Atrocities on Japanese Subs?

majorwoody10 · Dec 23, 2007

in a book by a former brit officer serving in the chindits ,he tells of them sometimes haveing to shoot their own wounded guys when the ija was closeing in on their position ,rather than leaveing them to the tender mercies of the bushido boys ...

Skua · Dec 26, 2007

TISO said:

About incidents with I-8:

I-8 (Tatsunoke Ariizumi)
26 March 1944
Dutch Ship "Tjisalak"(5787grt)
02'30S,78'40E
En route from Melbourne to Colombo with 6640 tons of flour.Torpedoed.
Crew 66+10 gunners+28 passengers.72 crew and gunners+27 passengers lost. 98 of the 104 Dutch(mostly) and British sailors who had survived the torpedo attack,were killed by the submarine`s crew with swords and spanners wielded as clubs on the submarine`s deck.Almost a total massacre.(94% killed) Two witnesses who had been left for dead in a lifeboat,were subsequently rescued.

I-8 (Tatsunoke Ariizumi)
2 July 1944
US Ship "Jean Nicolet"(7176grt)
03'28S,74'30E
US Ship "Jean Nicolet" was torpedoed and sunk while en route from Los Angeles and Fremantle to Colombo and Calculta with a cargo of US Army stores. It has been said that the Japanese took all the sailors on to the submarine`s deck and killed them one by one.Many were massacred by clubbing,bayoneting oe beheading.The an aircraft was heard,and the remaining survivors were left squatting on deck with their hands tied behind their backs,while the submarine submerged.Yet a further account (Rohwer) says:
One of the 103 crew members of the "Jean Nicolet" was killed immediatelly, five were taken below and never seen again and one was disembowelled.Ninety-six survivors picked up by the submarine were injured while running the gauntlet of the crew.Twenty-three of them survived when the submarine had to dive,and they were rescued by an Indian warship on 4 July 1944.
According to "Lloyds War Losses Volume 1",the "Jean Nicolet" was carrying a crew of 41+30 passengers+1 army medical sergeant+28 armed guard.(Total 100 on board).
31 crew+19 armed guard+26 passengers+1 army medical sergeant were
lost.(Total 77 lost-i.e 77%) Five of the crew were made P.O.W in the submarine. If these figures are correct,there must be therefore have been 23 survivors.including the five P.O.Ws in the submarine,but apparently 23 survivors were picked up by the Indian Warship.
Francis J O` Gara,the purser of the Liberty Ship "Jean Nicolet",was thought
to have been among those killed.After the war he was found in a Japanese
P.O.W camp.In the meantime,another Liberty Ship had been named after him.He was the only living person to have a Liberty Ship named after him-in error,of course ,as it had been thought he was dead.

I-8 (Tatsunoke Ariizumi)
29 June 1944
British Ship "Nellore"(694grt)
07'51S,75'20E
En route from Bombay for Melbourne and Syndey with 2720 tons general and goverment stores. Torpedoed.
She had 155 crew+ 9 gunners+ 45 passengers.
35 Crew+ 5 gunners+ 39 passengers were lost.(79 lost out of total 209-i.e 38%)
One gunner and 10 passengers made P.O.W.

Ariizumi committed hara-kiri when a later command,the large submarine I-400 was taken over by the US Navy in August 1945.[Rohwer]
Tatsunoke Ariizumi, in command of I-401,shot himself as the submarine
entered Tokyo Bay,flying the black falg of surrender.[Padfield]
Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Thanks, it was really this information I was looking for. Beyond that I wanted to know if this was an exception from the normal conduct of Japanese submarine commanders or not, not which side was worst.

TISO · Dec 26, 2007

AFAIK This kind of behaviour was rather exception than the rule.

Ebar · Dec 27, 2007

Yes primarily because of self interest.

A sub that's pratting around kill survivors in the water is a sub that is vunerable. Barbarism has risks attached while while being 'mercyful' and allowing the survivors to drown or die of exposure is risk free.

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