War Crimes and Attrocities--The Three Alls</h1></center> <table border="0" cellpadding="20" width="35%" align="left"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <table border="5" width="95%" align="left" bgcolor=##7f00ff" BORDERCOLOR="FFFF00" > <tbody> <tr> <td><font color="#990000"><img src="/image/date/2013/cubs1918s.jpg"> </font> <hr> <i>Figure 1.--.</i> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> The Japanese in China after occupying large areas of the country, but failing to decisesly defeat the Chinese Army, adopted the "Three Alls" (sankô sakusen) policy to subgegate the country. The Japanese policy was most agressively implemented in northeastern China. Details on the Japanese effort only emerged after the War as a result of a book published by a Japanese POW. The effort was initiated by Ryûkichi Tanaka (1940). The fullest implementation was in north China by Yasuji Okamura. He divided occupied northern China into pacified, semi-pacified and unpacified areas. The Imperial Army Headquarters issued order number 575 (December 2, 1941). Okamura as part of the strategy burned villages, confiscating grain to deny food to insurgents, and used Chinese peasants as alave work force to construct concentration hamlets. Other projects included trench lines, containment walls, moats, watchtowers and roads. These construction projects were conducted on a vast scale. The brutal treament of these Chinese workers resulted in deaths on a vast scale. <br> <h2>Teminology</h2> <p> The Japanese Three Alls Policy was in Japanese "SankM Sakusen" and in Chinese "Sngung Zhèngcè". The Chinese characters mean "three lights policy". Chinese language specialists, however, report a more accurate translation in this context is "The Three Alls Policy". The three alls here are: "Kill All", "Burn All" and "Loot All". The Japanese originally referred to the policy as "The Burn to Ash Strategy". <! Jinmetsu Sakusen? > The term "SankM Sakusen" based on the Chinese characters term, was first made known to historians by a Japanese war criminal who was released from the Fushun war crime internment center (1957). After his release he wrote a book <i>SankM, Nihonjin no Chkgoku ni okeru senso hanzai no kokuhaku</i> (The three all, Japanese confessions of war crimes in China) (new edition : Kanki Haruo, 1979). The book included virtual cobnfessions by Japanese veterans of war crimes they committed under the command of General Yasuji Okamura. The book created a sensation when it appeared in Japan. Unlike the situation in Germany where the post-War Government admitted the war crimes committed by the NAZIs, the post-War government in Japan attempted to down play Japanese war crimes. The publishers of the book had to stop publication. Unrepented militarists and shôwa fanatics were outraged and death threats were sent to the publisher. <br> <h2>Japanese Frustration</h2> <p> The Japanese invaded China proper (1937). The Imperaial Army in ebgagement after engagement defeat the Chinese Army and occupky first Sghabghai and Peeking and then Nanking. The occipation of Nnking was one of the most publicized of the Japanese World War II attrocities. The Japanese did not, however, suceed in decisively destroying the Chinese Army. As a result, what the Japanese expected to be a brief campaign turned into a war that went on and on with no end in sight. China occupied large areas of the country, including the coastal areas. The Chinese Army withdrew into remote areas of western China where the Japanese had difficulty persuing the Chinese. The Chinese were driven inland and no longer able to import war supplies through their ports. Some supplies were, however, delivered over the Nurma Road. <br> <h2>Resistance</h2> <p> <br> <h2>The Policy</h2> <p> The Three Alls plicy was a scorched earth policy Japan persued in areas of China they occupied uring World War II. The Japanese in China after occupying large areas of the country, but failed to decisesly defeat the Chinese Army which withdrew into remote areas of the country. Even more rustrating to the Japanese, they cobtinued to be attacked even in areas they had occupied by resistabce forces. In response they adopted the "Three Alls" (sankô sakusen) policy to subgegate the country. <br> <h2>Implementation</h2> <p> Ryûkichi Tanaka initiated the Three Alls policy (1940). The most brutal and full scale implementation of the policy occurred in northern China. Imperial Atmy Headquarters apprived the use of the brutalk strategy in Army order number 575 (December 3, 1941). Historians report that the Three Alls Policy was personally sanctioned by Emperor Hirohito. [Bix] Japanese commander Yasuji Okamura to implement the policy divided occypied northern China into pacified, semi-pacified and unpacified areas. Civilians in the unpacified areas were targeted as they were assumed to be supporting partisans. Few Japanese soldiers spoke openly of their actions after the War. A few have. Hakudo Nagatomi described how he carried out orders. He reports that the slogan -- "the Three Alls: 'Burn all, steal all, kill all" was in use. He explains that it meant, "... if there were people, kill them. If there was a house, burn it. If there were cows or sheep, slaughter them. ... I rounded up the women and children in the villages, shut them into buildings, piled up fire wood, and burnt them. I did many terrible things." [WGNH and BBC] Okamura as part of the strategy burned villages, confiscating grain to deny food to insurgents, and used Chinese peasants as alave work force to construct concentration hamlets. Other projects included trench lines, containment walls, moats, watchtowers and roads. These construction projects were conducted on a vast scale. The brutal treament of these Chinese workers resulted in deaths on a vast scale. The Japanese shôwa army forcibly concripted more than 10 millions Chinese civilians were mobilized by the shôwa army for slave work in north China and Manchukuo. They were under the supervision of the Kôa-in. [Himeta, Kubo, Peattie and Ju] There are no precise figures, but historians believe that some 2.7 million Chimese civilians were killed as a result of the policy. [Bix] <br> <h2>Controversy</h2> <p> The histprical work on the Three Alls Policy is controversial in Japan where ultra-nationalists iobject to any admissdion od war guilt or attrocities committed ny the Japanese military. The critics have picked up on the fact that the popular name for this strategy is Chinese and charge that the policy is a fiction of Chinese propaganda. Normally the Japanese critics focus on the semantics here and ignore Japanese World War II military documents showing that the policy existed and was in force. A more valid point the critics make is that the Chinese themnsdelves persued a a scorched-earth policy which the Japanese referred to as the "The Clean Field Strategy" (Seiya Sakusen). This it is often difficult to differentiate between Chinese and Japanese actions. <br> <h2>Trademark Requeat</h2> <p>Curiously the Japanese company Fujian Industry Co Ltd (Fujian Chanye Zhushihuishe) sumitted a request to patent the term in China (2006). The term is well known in China. It is unclear why the Japanese company did this. It presumably is an example of Japanese insensitivity, but we have no details at this time. It is extremely unlikely that the Chinese Government would ever approve such a request, especiaslly to a Japanese company. A Chinese journalist explains, "The Trademark Law of the PRC states any item implying discrimination towards the nation or is harmful to social morality must not be registered as a trademark. Under this law, Ma says, the 'three alls' trademark is illegal." [Qian] <br> <h2>Sources</h2> <p> Bix, Herbert P. <i>Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan</i> (HarperCollins, 2000). Bix relies heavily on the work of Mitsuyoshi Himeta and Akira Fujiwara. <p> Fujiwara, Akira. <i>The Three Alls Policy and the Northern Chinese Regional Army</i> (Kikan sensô sekinin kenkyû 20, 1998). <p> Himeta, Mitsuyoshi. <i>Concerning the Three Alls Strategy/Three Alls Policy By the Japanese Forces</i> (Iwanami Bukkuretto, 1996). <p> Mitsuyoshi Himeta, Toru Kubo, Mark Peattie and Zhifen Ju, "Japan's atrocities of conscripting and abusing north China draftees after the outbreak of the Pacific war" (Joint study of the sino-Japanese war, 2002). <p> Qian. Li. "Three-alls' to be trademarked by Japanese firm," Chinadaily.com.cn, August 10, 2006. <p> WGNH and BBC. 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