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Arda Deniz Aksular

W ar Crimes and Human Rights Violations of Imperial Japan Army in t he Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). Arda Deniz Aksular. Background of War. Japanese Imperial Policy: Colonization Japanese Administrative Reform ( Tanzimat ) 1889 Meiji Restoration, Rapid modernization

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Arda Deniz Aksular

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  1. War Crimes and Human Rights Violations of Imperial Japan Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War(1937-1945) Arda Deniz Aksular

  2. Background of War • Japanese Imperial Policy: Colonization • Japanese Administrative Reform (Tanzimat) 1889 • Meiji Restoration, Rapid modernization • Western support (in the beginning), idea of cleaning the area from the West • Chinese late nationalism • Nation state building process • Notions of self determination • Russian, British, French provocations

  3. International Law is BindingTheJapan: • Hague Conventions,1899 and 1907 • Geneva Protocol, 1925 • Treaty in Relation to the Use of Submarines and Noxious Gases in Warfare,1922 • Versailles Peace Treaty and a resolution adopted by the League of Nations on, 1938 • Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1929 * League of Nations

  4. Hague Conventions 1899-1907 • Article 5 Banned the use of certain types of modern technology in war: bombing from the air, chemical warfare, and hollow point bullets. • Chapter II was titled as “The prisoners of the war”. Provided some rights and it gave responsibilities for hostile state. Main idea: “Behaving humanly” to the prisoners.

  5. Geneva Protocol, 1925 • Though not negotiated in The Hague, the Geneva Protocol is considered an addition to the Convention. • It bans the use of all forms of chemical and biological warfare in its single section, entitled “Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare.”

  6. Washington Treaty in Relation to the Use of Submarines and Noxious Gases in Warfare,1922 Preventing the use in war of noxious gases and chemicals. Article 171 • “The use of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and all analogous liquids, materials or devices being prohibited, their manufacture and importation are strictly forbidden inGermany.” LoN Adopted Resolution of Versailles Peace Treaty Versailles, 1919

  7. Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928 (Pact of Paris) • Prohibited the use of war as an instrument of national policy. • Became ineffective but still remains as a binding treaty under international law.

  8. Leauge of Nations • Founded as a result of Versailles Treaty (1919-1920) • Goals included upholding the new found Rights of Man such as right of non whites, rights of women, rights of soldiers, disarmament, preventing war through collective security, settling disputes between countries through negotiation, diplomacy and improving global quality of life. • Included 58 countries. • Lacked its own armed force and so depended on the greatpowers to enforce its resolutions, tokeep economic sanctions orto provide an army. • However, the members werestillreluctant to do so: Musollini’s attack to Red Cross. • Was terminated by the WWII.

  9. Starting of War None of them could stop Japan… Japanese invasion to Manchuria Mukden incident in 1931 Marco polo incident and full scale war in 1937

  10. Human Right Violations & War Crimes • In 1935, Japan declared that it cancelled all treaties in the seas. • In 1937, Japan bombed and invaded the northern parts of China. • Chinese were regarded as “sub-human” • Nationalist & communist resistance  Mass murder of 300.000 people  Rape, looting • UNIT 731, a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army was established. It undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War. (Need for superiority against West) • Several experiments were held by the unit: Vivisection, weapon testing and germ warfare attacks. These operations caused epidemic plague outbreaks. • Khabarovsk War Crime Trials: In 1941, some 40 members of Unit 731 air-dropped plague (veba)-contaminated fleas on Changde.

  11. Human Right Violations & War Crimes Operations were done by the directs of emperor, outside of the Japan territory. • Weapons were never used against Westerners. • (fear of retaliation & idea of Asian subordination) An ongoing raping in Nanjing, 1937.

  12. Casualties • War included nearly 10 millions of soldiers from both sides. The Japan causalities were near 2.1 million while the Chinese side lost 3.2 millions of soldiers. • Nearly, 17.530.000 civil people were wounded, lost or died in these conflicts. • The war became one of the mighty examples of the war crimes. Historians estimate up to 300.000 Chinese were mass murdered in the Nanjing Massacre after the fall of Nanjing in 1937.

  13. End of The War • Japan’s expansion on Pacific had been considered by the US and the petroleum sales were cancelled. • By the time, Japan considered the US as the primary thread for a Pacific Japan empire. So the Japan organized a sudden attack to Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged into the greater conflict of World War II. • The USSR, theUS and theUK started to support China against Japanese invasion forces. • Japan could not measure the geographical hugeness and power of Chinese population. • Guerilla Warfare succeed and Mao Zedong rised as a leader:  Wilder Japanese attack, Chinese civil war • Peoples Republic of China • The Second Sino-Japanese war was finished by the surrender of Japan in 1945 after the usage of two atomic bombs by the US.

  14. Acquittal: “Valuable Crime” • The International Military Tribunal (known as Tokyo Trials-1945) • Khabarovsk War Crime Trials (USSR-1949) Both of these super powers provided immunity for the Japanese war criminals in exchangefor access to the (majorly biochemical) data collected by them. Justice?

  15. Evolution of International Law • LoN UN • Two important conventions: • The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons (1972) • Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention) • The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) – 1997 • Influence of Kellogg Briand Pact in UN Charter • Article 33, 39 and 51 frames the crimes against peace and it provides mission for the UN Security Council.

  16. Realities: Major Obstacles in the HR • Totalitarian regimes • Authoritarian cultural codes • Obedience without quest • Politics & western thought -Superiority of action • Imperial interests and ethnical &national tendencies It is extremely hard to consider the international law without a paradigm of international politics…

  17. Massacres go on… Before the time of 1945, Japan already lost the superiority thanks to the Chinese resistance and the termination of economic fleet. US used Napalm in Vietnam, 1972

  18. End • Can law do something about the Fascism in ourselves? • How can we make law working in ourselves?

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