The wanton torture and killing of Qing prisoners of war gradually spread among the Japanese army.

At first, it was only a sporadic "personal act", and the excuse of the Japanese officers and soldiers was that they were "offended and had to be killed." However, as no punishment was received, the officers and gendarmes did not stop it, and soon this sporadic act turned into a widespread act.

Because they couldn't get used to the indifferent appearance of the Qing prisoners, especially when they were so happy as prisoners, those proud Japanese soldiers felt that their moral bottom line had been challenged, and everyone was holding back their anger. Coupled with the previous incident of "Qing torpedo boat attack on Japanese ships", the hatred that spread throughout the country is even more fueled at this moment.

Many Japanese veterans, or junior officers, just wanted to show off their "courage" to the recruits and show their "samurai spirit," so they selected one or two people from the Qing army captives to be killed. The way to pick people, some of them find fault, shout at a certain Qing prisoner, call him over, and order him to bow to himself. Of course, the Qing army prisoners couldn't understand it, and even if they came, they were standing there at a loss and trembling. In this way, the Japanese soldier could claim that he had been "insulted" and directly draw his sword and behead him. What's more, even this kind of trick is saved, and a random person is pulled out to cut it.

The current Japanese army is no longer the kind of army that tried to show how "civilized" it was during the Russo-Japanese War and World War I because it wanted to "break away from Asia and join Europe." After entering the thirties, Japan's Yamato nationalism revived, and the whole society, both military and civilian, advocated the "Yamato spirit" and admired the traditional Japanese spirit. "Bushido" was already deeply ingrained in the Japanese army, and now it has intensified and blossomed. At present, the Japanese army has transformed from an army that "worships foreigners and flatters foreigners" in the 10s and twenties to an army that "arms its mind with the spirit of bushido." In later terms, it was "fascism".

In Japan, the status of a soldier or samurai is quite high. In traditional Japanese society, samurai were not responsible for killing "untouchables" and belonged to a privileged class. Even in the new Japanese society after the Meiji Restoration, ordinary citizens walked down the street and bowed to uniformed soldiers. A soldier and a civilian walk together in the street, and even if the two are friends or brothers, that civilian cannot walk side by side with the soldier, but half a step behind.

Therefore, in Japan, the pride and superiority of the military class have been deeply imprinted in the bones. Now in the face of the enemy's capture, this "world's cheapest pariah" actually does not bow to him, and the Japanese soldiers can completely say that they have been offended. Then according to the way of dealing with it in Japanese culture, it can only be "draw a knife and cut it".

In Japanese society, the highest rank of "shinong" is a samurai and a professional soldier. Among China's "scholars, farmers, and merchants", the highest "scholars" are scribes and scholars. Professional soldiers are the last in Chinese society, and it is only those social dregs who have committed crimes that will be "confiscated into the army", and they are called "thieves with the army". The Japanese are the most glorious thing to be soldiers, while the Chinese pay attention to "good iron does not hit nails, and good men do not serve soldiers".

The traditional culture of the Chinese pays attention to "distinguishing right from wrong" and paying attention to "the world's affairs are not more than a rational word". I want to distinguish right from wrong in everything, and I can't help but say, "You're still unreasonable." In the traditional Japanese culture, no matter whether it is right or wrong, it is only about the strong and the weak.

Now the prisoners of the Qing army may think: You are not my person, why should I bow to you? Which royal law says it? And the Japanese soldiers think that now I am the strong, you are the weak, you should bow to me, otherwise I can kill you casually.

The Qing prisoners felt: What's wrong with my surrender? What happened to being a prisoner of war? Since ancient times, if you don't kill and surrender soldiers, the big husband can bend and stretch, and victory and defeat are common things in soldiers...... The Japanese soldiers will think that since you did not die on the battlefield, then you are now exchanging all your dignity for a living, and you are now inferior to a dog. I abuse you as much as I like. No matter how cruel I am to you, I am not a little morally burdened.

……

The surrender of the Qing army so quickly and on such a large scale was something that the Japanese army did not expect. When the Japanese military command drew up the plan, it did not take into account that there would suddenly be so many prisoners of war to deal with in a short period of time. In just one morning, the Qing army took more than 100,000 prisoners. The Japanese army's offensive plan, logistical support, and even marching traffic were completely disrupted by these 100,000 prisoners.

The Japanese soldiers did not understand what their duty was to take care of the prisoners. Why save precious food from the mouths of the warriors and give it to these cowards? Among the Japanese soldiers, there was a general idea of "why not kill them all". Many commanders of the units also had the idea of "simply killing them all." Anyway, they are enemies, what's wrong with taking out enemies.

In the traditional thinking of Japanese soldiers, there is no concept of "prisoner of war". In their role in war, they are either their own people or enemies, and there is no room for such a thing as "prisoners of war". The Japanese do not believe that if the enemy lays down his arms, he is not an enemy. Oh, you were shooting at me with a gun, and now I'm just rushing to you, you throw the gun away, raise your hands and surrender, I can't kill you yet. How can it be so cheap? If that's the case, how can the war be fought?

Practical necessity and the role of traditional beliefs have made the torture of captives more common. In just one morning, the number of Qing prisoners who were killed sporadically reached thousands.

Faced with the situation that their lives were in danger at any time, the escape of Qing prisoners was even more frequent. In the afternoon, there were frequent incidents of large-scale escapes. And once they fled alive, the Japanese army had the best reason to kill. Once a few of the prisoners of war escaped, the Japanese soldiers would indiscriminately shoot into the pile, so that the entire group of prisoners of war would run for their lives and scatter. At this time, the Japanese machine guns and small mortars next to them simply joined forces, and basically wiped out the entire group of prisoners in a few clicks.

……

In the evening, the Japanese advance had attacked to the west to Fengcheng, and then to the northeast along the back of the Yalu River defense line, and had captured Kuandian. By night, the 5o km line of defense from Andong to Kuandian, had collapsed on all fronts. The surrender of the Qing army has reached 180,000.

Throughout the day, the Qing soldiers captured by the Japanese army did not receive any food to satisfy their hunger except for their own dry rations. I didn't even drink water, and I was thirsty and had to eat the black and dirty snow that had been trampled on the ground. In the scorching cold of more than 30 degrees below zero, more than 100,000 captives huddled together, shivering on empty stomachs, and stiffened in the cold wind. By nightfall, the temperature had dropped sharply, approaching minus 40 degrees Celsius. Thousands of Qing prisoners of war fell, and once they fell, they could no longer get up, and they became hard corpses.

And the surrounding Japanese troops, setting up machine guns and searchlights, surrounded them with barbed wire, just watched them, and did not feel that they had an obligation to feed them. Prisoners who tried to escape were machine-gunned.

During this night, no less than 10,000 people froze to death and were shot to death by collective strafing.

……

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