Doc 2701, Exhibit "O" - The order to murder all the POWs

Source: NARA, War Crimes, Japan, RG 24, Box 2015

While some claim the author of this "policy memorandum" from the War Ministry did not have the authority to issue such an order, this "policy" was transmitted to every POW Camp Group Command and POW prison camp commander. Other documents in this same file show that input of suggestion for the "Methods to dispose of the POWS" had been solicited from all commands in the preceding months. Per Toru Fukubayashi: "It appears that the Japanese Army did have a policy to kill all the POWs if Allied Forces landed on Japanese home islands. Some argue that there are few materials to prove that this policy existed. However, Mr. Yamashita, who was the commander of Iruka Branch Camp (Nagoya No.4) in Mie Prefecture, told me in 1998 that ideas about how to kill the POWs had been discussed among the principal members of the branch camp." See below ATIS bulletin excerpt.

