Throughout the Second World War, there were a number of evil guards who worked inside
of concentration camps.
In Europe, there were many women who even became notorious for their executions, brutality
and violence that they inflicted upon prisoners on a daily basis.
At camps such as Bergen-Belsen, guards such as Irma Grese or Josef Kramer were known for
their beastly antics, and they were responsible for the deaths of thousands.
But the same occurred in prison camps in the Pacific, but there were many fewer Japanese
guards who were brought to trial at the end of the war, and many escaped and evaded capture.
But one man who became infamous for his brutality and evil inside of a Japanese prisoner of
war camp was Mutsuhito Watanabe, who became known as The Bird for his horrific antics.
Join us today as we look at the evil of the Japanese Torturer the Bird, remember to support
our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Mutsuhito Watanabe was born on the 18th January 1918, and through his work inside of prisoner
of war camps he became known for his mistreatment of prisoners of war.
He was born into a very wealthy Japanese family, and along with his five siblings he got everything
he ever wanted, and he was very spoiled.
They even had servants that waited on them, and Watanabe then went to college and he studied
French literature but he was a passionate Japanese man, and was devoted to the emperor.
He then signed up to join the army following his graduation.
He believed that as he was from a privileged background that he would have been automatically
been made an officer and enlisted in training, but the money his family had meant little
for the Japanese army, and he was then given the rank of a corporal.
But for Watanabe, this was seen as humiliating, and he wanted to be an officer.
Because of this shame, those around him said that he lost his mind and became unpredictable
and off the rails.
He was devoted to becoming an officer, but then he was sent to go and work at the Omori
prisoner of war camp, and whilst here he conducted many different war crimes.
The conditions of Omori were described as inhumane, and it was a brutal site and the
staff were known for their evil.
But Watanabe then whilst he worked at Omori became known across Japan for his brutality
and his reputation spread within different prisoners of war.
Omori became renowned as a punishment centre, and many unruly and nuisance prisoners of
war were sent there from other camps, and they were brutalised by the regime and the
guards, and were reduced to nothing.
Louis Zamperini would he imprisoned here, and one man who was imprisoned with him recounted
Watanabe’s behaviour, and he became known as ‘The Bird for his brutality.
It was said, The Bird ‘took pride in his sadism and would become so carried away with
his attacks that saliva would bubble around his wound.
It was also said how during a number of brutal incidents at the site, Watanabe made Louis
Zamperini pick up a piece of wood which was more than 6 foot long, and he was forced to
hold it above his head.
Zamperini a former Olympian then did this for a shocking 37 minutes.
The Bird also punched another inmate repeatedly in the face for slight breaking of the camps
rules, and he would patrol the camp with a four foot kendo sword which was like a baseball
bat.
One man, Tom Henling Wade was stuck 40 times in the skull with this weapon, but his punishments
were also psychological.
Despite the fact he physically beat inmates on a daily basis, The Bird would inflict emotional
torture.
He would destroy and burn the photographs that the prisoners of war had with them, and
then he also burned the letters which were sent from home, and this broke many inmates,
breaking their only links from home.
Throughout some beatings, he would pause and would then stop to apologise to the inmate,
but then after this he would continue the beatings and knock them out.
He was nothing short of a sadist, and he would also wake prisoners up in the middle of the
night, and then take them to his quarters, and give them sweets and sing with them.
He was a strange man, as he would do this one moment, but the next he would beat and
brutalise and would be sent into a huge rage.
This left the prisoners of Omori to be incredibly nervous around Watanabe, and they didn’t
know how he would react at any times.
He even ordered one man who reported to him to be punched in the face every night for
three weeks, and he also practiced judo on a patient who had just had a recent operation.
It was also said that Watanabe forced an officer to sit in a shack wearing little clothes for
four days in winter, and that one 63 year old prisoners was also tied to a tree for
days.
But following the end of the Second World War, and the surrender of the Japanese, Mutsuhito
Watanabe went into hiding as he was named number 23 out of the 40 most wanted war criminals
in Japan.
He was hunted by the War Crimes Commission, and he never faced prosecution.
He continued to hide out and the Allies were not able to find a trace of the former prison
guards, and the Allies thought that he had died having been called up to serve in the
army.
But in 1952, the charges against him were dropped and after this he came out of hiding,
and became an insurance salesman.
He said ‘I do not want to be judged by America,’ and was interviewed in a number of newspapers
after the war.
But then before the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, a TV programme interviewed the brutal
former prison guard, and he admitted that he had beaten and kicked prisoners, and he
said ‘I treated the prisoners strictly as enemies of Japan.’
Louis Zamperini tried to meet with The Bird, but Watanabe refused to see him, and refused
to meet with him.
In April 2003, Watanabe died.
Mutsuhito Watanabe was known as the Bird, and he was a brutal and evil prison guard
who inflicted a great deal of suffering onto American prisoners of war who had been captured.
He was a man who was angry as he believed he should have been an officer, and he took
this resentment into his work in the prison camp, and he treated the prisoners as enemies
of the emperor and his nation.
He was a man who managed to evade arrest after World War 2, but he would then appear following
the charges being dropped.
There was a good chance after the war that if he was captured that he would have been
executed for his war crimes, as witnesses would have testified about his brutality.
If not the gallows, he would have certainly faced a lengthy prison sentence, and his antics
became notorious and he is remembered as one of the most evil Japanese prison guards of
World War 2.
Thanks for watching
To support please subscribe
Thanks again for watching