A huge number of war crimes during the Second World War were carried out by the Japanese
Army.
It’s believed that at least 14 million civilians were slaughtered in their actions involving
china before the conflict had even broke out in Europe and throughout World War 2.
The Japanese soldiers were known for their large scale assault, kidnapping and executions
and two soldiers even had a sadistic contest to see who could execute 100 people the quickest
using a sword.
They attacked civilians on a daily basis and at the end of the conflict there were a number
of Japanese officers and soldiers who were captured and were then sentenced to death
for their actions.
They became known also for their feared prisons and sites of incarceration and many allied
prisoners succumbed to the conditions of these.
One of these prisons was Changi Prison in Singapore which developed a particularly nasty
reputation for its evil.
But after the war had come to an end, a number of Japanese soldiers were condemned there
for the crimes they committed.
Join us today as we look at the Execution of the Japanese Soldiers of Changi Prison.
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Changi prison was built in Singapore due to a need to develop a new prison in the region
as the others had become dangerously overcrowded.
Plans to build a new prison were laid out in 1933 and the new prison would initially
provide accommodation for 560 prisoners, and it was built in a way which would be difficult
for inmates to escape from.
It had very high walls and there were punishment blocks included inside of the site, as well
as many other amenities including workshops and a hospital block.
When it was officially operational in summer 1937, it was said to have been one of the
best prisons in the whole of the British Empire and it’s design and easy access to rooms
for the wardens made it a site which would be copied around the empire.
But as the Second World War raged on with conflict in the Pacific with the Japanese
wanted to take Singapore, Changi Prison would have a huge shift in its reputation and role.
As Singapore fell to the Japanese in February 1942, the Japanese decided to imprison around
3,000 people inside of Changi Prison, which was 5 times too many people.
The site had been built to hold 20% of this number and there was a huge over-crowding
problem, and the Japanese also used nearby former British army barracks as a prisoner
of war camp and it was here where around 50,000 Allied soldiers were also locked up.
These were mostly British and Australian forces as well as Dutch civilians who would later
be brought across from different Islands.
But during the war, the name Changi became known for the infamous prisoner of war camp
that was nearby and it became a place where there were many other prisons.
There were around 500 female detainees who had been ripped from their children and then
marched into the prison camps from their homes, and these women and girls were subjected to
harrowing abuse and assault.
But the girls and women were put to work sewing quilts and other materials for the prison
hospital of Changi and they would defiantly sew symbols of hope discreetly into the material.
The complex of Changi became up to 7 prisoner of war and internee camps in Singapore.
Around 850 prisoners of war died inside of Changi during the Japanese occupation of Singapore
and the conditions were rather poor.
During the day, many of the prisoners were responsible for their own day to day running
and many were forced to work outside the camps on different projects but this was mostly
slave labour projects.
The food rations and supplies that the prisoners had access to depended on what the inmates
of the prison could trade with guards and also steal when they could.
If they were found stealing though they faced torture and execution.
The other prisoner of war camps were depleted in their numbers at times as many men were
sent to go and work on the Burma Railway, and thousands were forced to conduct this
back breaking work.
The guards of the prison were rather brutal and were unforgiving, and if a POW did not
conduct work that was satisfactory they would often be executed or be beaten severely.
Inside of Changi Prison in 1944, Allied prisoners of war even built a chapel where they could
have services if this was permitted by the guards.
The prison also housed the headquarters of the notorious Kenpeitai, the Japanese military
police and inside of the prison they would torture and executed inmates who they suspected
were spies.
One example of this was the Double tenth massacre in which 15 prisoners died inside of Changi
Prison, and some were subjected to water torture.
Severe beatings were administered, and victims were badly disfigured.
A lot of prisoners of Changi Prison died from diseases that were caused by the overcrowding,
as well as malnutrition and starvation.
The conditions were shocking and the Japanese forces were the ones responsible for this.
As the Second World War turned against the Japanese, Changi Prison was abandoned following
the liberation of Singapore, and in September 1945 many allied prisoners of war left the
place where they had suffered a lot.
Many were shadows of their former self and were incredibly emaciated and had hardly any
clothes on their back.
But after the war had come to an end, the British would re-take control of Changi Prison
and they then used it told hold Japanese Prisoners of War and this included rather senior figures
inside of the Imperial Japanese Army, the Navy, members of the Kenpeitai, police officers
and guards who had worked inside of the prisoner of war camps and inflicted such suffering.
The British even used their own soldiers as prison guards, and a number of the inmates
were brought to trial.
Those who had been involved in the Double Tenth incident were taken to trial, and 8
former members of the Kenpeitai were found guilty.
But Changi Prison also became a site of execution.
Across in Germany the allied nations and armies had seized control of a number of different
prisons and in these they carried out the executions of former nazis and war criminals
who had been condemned.
This was also done across the Pacific, and inside of Changi there was a gallows which
was constructed and this was fitted with a trapdoor and on this a number of Japanese
war criminals would be executed upon this.
There were inside of the inner yard of the prison three gallows which were made to carry
out the sentences which were given out including of those condemned during the Double tenth
trials.
Many Japanese war criminals would be sent to Changi Prison following their trials and
they would await their death sentence on death row.
This could take a number of months, but then they would be summoned from their cells as
they would be informed that their execution was due to take place.
The British and Australian guards would then bring their prisoners to the gallows and these
had white caps placed on their heads before they came into the execution arena so they
could not see anything.
They were then led across a platform onto the gallows where circles were drawn on the
trapdoor showing the executioner where the place the condemned.
In April 1946 8 Japanese men were executed on these gallows and the condemned were almost
carried to the gallows by the executioners who had secured their arms behind their backs
and they could not see their way due to the white cap they wore before the noose was secured
around their necks.
After the final checks were carried out the executioners released the trapdoor underneath
the japanese men and they would then be left for some time before death war pronounced
as they had gone through the trapdoor.
There were a number of other executions carried out by the allies on the gallows at Changi
Prison, but also interestingly after the war the prison would become a place where 260
German prisoners of War would find themselves incarcerated before they were then sent back
to Germany a year later.
But it was a prison that during the Second World War became notorious as it was used
by the Japanese forces as a brutal and barbaric prison site and the guards who worked here
were brutal and the conditions were terrible.
Overcrowding led to disease and further suffering, but when Singapore was liberated it became
a place where the British then housed Japanese war criminals and it was where they also executed
many on the gallows.
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