The Tokyo Trials Sworn Deposition by Major SAKURAI, Fumio

1
INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL
FOR THE FAR EAST
Court House of the Tribunal
War Ministry Building
Tokyo, Japan Date: Friday, 25 April, 1947
Sworn Deposition by Major SAKURAI, Fumio, Platoon Commander
of the 2nd Regiment of the Japanese China Garrison Army
(Def. Doc. No. 1140, translated by Defense Language Branch)
Having first duly sworn an oath as on attached sheet and in accordance with the procedure followed in my country I hereby depose as follows:
I am an ex-army-major and at present residing at No. 938 SAKUSABE MACHI, CHIBA City.
At the time of Tung-Chow incident, I moved in to that walled city, on July 30, 1937, for purposes of rescue as a platoon leader in the Second Regiment which was stationed in China, along with the main strength of the regiment, and saw closely the spectacle of the massacre of Tung-Chow. So I will relate the conditions of that time as follows:
1. As soon as I entered the walled city, at about 4 p.m. I was ordered to sweep the southern half of the walled city Tung-Chow with the platoon under my command, as the commander of the mopping up force and I immediately commenced operations.
First of all, as we moved out the east gate of the garrison camp, we witnesses bodies of men and women of our residents laying scattered, every few KEN (TN: 2 yards). Our indignation reached its climax but as we would not find any enemy soldiers about, we exclusively engaged ourselves the accommodation of those who we still alive until midnight.
As we examined each house crying loudly, “Is there no Japanese?”, from here and there, crawling out one after another from garbage-bins, trenches, or from behind a wall, a child whose nose was pierced crosswise with wire as an ox, an old woman whose one arm was cut off, or a pregnant woman whose abdomen was stabbed with bayonets etc. came forth.
2. Inside a certain restaurant, I witnessed the remains of an entire family massacred, with each of the individuals with the heads and arms cut off.
All and any women more than 14 or 15 years of age were all raped. It was indeed
2
unbearable sight.
3. When we entered an eating-house called the “ASAHIKEN”, we found the corpse of seven or eight women completely stripped, raped, and shot or bayoneted. Among them, there were those whose private parts had a broom inserted, those whose mouth were stuffed with sand, those whose abdomen were cut open lengthwise, etc., it was indeed unbearable to see.
4. There was a pond near a shop kept by a certain Korean in the neighborhood of the east gate. In this pond, whose water was dyed red with blood, were found the six corpse of an entire family; their necks were tied together with rope and their two hands tied together and pierced with no. 8-iron-wire as beads in a rosary. Evidence was quite clear that they had been dragged about.
Thus it was after 9 o’clock that night if I remember correctly, when we finished mopping up. I remember that up to that time I had seen a 100 massacred bodies, and that we had collected about 20 seriously or slightly injured persons from the area with which I was responsible for mopping up.
Among those who were injured, there were some who became insane, others, almost without exception, were in a dazed stupefied state.
This tragic “picture-scroll of hell” which I had seen with my own eye is deeply engraved in my brain even now.
Since I took some pictures of some of these massacred bodies of our residents, I will present them here.