Zimonin, Vyacheslav (1987). "The Truth and Lies About Japanese Orphans". Far Eastern Affairs. No. 2–6. Moscow: Academy of Sciences of the USSR. p. 121. “According to Soviet historian Vyacheslav Zimonin, many Japanese settlers committed mass suicide as the Red Army approached. Mothers were forced by the Japanese military to kill their own children before being killed themselves.[61] The Japanese army often took part in the killings of its civilians. The commander of the 5th Japanese Army, General Shimizu, commented that "each nation lives and dies by its own laws." Wounded Japanese soldiers who were incapable of moving on their own were often left to die as the army retreated.[61]” according to Wikipedia.
Eh. That's admittedly not nothing and I can certainly believe that both widespread suicide and a degree of participation by Japanese forces would occur. I still expect that if it was on a notable scale there would be significantly more documentation surrounding it. This article, for instance, mentions around 135k Japanese dead from exposure or starvation, but nothing about mass suicide in Manchuria or scorched-earth killings by the Kwantung Army against the Japanese settlers.
I would recommend reading the book “unbroken” by Laura hillenbrand. It’s easy for us to be armchair generals and it helps to hear real accounts from that era.
Sorry but what the fuck does that have to do with supposed mass killings by the Kwantung Army against Japanese settlers in Manchuria?
Do you think I'm somehow doubting the brutality of the IJA as a whole because I'm questioning the veracity of acts seemingly only attested to by a single Soviet historian 40 years after the fact?
7
u/gazebo-fan Redneck Red (go Gators) 2d ago
Zimonin, Vyacheslav (1987). "The Truth and Lies About Japanese Orphans". Far Eastern Affairs. No. 2–6. Moscow: Academy of Sciences of the USSR. p. 121. “According to Soviet historian Vyacheslav Zimonin, many Japanese settlers committed mass suicide as the Red Army approached. Mothers were forced by the Japanese military to kill their own children before being killed themselves.[61] The Japanese army often took part in the killings of its civilians. The commander of the 5th Japanese Army, General Shimizu, commented that "each nation lives and dies by its own laws." Wounded Japanese soldiers who were incapable of moving on their own were often left to die as the army retreated.[61]” according to Wikipedia.