Japanese soldiers fried, ate human flesh of Chinese civilian

Japanese soldiers fried the flesh of a Chinese civilian and ate it during WWII, according to a war criminal who confessed to scores of murders and rapes in a document published by the State Archives Administration (SAA) on Thursday.

In the 10th of a series of 31 confessions from Japanese war criminals published on the SAA website in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, Kunihiro Nakao detailed his brutality in China between 1940 and his capture in August 1945.

Nakao, who was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture in Japan in 1921, "cruelly killed two anti-Japanese captives, both male, aged between 20 to 22" on 10 April 1940 in Huanggang County, Hubei Province, according to his confession written in 1954.

He said one was "beheaded with a sword" by an army cook and the other was "bayoneted at the same time" by several soldiers and "fell into a pit."

Nakao then "shoveled soil into the pit to bury the man who was still alive, beat him with a round shovel and trampled him to death."

From October to November 1940, in Jingmen County, Hubei Province, he "used Chinese people as targets for shooting exercises and shot dead three Chinese" with the companions.

"I ... fired 15 rounds with a light machine gun and a rifle at five or six Chinese, and shot a Chinese person with the light machine gun," he wrote.

According to Nakao's confession, in June 1942 in Jiangling County, Hubei Province, his companion "captured a 30-year-old Chinese man, bayoneted him to death, cut off about 1.5 kg of flesh from his thigh, wrapped the flesh in cloth and brought it to me."

"After the flesh was fried with pork, chicken, fish and vegetables, all members of the squad of 40 soldiers and I ate the dish," Nakao wrote.

In July 1942 in Hubei's Dangyang County, his subordinates captured two Chinese female passers-by and raped them. "Fukuoka went so far as to insert a pear into their vaginas, causing great pain to them," he said.

Nakao also confessed to tying two captured Chinese to a tree in June 1944 in Jingmen County and ordered new recruits to "bayonet one in the chest 50 times, making him look like a honeycomb."

"The other was beheaded and I ordered Sergeant Yamane to dissect his chest with a sword," he wrote.

He confessed to raping Chinese and Korean women, who were captured, enslaved and tortured by Japanese imperialists. Nakao raped 25 Chinese women 30 times and 12 Korean women 14 times from June 1941 to May 1945.

From December 1944 to early May 1945 in Jingmen, he had a sentry rape four Chinese women, according to the confession.

The SAA is publishing a confession a day in the run-up to commemorations of the end of the war on Sept. 3. The handwritten documents come complete with translations and abstracts in both Chinese and English.

The confessions detail crimes including murder, enslavement and poisoning Chinese people, as well as the use of biological and chemical weapons on live human subjects.