The wanton killing of Qing prisoners of war gradually spread among the Japanese army.
At first it was just sporadic "personal behavior", and the excuse of the Japanese officers and soldiers was that they were "offended and had no choice but to take action." However, because they did not receive any punishment, the officers and military police did not stop this behavior. Soon, this behavior
This sporadic behavior evolved into a large-scale behavior.
Because they couldn't stand the indifference of the Qing prisoners, especially how happy they were as prisoners, those proud Japanese soldiers felt that their moral bottom line had been challenged, and everyone was filled with anger. In addition,
The hatred that spread across the country following the previous "Qing torpedo boat attack on Japanese ships" incident has only added fuel to the fire.
Many Japanese veterans, or junior officers, just to show off their "guts" and "warrior spirit" to the new recruits, selected one or two people from the Qing army prisoners to kill. Some of the methods of selecting people were:
To find trouble, shout at a certain Qing prisoner, call him over, and order him
Bow to himself. Of course, the Qing prisoners did not understand. Even if they came over, they would just stand there at a loss and trembling. In this way, the Japanese soldier could claim that he was "insulted" and directly draw his sword to kill him. More
What's more, even this kind of trick is omitted, and just pull out a random person to chop.
Today's Japanese army is no longer the kind it was during the Russo-Japanese War or World War I, which tried its best to show how "civilized" it was because it wanted to "leave Asia and join Europe." After entering the 1930s, Japan's Yamato nationalism resurgence,
Both military and civilians, the whole society is advocating the "Yamato soul" and admiring the traditional Japanese spirit
"Bushido" was already deeply ingrained in the Japanese army, and now it has intensified and blossomed. Now the Japanese army has transformed from the army that "worshiped foreigners and favored foreigners" in the 1910s and 20s, back to "arming the mind with the spirit of Bushido."
The army was "fascized" in later generations' terminology.
In Japan, the status of soldiers or samurai is quite high. In traditional Japanese society, samurai did not need to bear any responsibility for killing "untouchables" and belonged to the privileged class. Even in the new Japanese society after the Meiji Restoration, ordinary citizens
When walking on the street, when you see a soldier in uniform, you must bow to him. When soldiers and civilians walk together on the street, even if they are friends or brothers, the civilian cannot walk side by side with the soldier, but has to be half a mile behind.
step.
Therefore, in Japan, the pride and superiority of the military class have been deeply ingrained in their bones. Now when facing enemy prisoners, such "the lowest untouchables in the world", they do not bow to themselves. Japanese soldiers can completely say that they are
If you are offended, then according to the way of dealing with it in Japanese culture, you can only "draw your sword and kill it".
Among the "scholars, farmers, industry and commerce" in Japanese society, the highest-ranking "shi" are samurai, who are professional soldiers. But among the "scholars, farmers, industry and commerce" in China, the highest-ranking "shi" are scribes, who are literati and officials. In Chinese society, professional soldiers are on the contrary
The lowest-ranking people are the scum of society who have committed crimes and are "expelled" into the army and are called "thieves serving in the army." For the Japanese, being a soldier is the most glorious thing, while the Chinese believe that "good iron cannot be hammered into nails."
A good man should not be a soldier."
Chinese traditional culture emphasizes "distinguishing right from wrong" and "the world's biggest issues cannot be separated by a word of reason." They want to distinguish right from wrong in everything, and they often say "You are still unreasonable." However, in Japanese traditional culture, no matter what is right or wrong, no matter what
Reason only talks about strength, weakness, superiority and inferiority.
Now the prisoners of the Qing army may think: You are not one of me, why should I bow to you? Which royal law says it? But the Japanese soldiers think, now I am the strong one and you are the weak one, you bow to me.
It's right, otherwise I can kill you at will.
The prisoners of the Qing army thought: What happened to me surrendering? What happened to being a prisoner of war? Since ancient times, men have not killed and surrendered. A man can bend and stretch, and victory or defeat is a common thing for soldiers... The Japanese soldiers will think that since you did not die on the battlefield, you are now used
All your dignity has been exchanged for a living, and now you are worse than a dog. I can abuse you as much as I like. No matter how cruel I am to you, I have no moral burden at all.
…
The Qing army surrendered so quickly and on such a large scale that no one in the Japanese army had expected. When the Japanese Military Command made the plan, they never considered that there would suddenly be so many prisoners of war to deal with in a short period of time. Just one
In the morning, there were more than 100,000 Qing prisoners in hand. The Japanese army's offensive plan, logistical support, and even marching transportation were completely disrupted by these 100,000 prisoners.
The Japanese soldiers did not understand what their obligations were to take care of these prisoners. Why should they save precious food from the mouths of the warriors and give it to these cowards. Among the Japanese soldiers, there was a general feeling of "Why not kill them all?"
Many commanders of the troops also had the idea of "just kill them all". They are enemies anyway, so what's wrong with killing them?
There is no concept of "prisoners of war" in the traditional thinking of Japanese soldiers. Their war roles are either their own people or the enemy, leaving no room for such things as "prisoners of war". The Japanese do not believe that the enemy will lay down his weapons.
You are no longer an enemy. Oh, you were holding a gun and shooting at me just now. Now as soon as I rush to you, you throw away the gun and raise your hands to surrender. I can't kill you yet. How can anything be so cheap? It's a fight like this.
How else to fight?
The combination of practical needs and the influence of traditional concepts made the killing of prisoners more common. In one morning alone, the number of Qing prisoners killed sporadically reached thousands.
Faced with the situation that their lives were at risk at any time, the escapes of Qing prisoners occurred frequently. In the afternoon, large-scale escapes often occurred. Once an escape occurred, the Japanese army had the best reason to kill. A group of
Once a few prisoners of war escape,
If they run away, the Japanese soldiers will shoot into the crowd indiscriminately, so that the entire group of prisoners of war will run away with their lives and disperse. At this time, the Japanese machine guns and small mortars next to them will simply attack, and they will basically be captured in a few seconds.
The entire group of prisoners was wiped out.
…
By evening, the Japanese forwards had attacked Fengcheng to the west, and then attacked northeast along the Yalu River behind the defense line, and had captured Kuandian. The Qing troops fled all the way, and the Japanese troops seemed to be in uninhabited territory. At night, from Andong to
Kuandian's 50-kilometer defense line has completely collapsed. The number of Qing troops who surrendered has reached 180,000.
During this whole day, the Qing soldiers captured by the Japanese army did not receive any food to satisfy their hunger except the dry food they carried. They did not even drink water. When they were thirsty, they could only eat the dark and dirty snow that had been trampled on the ground.
In the severe cold of more than 30 degrees below zero, hundreds of thousands of prisoners huddled
Together, we shivered with empty stomachs and stood upright in the cold wind. At night, the temperature dropped sharply again, already close to minus 40 degrees. Thousands of Qing prisoners of war fell, and once they fell, they would never return.
Unable to get up, he became a hard corpse.
The surrounding Japanese troops set up machine guns and searchlights, and surrounded them with barbed wire. They only monitored them and did not feel they had any obligation to feed them. Once the prisoners tried to escape, they would be massacred by machine guns.
During this night, no less than 10,000 people froze to death and were shot to death in groups.