Sex slaves, men tortured in cages and inhumane experiments: this is how the Japanese Gestapo operated.

to It is called Kempedai Gestapo Japanese. Born as an elite military police unit, it expanded its powers as it gained power and gained more influence. At first he was responsible for persecuting those considered anti-Japanese and finding spies. It then became an enormous and brutal force spreading terror in the occupied territories, making torture its trademark – creating many hitherto unknown methods -, recruiting and abducting devastated populations, raping women by Japanese troops, and executing thousands. Citizens of the occupied countries managed the concentration camps and took charge of Unit 731, where experiments of unimaginable cruelty were carried out on men comparable to Josef Mengele.

Campsite It was created in 1883. At its inception its function was clear and limited. A military police that controls internal discipline. Its members are elite, chosen from the best in the military. Immortal and best practice. Only 368 members. After some time, its functions were extended. This special organization was tasked with finding military service and conscription evaders throughout Japanese territory. Generally, this reluctance of citizens is not due to patriotism or cowardice: their daily work is necessary to work the land and ensure the survival of the family.

The number of men involved in the organization increased over the years. And their tasks. They began devoting themselves to intelligence work and keeping peace in the occupied territories. “Anti-Japanese Missions.”

As its powers grew, the organization gained power and cruelty. Each time he moved further away from ethical principles. Pressure, threats, arbitrary arrests, torture and killings.

The usual thing happened. The more firepower (and damage) he had, the more corrupt his high command. The idea of ​​impunity pushed them to overcome any limitations not only with the prisoners. The leaders became rich and looted goods from the places they visited They also abused their subordinates.

The Kempeitai were used by the empire as a shock force, to defend conquered territories, to discipline and intimidate its subjects, and to persecute dissidents and dissidents. When Japan advanced its conquests China and other parts of the EastAs the organization became increasingly large and influential, its criminal power increased.

In each prison camp run by Kempeitai, and in each of its units in the occupied countries, the organization had a special facility for conducting torture. Stripped down, with just a chair – to keep the victim at an accessible height, for the convenience of the perpetrator – and a table full of torture components. Shackles, heaters with metal plates that measure temperature, barrels full of water, gloves, electrical components, sharp tweezers, tongs, ropes, bags and other objects that can injure the person being interrogated.

Tortures They were very often, at a certain point, expected to be unable to obtain information from these inquiries. They are a routine, a sad practice, incorporated into the Kempidai menu. Habit has produced unthinkable methods, and in each has led to an increase in cruelty. In many cases, the prisoners had to die due to that cruelty. His torturers considered the session a success.

Another function of the Japanese Gestapo was to organize and deliver Comfort women or comfort women When troops are at the front or in occupied territory. what Comfort women It is nothing but a discourse. Campide members kidnapped them from the occupied cities and subdued them. They turned them into slave sex workers. They had to satisfy the Japanese soldiers in the field.

Some say these women number in the tens of thousands. Other Japanese historians multiply that number by twenty. They talk about 410,000 women enslaved and forced into prostitution. behind Second War They were recognized as victims and called forced sex slaves by the Imperial Japanese Army.

Women were taken from their homes. Sometimes they were tricked into working in restaurants or factories. In many other cases, they don’t even attempt to make up a lie; They forcefully drag them to a truck that takes them to a consulo station. There they would have to endure dozens of Japanese soldiers abusing them a day.

The logic of the Japanese high command was that trying to prevent their soldiers from raping the women of the places they invaded would not project their subjects negatively. Thus, women from other places were brought forward and they were responsible for their rape by men. The difference is where the victims come from.

Another of the atrocities attributed to its members was known as Pig Cage Massacre. In Java, Japanese forces trapped two hundred British soldiers. After torturing them, they were kept in bamboo cages originally kept for pigs. They left people there in the sun for days. They endured temperatures of 40 degrees and lack of water and food. The cages were then loaded onto trucks and taken back to sea in the scorching heat. There, the Japanese threw bamboo structures into the water so that their prisoners, who were already dying, were swallowed by sharks.

Kempeitai was in charge of Singapore after Japanese forces captured it and renamed it Cheonan. Cleaning from the city. They invited all men between the ages of 18 and 50. Its purpose is to clean the place of people who are considered dangerous. The number of people considered as such was Borgesian: communists, nationalists, English-speakers, people who spoke ill of Japan, school teachers, criminals, Orientals of European blood, war veterans, members of secret societies. The list is not exhaustive.

Only a few were released, who were considered harmless (and not weak enough to be insulted and killed on the spot). A never-to-be-bothered passport is a stamp stamped on your forehead, a hand or a piece of clothing depending on the mood of the responsible Japanese. Those who did not pass the screening were hanged a few days later. There were so many that the methods used were different. Shot in the back, beheaded, bayoneted, forced into the sea.

A modus operandi was revealed in many islands and occupied cities. At times the Japanese faced rebellion from the local population, who tried to regain control. There were skirmishes, moments of tension, and many casualties among the Japanese army surprised by the rebellion. Soon members of the Kempeda were sent to enforce the order. Also, because of the distances and lack of immediate communication, it was no big deal if rebellion was quelled upon their arrival. They unleashed terror, ran the course, and multiplied Japanese casualties sixfold. They destroyed everything they could, raped women, destroyed houses. They wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again.

Kempet Driven by the arrogance and impunity of the force, it committed no atrocities. If its work is compared to that of the Gestapo, Unit 731, whose men were in charge, is equivalent to what Mengele did. Auschwitz.

The list of mutations of unit 731 is nauseating. Scenes without anesthesia, inoculation of healthy patients with viruses and diseases, dismemberment, dismemberment, hyperbaric chamber testing and many other cruel experiments performed on POWs and other prisoners. Some were used as human dummies to determine how many bayonets and which parts of the body a man could withstand. They shoot the prisoners at different distances, always aiming for the upper and lower limbs, admiring the destructive power of the weapons they produce; Then, as they also studied different healing times, they didn’t meet them immediately.

There they developed various methods to unleash a chemical warfare. In the captured city, they unleashed a tetanus epidemic, infecting a significant number of people to see the possibilities of vaccination (and the deadly and torturous power of the disease). When Unit 731 didn’t have the supplies they needed, Kempid’s men went out to find them. Children, adolescents, pregnant women and adolescents were tested in this way. Children born to women who have been raped by men are often used as guinea pigs in the laboratory.

Many of the officers in charge of the Kempeitai went on to have successful careers in the Japanese military. They were promoted and occupied privileged positions during the most critical moments of World War II. They were men who showed their loyalty, their hardness of spirit, their lack of stinginess in doing what was necessary to avoid defeat, and the lack of humanity necessary to wage war. There was a more extreme example Hideki Dojo, General Commander of his forces and Prime Minister of Japan.

After the Japanese surrender, the Kempeitai evaporated. Perhaps the most accurate word dissolution to find out what happened. Its officers and members were dispersed throughout Japanese territory and – after destroying all possible evidence of their involvement in the atrocities – denied their participation in the organization and tried to hide among the civilians. As if nothing happened. Very few were arrested and interrogated.