Imperial Japan’s War Criminals: Instruments of Death
3 Episodes
They smiled in photographs, wrote letters home, and swore loyalty to the Emperor.
Yet behind the front lines, they burned villages, raped civilians, and executed prisoners.
These were the faces of Imperial Japan’s War Criminals —
the lieutenants, medics, and soldiers who carried out atrocities across Asia.
From the “contest to kill 100 men” to human experiments in Unit 731,
Instruments of Death reveals how ordinary men became willing killers in the name of empire.
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Gunkichi Tanaka: From Imperial Officer to War Criminal
Episode 1
Born in Tokyo in 1905, Gunkichi Tanaka rose through the ranks of the Imperial Japanese Army, trained in discipline, loyalty, and the art of the sword. During Japan’s invasion of China, he commanded a company of the 6th Division that entered Nanjing in December 1937.
There, Tanaka used his sword ...
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Yasuji Kaneko: The Soldier Who Raped and Killed in China
Episode 2
He was not a general or commander, but an ordinary soldier of the Imperial Japanese Army — one who turned cruelty into routine.
Born in 1920, Yasuji Kaneko fought in North China as part of the 10th Independent Mixed Brigade. There, he took part in the enslavement, torture, and murder of Chinese c... -
Race to Kill 100: Mukai & Noda’s Deadly Japanese Contest
Episode 3
In December 1937, during the Japanese invasion of China, two officers of the Imperial Japanese Army — Lieutenant Toshiaki Mukai and Lieutenant Tsuyoshi Noda — turned mass killing into a grotesque game.
They competed to see who could behead 100 people first using their swords, a so-called “friendl...
