The Kempeitai – Japan's Gestapo
Dreaded Secret Police of World War II
The kempeitai were the military police of the Japanese Imperial army in the 1930s and during World War II. They were a kind of military secret police, and also largely responsible for counter-espionage activities. Known as “Japan’s Gestapo,” the kempeitai were guilty of some of the worst atrocities of World War II.
The “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”
When Japan began its aggressive moves in the 1930s, the kempeitai were agents of terror and suppression. They enjoyed almost complete autonomy and freedom from restraint. As Japan’s conquests grew, it proclaimed that the Asian countries it invaded were really liberated from European colonialist rule. Tokyo proclaimed a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,” but this was window dressing to disguise brutal subjugation.
The kempeitai were the ruthless agents of Japanese imperialism. The organization had many missions. Sometimes they would act as agents of the Imperial Japanese army, sweeping districts to “requisition” supplies. Other times the sweeps would be for human victims. Areas would be swept for young Chinese, Korean, or Philippina women, all to be used as sex slaves in army brothels. These victims were the so-called "comfort women."
Japanese World War II POW Camps
The kempeitai were responsible for rear areas in battle zones, running POW and forced labor camps, and for reprisal raids. In the latter instance certain districts would be singled out and deliberately put to the torch. All the inhabitants—men, women, and children—would be ruthlessly slaughtered. Kempeitai also ran special camps like Unit 731, where the most horrific experiments were performed on thousands of Allied and Asian prisoner victims.
Japanese Atrocities
Bridge House in Shanghai was a typical kempeitai establishment. Prisoners were arrested in the middle of the night without warning, and held without trial. Victims endured weeks of filth, crowded conditions, and ill treatment. But that was only a prelude to kempeitai interrogations that included savage torture.
Victims were beaten, or subjected to electric shock torture. In another torture technique, the “water cure,” the victim was forced to drink gallons of filthy water, then half-smothered by a towel. If a “confession” was not forthcoming, the water would be expelled by beatings on the stomach and abdomen.
The Kempeitai and the End of World War II
The ruthless kempeitai disbanded after Japan’s defeat in World War II. Some were punished as war criminals, but others escaped into the general Japanese population. During the war kempeitai officers often achieved high rank. General Hideki Tojo, famed as premier of Japan during the war period, was in the kempeitai earlier in his career. He was hanged as a war criminal in 1948.
Sources:
Raymond Lamont-Brown, Kempeitai: Japan's Dreaded Military Police (Sutton Publishing, 1998)
Japanesesoldier in Shanghai, ca 1930s
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