The remains of former Japanese soldiers who died in battle during the Philippine campaign of World War II were cremated, and their ashes were collected. The bones were carefully cleaned and then piled into small individual mounds.

 　　The remains of former Japanese soldiers who died in the Battle of the Philippines during the Pacific War were cremated, and their ashes were collected. Due to insufficient information to identify the remains, many of the bodies collected after 1959 were buried anonymously at the Chidorigafuchi War Memorial Cemetery. The bones were carefully cleaned and then stacked in small individual piles. The skeletons were arranged and cremated, but each was cremated separately during a ceremony. The purpose of cremation was not to reduce the remains to ashes, but to purify the bones with fire. After cremation, the bones were cleaned again and placed individually in separate urns.

　　The Japanese government began serious efforts to recover the remains 20 years after the war, in the mid-1960s.This was a period when the economy had recovered and the scars of war had faded from the cities. Large-scale excavations were carried out after the Tokyo Olympics, with the games taking priority over the war victims. After the 1980s, reports of politicians visiting the Yasukuni Shrine led to a distancing from the national excavation project.

　　Internationally, the recovery of Japanese soldiers' remains frequently became a topic of negotiation with Russia and China. China had long refused to allow Japan to recover remains, maintaining political pressure on Japan and avoiding revisiting the past. Amid the chaos of the civil war, official figures were convenient for both the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party, as the major parties involved in the war, to avoid detailed reexamination of their responsibilities toward Japan.

　　The importance of civil society groups cannot be underestimated. Volunteer organizations played a crucial role in remains recovery campaigns. Many young people participated in these arduous missions. In 2009, over 50 volunteers took part in excavation work in Siberia, Mongolia, New Guinea, and Okinawa. Some participants demonstrated strong patriotic or nationalistic tendencies.

　　In Europe and Western countries, the handling of remains recovered from battlefields is of little importance. Japan's remains recovery mission was highly ritualized. The first legal document addressing the issue of remains recovery was issued in 1954, establishing the following procedures: “Exhumation and collection of remains; classification of discovered artifacts; identification of remains; cremation; recovery of remains; disposal of ashes.”These procedures were indeed followed, and even as the number of discovered remains decreased, this aspect was notably adhered to.

During the Battle of the Yalu River (April 30 to May 1, 1904) in the Russo-Japanese War, the fallen soldiers of the honorable 34th Regiment were buried. On the battlefields of the Russo-Japanese War, official ceremonies called “Memorial Services for the Fallen” were held in accordance with Shinto rituals to commemorate those who lost their lives in battle.

 日露戦争の鴨緑江会戦(1904年4月30日から5月1日)にて、名誉ある第34連隊の戦死者を埋葬した。第34連隊は、その後に日露戦争の遼陽会戦で最大の首山堡の激戦地で戦った連隊であった。さらに、沙河会戦、黒溝台会戦を経て、奉天会戦に参戦した。

　1904年5月14日に、埋葬の全作業が完了し、砂利道の先に鳥居を立てた記念碑が建立された。5月15日に、橋頭司令官が出席した除幕式が行われ、記念演説が朗読された。「本日、日本帝国衛兵第八予備輸送部隊の兵士たちの協力により、楡の木立の丘の上に建設された記念碑の除幕式を執り行います。これは、戦没した兵士たちの愛国精神を鎮めるためです。この場所は敵であるロシア軍の砲兵基地があった場所で、私たちの日本軍の勇敢な兵士たちが進軍した山脈には、狭い川を隔てて日本軍の後ろにそびえ立つ山脈が遠くに連なっています。私たちの前側と両側には、兵士たちが流した血から生えた緑の草が特に鮮やかで美しく、長い間亡くなった愛国者の魂の仕業なのかと不思議に思わせます。」記念演説の詩的な表現は、その場の悲しみをさらに強調していました。

　日露戦争の戦場では、戦没者を追悼する公式儀式である「戦没者追悼式」が神道儀式に従って行われた。招魂とは、死者の霊を招き求めること、特に戦没者の霊を招き求めることを意味した。この儀式は必ず別個の仏教式追悼法要が続いて行われた。1905年4月13日に開催された日本軍連隊の戦没者追悼式典の例は、田多開造兵士の日記に記載された。4月13日午前9時50分、連隊旗の掲揚で式典が始まり、僧侶による仏典の朗読が続いた。その後、連隊長による追悼演説が朗読された。続いて、以下の順で将校が整列した：歩兵旅団長、大隊長、中隊長、少尉、少尉補、下士官、兵曹長、最後に兵士の代表。日本軍兵士は順番に仮設の祭壇へ進み、連隊の戦没者に敬意を表した。戦乱の満州では神職が不足して、神道儀式に多少の知識のある将校や兵士が白装束を着用し、神職の役目を代行することが多かった。

 

On December 10, 1943, German soldiers were ordered to kill all male residents of Calabrita. 438 men, boys, and elderly people were killed, and only 13 men survived by hiding under the bodies.

 　　On December 13, 1943, the 117th Jäger Division of the German Armed Forces executed nearly all the men in the town of Kalavrita, Greece, which was under Axis occupation. German SS soldiers shot and killed civilians in Kalavrita. In October 1943, the Greek Resistance had killed 78 German soldiers. In retaliation, on December 10, 1943, German soldiers were ordered to kill all male residents of Calabrita. A total of 438 men, including boys and the elderly, were killed, with only 13 male survivors who hid under the bodies to escape. The German military's retaliatory massacre in Calabrita resulted in the deaths of 693 civilians.

　　German military reprisals were a primary means of suppressing resistance. When German soldiers were killed or military facilities destroyed, Wehrmacht and SS units imposed disproportionate reprisals on local communities to deter resistance activities. German reprisal measures reduced the level of resistance, leading to an increase in acts of betrayal by local residents who sought to protect themselves from reprisals by betraying resistance fighters.

　　During World War II, Greece was occupied by Axis forces from April 1941 to October 1944. Armed and unarmed Greek groups organized resistance movements. To exhaust the resistance in Calabria and lower civilian morale, the German occupation forces organized and carried out military operations in the mountainous regions of Calabria. The largest of these was the Calabria Operation in December 1943, during which the German Army's 117th Jäger Division surrounded Greek resistance guerrilla fighters.

Olena cries over the body of her husband Viktor. He was killed when Russian bombs hit Kostiantynivka on February 26, 2025.

 　Olena from Ukraine is seen crying beside the body of her husband, Viktor, who was killed by a Russian bomb on February 26, 2025. Viktor was on his way to go shopping in Kostyantynivka, Donetsk Oblast, on the day of the bombing. The Russian attack resulted in the deaths of five civilians and injuries to 11 others.

　On February 26, 2025, Russian forces carried out multiple airstrikes on Kostyantynivka in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. According to the National Police, at least six bombs struck, killing five civilians and injuring 11 others. The attacks caused widespread damage, including to buildings, apartments, garages, vehicles, banks, pharmacies, shopping malls, power lines, and gas pipelines.

　　Additionally, on April 26, 2025, three people were killed and eight injured in Russian airstrikes in Kostyantynivka, Donetsk Oblast. Two of the deceased were from Kostyantynivka. Russian forces dropped three bombs on Kostyantynivka at 11:35 AM on April 26, 2025. The airstrikes directly hit residential areas, causing fatal injuries to civilians. Additionally, local residents reported injuries from landmine explosions, shrapnel wounds, rib fractures, and lacerations. The Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office stated that the Russian military used FAB-250 bombs, which had been converted from unguided bombs to precision-guided missiles, in the attack. Russian forces attacked the area near the village of Novoekonomichne in the Pokrovsk district.

Warning: Olena cries over the body of her husband Viktor. He was killed when Russian bombs hit Kostiantynivka on February 26, 2025. 

A GROUP OF BOYS FROM THE HIROSHIMA SECOND MIDDLE SCHOOL, SHOWING PIGMENTATION AND KELOID CAUSED BY THE ATOMIC BOMB DROPPED ON HIRO SHIMA.

Undisclosed photos of Japanese

Atomic-bomb survivors

U.S. Atomic Bomb Surveys

The National Archives College Park, Maryland

　　　       February 23, 2024           

SC-295912

SC-295913

SC-295912,  7 JULY 1947

MEDICAL RECORDS OF ATOMIC BOMB VICTIMS:

A GROUP OF BOYS FROM THE HIROSHIMA SECOND MIDDLE SCHOOL, SHOWING PIGMENTATION ON THEIR FACES CAUSED BY THE ATOMIC BOMB DROPPED ON HIRO SHIMA. PICTURE TAKEN FOR THE ATOMIC BOMB CASUALTY COMMISSION.

PHOTOGRAPHER-SNELL ATOMIC

PHOTOGRAPH BY U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS.

RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION, PUBLIC INFORMATION DIVISION, WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON

15678, 115

115

SC-295913

(FEC-47-77497)

7 JULY 1947

MEDICAL RECORDS OF ATOMIC BOMB VICTIMS:

A GROUP OF BOYS FROM THE HIROSHIMA SECOND MIDDLE SCHOOL WHO HAVE KELOIDS CAUSED BY THE ATOMIC BOMB DROPPED ON HIROSHIMA, PICTURE TAKEN FOR THE ATOMIC BOMB CASUALTY COMMISSION.

PHOTOGRAPHER-SNELL

PHOTOGRAPH BY U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS.

RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION, PUBLIC INFORMATION DIVISION, WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON

15678

In the spring of 1942, corpses were removed from the barren land of the Volkov Cemetery near Leningrad. The German Army Group North invaded from the south.

　　In the spring of 1942, the bodies were removed from the barren area of the Volkov Cemetery near Leningrad. During World War II, from 1941 to 1944, the Volkhov River served as a dividing line between Soviet and German military positions, with the Volkhov becoming a battlefield. In December 1941, the German advance on the Volkhov was halted by the Soviet Red Army. The lower reaches of the Volkhov River marked the southeastern front line of the German “Northern Army Group” during the Siege of Leningrad.

　　For the besieged city of Leningrad, Lake Ladoga was the only route connecting it to the outside world. The dangerous ice road across Lake Ladoga was named the “Road of Life” by the Russians and could only be traversed at night. Starvation devastated the city of Leningrad. Russians died on the streets. The bodies were collected and buried in mass graves at the Volkhov Cemetery. Starvation was not the only threat; isolation, cold, German artillery fire, Stalinist repression, lack of water, the need to break ice below freezing to obtain water, various diseases, and the complete absence of other means of transportation also took their toll.

　　In the second year of World War II, Hitler's German forces invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. The German forces advanced rapidly and by September 1941 had surrounded Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), the Soviet Union's second-largest city. This was part of the German Army Group North's blockade operation from the south. The siege was carried out by the Nazi German Army Group North, which attacked the Russian city of Leningrad from the south. Roads and railways were cut off, and the city was deprived of food, fresh water, and electricity. Air raids and artillery fire continued unabated. The siege of Leningrad lasted nearly two and a half years, resulting in the deaths of over one million civilians, most of whom died of starvation.

In September 1944, German SS troops were killed by Allied forces on the ramps of a bridge over the Rhine River in the Dutch city of Arnhem, and their bodies were left lying on the bridge over the Rhine River.

 　　During the Western Front of World War II in September 1944, German SS troops were killed by Allied forces on the ramps of a bridge spanning the Rhine River in the Dutch city of Arnhem, and their bodies were left lying on the bridge over the Rhine River.

　　British soldiers attempted to reopen the bridge over the Rhine River as part of the Market Garden operation, but German forces blocked their advance. German reconnaissance vehicles and troop transport vehicles rushed to the road bridge, and the British paratroopers were nearly annihilated by a hail of gunfire. The British paratroopers landed near German positions, suffered heavy casualties from fierce counterattacks, and withdrew on September 26, resulting in the failure of the operation. The surviving British troops began evacuating by boat to the lower Rhine on the night of September 25.

　　　Operation Market Garden, conducted from September 17 to September 25, 1944, aimed to secure bridges over the Rhine River at Arnhem. However, the operation was slowed down and halted by German forces. The British 1st Airborne Division failed to secure the bridges, with 8,000 out of 10,000 troops killed, missing, or captured, and withdrew from the north side of the Rhine River. When the withdrawal order was given, there were insufficient boats, and the German forces captured nearly all of the stranded British troops. Allied forces suffered 15,326 killed and 17,200 wounded. German casualties ranged from approximately 6,315 to 13,300. Arnhem was finally captured by Allied forces in April 1945.

After the US military occupied Peti Island in the Tarawa Atoll during the Pacific War, the last Japanese soldier defending Betio Island was killed.

 　　During the Pacific War, after the U.S. military occupied Peti Island in the Tarawa Atoll, the last Japanese soldiers defending Betio Island were killed. The bodies of some Japanese soldiers had already turned a sickly color despite having been dead for only two days. The bodies had turned black, swollen, and burst open. In the 48-degree heat, it did not take long for the human body to decompose.

　　The Battle of Tarawa took place from November 20 to 23, 1943, between U.S. and Japanese forces on the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. The amphibious assault and occupation operation on the Tarawa Atoll, known as Operation Galvanic, carried out by U.S. Navy and Marine Corps units in November 1943, garnered significant global attention. Articles often included combat photos recently sent from the front lines. An unusually high proportion of the photos showed the bodies of U.S. soldiers. In December 1943, a list of casualties was published. The front page featured portraits of the fallen soldiers.

　　The devastated beaches of the Pacific War and marines running across them reappeared. Young men who had appeared in confident wartime photos returned home as local heroes. The bloody battle filled the small island of Bietio with 6,000 corpses in just a few days. On November 23, when the Banzai attack ended about an hour later, there were 200 Japanese soldiers dead on the Marine front lines, and another 125 dead beyond the front lines. The U.S. Marine Corps suffered 1,009 deaths and 2,101 wounded. The U.S. Navy lost 687 men. The Japanese military had 4,690 deaths, with 17 Japanese soldiers taken prisoner.

On July 29, 1943, after a bombing raid by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) on Cologne, Germany, an elderly German woman stood in shock in front of the bodies of schoolchildren.

     On July 29, 1943, following a bombing raid by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) on Cologne, Germany, an elderly German woman stood in shock before the bodies of schoolchildren. Cologne was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II. The air raids resulted in a 93% reduction in the population, primarily due to evacuation, and approximately 80% of the historic city center, which had a thousand-year history, was destroyed.

   On the night of May 30–31, 1942, Cologne became the first target of a 1,000-bomber raid during World War II. Between 469 and 486 people (approximately 90% of whom were civilians) were killed, over 5,000 were injured, and more than 45,000 lost their homes. Following the air raids, it was estimated that 150,000 of Cologne's population of approximately 700,000 had left the city. The British Royal Air Force lost 43 of its 1,103 bombers. By the end of World War II, 90% of Cologne's buildings had been destroyed by Allied air raids.

       The German city of Cologne was subjected to 262 air raids by the Allied British Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II. A total of 35,268 tons of bombs were dropped, resulting in the deaths of 20,000 civilians during the war. From winter to spring 1940, air raid sirens sounded whenever British bombers flew overhead, but the first bombing took place on May 12, 1940, and the first thousand-bomber raid on Cologne occurred from May 30 to 31, 1942.

This is the grave of 2,500 Allied prisoners of war who lost their lives in Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia, during the Pacific War. The Japanese army decided to send approximately 2,000 British and Australian prisoners of war on a death march to Ranau, located in the interior of Borneo Island.

　　This is the grave of 2,500 Allied prisoners of war who lost their lives in Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia, during the Pacific War. The graves include those who died during forced marches through the jungle, those who died within the Sandakan prisoner-of-war camp, and those who died after the marches ended.

　　During World War II, the Japanese military captured a large number of Allied soldiers as prisoners of war in February 1942 and distributed them to various detention facilities. At the peak of the camp in 1943, approximately 2,500 prisoners were held there. In late 1944, as Allied forces invaded Borneo Island, the Japanese military decided to send approximately 2,000 British and Australian prisoners of war on a death march to Ranau in the interior of Borneo Island. The prisoners walked approximately 260 kilometers through the jungle, becoming weak and sick, with many dying along the way, their bodies left behind. Those who could not continue the march were killed, and the weakened prisoners were left behind at the Sandakan Prisoner of War Camp, where all eventually died. Of the approximately 1,000 prisoners sent to Ranau, only six Australian prisoners of war survived.

　　In May 1945, the Japanese military finally decided to close the POW camp and on May 29, ordered 536 prisoners to march to Ranau. The camp was set ablaze, and records related to the camp were destroyed. Other prisoners were forced to march through the jungle, where they either died or were shot by Japanese guards. By June 10, 1945, 30 prisoners had died, and the final mass march of 75 prisoners to Ranao began. The remaining prisoners left behind in the ruins died from starvation, disease, or were killed by Japanese guards. By August 15, 1945, there was not a single survivor left in the camp. 

     

A Japanese boy who was injured at the Pacific War time of the bombing of Hiroshima with the first atomic bomb. keloids on the arms are caused by radiation.

                                Undisclosed photos of Japanese

Atomic-bomb survivors

U.S. Atomic Bomb Surveys

The National Archives College Park, Maryland

　　　                          February 23, 2024                                     

SC-296909

SC-296909

115(FEC 47 77501) 23 JUNE 1947

MEDICAL RECORDS OF ATOMIC BOMB VICTIMS:

A JAPANESE BOY WHO WAS INJURED AT THE TIME OF THE BOMBING OF HIROSHIMA WITH THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB. KELOIDS ON THE ARMS ARE CAUSED BY RADIATION. PICTURE TAKEN FOR THE ATOMIC BOMB CASUALTY COMMISSION.

PHOTOGRAPHER-SNELL

PHOTOGRAPH BY U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS.

RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION, PUBLIC INFORMATION IN DIVISION, 

WAR DEPARTMENT, WARSHINGTON

15678

A mourner carries the body of a Palestinian child killed in Israeli strikes at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on March 31, 2025.

    On March 31, 2025, mourners carried the body of a Palestinian child killed in an Israeli airstrike at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

      Israeli forces killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip after the ceasefire was lifted on March 18 from January 19. The Gaza Health Ministry announced on March 31, 1945, that 80 Palestinians were killed during the 48 hours that Palestinians tried to celebrate Eid al-Fitr. In addition, the Gaza Health Ministry said 1,001 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the Israeli army resumed its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip with a massive bombing attack on March 18. The number of Palestinians injured in Israeli attacks during this period has risen to 2,359, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The Gaza Health Ministry made the announcement based on the number of dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals.

    A new air campaign by Israeli forces has dealt a devastating blow to Palestinian children. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz (Haaretz) described it as Israel's “largest massacre of children in history.” Haaretz has consistently supported peace initiatives opposing Israel's continued control over the Palestinian territories. On November 24, 2024, the Israeli government ordered a boycott against Haaretz, which is highly critical of the Netanyahu administration, and banned government advertisements in the newspaper.

Warning: A mourner carries the body of a Palestinian child killed in Israeli strikes at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on March 31, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

Two opened mass graves at Cheung Ek, Kandal province, 1981. More than 8,000 bodies were discovered here. By 1982, remains from the Cheung Ek grave site had been collected in a wooden shed as a memorial.

      This is a mass grave discovered in Cheuek, Kandal Province, Cambodia, in 1981. Over 8,000 bodies were discovered here. By 1982, the remains recovered from the Cheuek cemetery were housed in a wooden warehouse as a memorial. The Khmer Rouge regime ruled Cambodia during the Democratic Kampuchea era (1975–1979) under a communist-inspired radical ideology.

      Choeuek was an orchard located in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. It was used as a killing field between 1975 and 1979. It was used by the Khmer Rouge during the Cambodian Genocide. It is located approximately 17 kilometers south of the center of Phnom Penh and was adjacent to the Tuol Sleng prison. After the collapse of the Khmer Rouge, the remains of 8,895 Cambodian victims were exhumed. Cambodians were executed there before being buried in mass graves. It was the site where the Khmer Rouge regime executed over one million people as part of the Cambodian Genocide from 1975 to 1979.

     Many of the deceased were former political prisoners who had been detained at Tuol Sleng Prison or other Cambodian detention centers by the Khmer Rouge. Between 1976 and 1979, an estimated 20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng, with only seven adults surviving. The secret police unit responsible for internal security in Cambodia, known as the S-21, operated the Tuol Sleng (S-21) detention center, where prisoners were imprisoned, interrogated, tortured, and executed.

Nazi spies executed. Karl Zimmerman, 24-year-old German SS trooper convicted os espionage, is executed by a Ninth U.S. Army firing squad near Braunschweig, Germany.

　　On June 14, 1945, Karl Zimmermann, a 24-year-old former Nazi stormtrooper, was executed by a squad of American soldiers. He had been captured as a spy in Braunschweig, central Germany, and his body, bound to a stake, was found wearing civilian clothing.

　　He was a member of a grenadier division tasked with providing information about U.S. military positions as a spy and was executed by a U.S. military firing squad on June 14, 1945. He was captured, arrested, sentenced to death, and executed at a firing range. The execution was carried out in public, with a large crowd of onlookers present.He was shot by a squad of American soldiers. This execution was intended as a warning to others suspected of espionage or aiding the German military.

　　Karl Zimmermann, a Nazi German spy, was a 24-year-old member of the German SS who was convicted of espionage and executed by a firing squad of the 9th U.S. Army near Braunschweig, Germany. He was arrested in the German town of Dazeburg while wearing civilian clothing. He was one of six Germans executed by firing squad near Braunschweig on June 14, 1945. This photograph shows Zimmermann's bullet-riddled body bleeding from a stake.

In the early summer of 1943, on the Hubei front of the Sino-Japanese War, a Japanese soldier who had just fallen to the ground and was about to die in the grass was rushed over by a fellow soldier and held in his arms. The fallen Japanese soldier was in a desperate and critical condition.

　　In the early summer of 1943, on the Hubei front of the Second Sino-Japanese War, a Japanese soldier who had fallen to the grassy plain and was about to die was rushed over by a fellow soldier and held up in his arms. The fallen Japanese soldier was in a desperate condition. The sound of a sharp bullet whizzing past his ear caused the Japanese soldiers of the Tsuchiya Unit to immediately respond to the Chinese army.

　　The Hubei Front was a battle between the Japanese and Chinese armies in western Hubei Prefecture that took place between late April and early June 1943 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was also known as the Jiangnan Annihilation Campaign, and the Chinese name for it was the Exi Campaign. The Japanese Navy's name for the campaign that was being carried out at the same time was Operation G. The Japanese 11th Army invaded the area along the southern bank of the Yangtze River west of Lake Dongting, with the aim of destroying the Chinese forces there. The Japanese 11th Army, which invaded China, launched the Jiangnan Annihilation Strategy to strengthen the transport capacity of the Yangtze River and destroy the Chinese Nationalist Army's field forces.

　　　During the process of the Jiangnan Annihilation Strategy, the Changyao Massacre occurred between May 9th and May 13th 1943, in which Japanese soldiers massacred around 30,000 residents of Changyao in Hunan Province and Chinese soldiers. The Japanese army suffered 771 casualties and 2,746 wounded, of which 157 casualties and 238 wounded were due to air raids. The Japanese military's summary of the results of the battle was that there were 30,766 Chinese corpses left behind and 4,279 prisoners of war. The Chinese side claimed that this was the second largest massacre in the Sino-Japanese War, after the Nanking Massacre, and the largest in the Pacific War.

The village of Ćwiklice, where there were rudimentary graves of Auschwitz prisoners, was a remembrance of the victims—26 female and 16 male prisoners, including two children, whose corpses were buried near the route where it ran through the village.

      In September 1939, fierce fighting took place on the outskirts of the village of Ćwiklice in southern Poland, and the 16th Polish Infantry Regiment was caught by German tanks in an open area and suffered devastating losses. In January 1945, during the German occupation of World War II, a death march from the Auschwitz concentration camp passed through Ćwiklice, and 42 prisoners (26 women and 16 men) who had been massacred were buried in the village four days later.

    The largest death march took place in January 1945, when the German army marched 56,000 prisoners 56km to the station at Wodzisław, in order to transfer them to other camps, and about 15,000 died on the way. From March 17 to March 21, the SS began forcing approximately 56,000 prisoners to march to their deaths from the Auschwitz camp. Between 9,000 and 15,000 prisoners died on the death march from the Auschwitz concentration camp.

    The route of the death march passed through the village of Tuniclice, and the bodies of the victims - 26 women and 16 men prisoners (including two children) from the Auschwitz concentration camp - were buried near the evacuation route through the village. A small symbolic mound of earth and a steel cross were erected there as a simple grave. In the early 1950s, these bodies were exhumed and transferred to the Holy Cross Cemetery in Puchina.

At the FK Borac stadium near the Morava River in Čačak, gendarmes, under the supervision of German soldiers, executed 12 patriots on June 20, 1941. This was the first execution in Čačak after the occupation.

　　On June 20, 1941, military police shot and killed 12 Serb nationalists under the watchful eye of German soldiers at the Boratu stadium near the Morava River in Čačak. This was the first shooting incident after the German occupation of Čačak.

　　　On April 6, 1941, Axis forces invaded Yugoslavia and bombed Belgrade and other cities for three days, killing 17,000 people. Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, was occupied by the Germans on April 13, 1941; on July 7, 1941, Chetnik forces staged a massive uprising against the Germans in the area between Šabac and Užice in Serbia. In the Krupani region of northwestern Serbia, armed resistance broke out in German-occupied Yugoslavia beginning on July 7, 1941.

　　It was the first of many “free territories” and was called the “Republic of Uzice.” Almost immediately, the Germans suppressed the uprising Chetnik nationalists. German units in the region began to put down the more serious and rapidly expanding uprising by August 27.

　　On September 16, 1941, the Germans applied a Europe-wide order to kill 50 to 100 enemy hostages for every one German soldier killed. They repressed most in Serbia, ordering the execution of 100 Serbian hostages for each German killed. The Germans waged war on the entire Serbian population, regarding Serbian citizens as the enemy, as acts of insurgency were the origin of communism. The Germans declared Serbia a war zone and villages began to be set on fire. After 10 German soldiers were killed in a joint attack by partisans and Chetniks, the Germans shot 1,700 Serbian hostages on October 20. In the following weeks, thousands more Serbian hostages were executed in retaliation for the Serb rebel attacks. 

THE RED CROSS HOSPITAL LABORATORY OF THE ABCC, IN HIROSHIMA, JAPAN., SHOWING DR. J.V. NEEL WORKING ON THE CALIBRATION OF THE CUSO4 SOLUTIONS USED IN BLOOD STUDIES.

                           Undisclosed photos of Japanese

Atomic-bomb survivors

U.S. Atomic Bomb Surveys

The National Archives College Park, Maryland

　　　February 23, 2024

           SC-295904

SC-295904

214 (EEC-47-80549) 26 OCT 194747

ATOMIC BOMB CASUALTY COMMISSION PROJECT :

THE RED CROSS HOSPITAL LABORATORY OF THE ABCC, IN HIROSHIMA, JAPAN., SHOWING DR. J.V. NEEL WORKING ON THE CALIBRATION OF THE CUSO 4 SOLUTIONS USED IN BLOOD STUDIES.

PHOTOGRAPHER-SNELL

PHOTOGRAPH BY U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS.

RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION, PUBLIC INFORMATION, WAR DEPARTMENT

15678 

A mother cries at the coffin of her son Herman Tripolets, 9, killed by a Russian missile, during a funeral ceremony in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Monday, April 7, 2025.

    On April 7th 2025, a mother wept in front of the coffin of her 9-year-old son Herman Tripolets, who was killed by a Russian missile at a funeral in Krivyi Rih, Ukraine. She mourned at the funeral of children killed by Ukrainian and Russian missiles.

     More than 70 people were injured in an attack in Krivyi Rih in the evening of April 4th 2025. The children were playing on the swings and in the sandbox in the tree-lined park at the time of the missile attack. The bodies of the victims lay scattered across the lawn. In the Ukrainian city of Krivyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian missiles tore through apartment buildings and blew up playgrounds on April 4. The funeral of the 20 victims, including nine children, was held on April 7, and anger and resentment swirled.

     The UN Human Rights Office in Ukraine said it was the worst harm to children in a single attack since Russia's full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022. It was one of the deadliest attacks of 2025. The Ukrainian Air Force Command said on state television that Russian military missiles and drones had continued to evolve, making them more difficult to shoot down. The Russian military's Iranian-designed Shahed drones have undergone significant evolution, and the Russian military has also modernized its ballistic missiles. Only the American-made Patriot missile defense system can prevent attacks such as the one on Krivoy Rih.

Warning: A mother cries at the coffin of her son Herman Tripolets, 9, killed by a Russian missile, during a funeral ceremony in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

The bodies of Giretsu Kuteitai were scattered after a fierce battle by U.S. paratroopers who flew into the Yomitan Airfield on May 24, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa in the Pacific War.

     The counterattack by U.S. paratroopers who flew into Yomitan Airfield on May 24, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa in the Pacific War, was also extremely fierce. After a fierce battle at Yomitan Airfield, the bodies of the slain paratroopers were scattered. Japanese paratroopers were killed by the U.S. forces in a desperate dive attack.The bodies of 69 dead paratroopers were recovered after being autopsied by American soldiers. 4 American soldiers were killed in action and 27 were wounded in action.

    On the night of May 24, 1945, eight of the 12 Girei paratroopers were sent to Yomitan Airfield and four to Kadena Airfield for suicide attacks in the Battle of Okinawa. four of the 12 planes returned to base due to engine trouble. three were shot down by American forces. two of them were killed in action. Five, however, succeeded in making an emergency landing at Yomitan Airfield amidst the confusion of the American forces, thanks to a diversionary attack by bombers and fighters of the Imperial Japanese Air Force and Imperial Japanese Navy.

     Only one plane succeeded in landing, and after that landing, about 10 surviving Yichiye paratroopers, armed with machine guns and various explosives, disembarked. Wreaking havoc on American supplies and nearby fighters, they killed two American soldiers, destroyed about 260,000 liters of fuel and nine fighter planes, and damaged 29 more; at 12:55 p.m. on May 25, the last of the U.S. paratroopers was killed, and the Americans had almost wiped out the Japanese paratroopers. The U.S. forces almost annihilated the Japanese paratroopers. Only one member of the raiding party survived and crossed the battlefield, arriving at the Japanese 32nd Army headquarters in Okinawa around June 12.

On February 14th 1966, in the Half Acre of Hell near Khe Sanh in South Vietnam, an American soldier bent over the face of a seriously injured American soldier who had been mortally wounded by a Claymore mine planted by the Vietcong.

 　　On February 14th 1966, in the Half Acre of Hell near Khe Sanh in South Vietnam, an American soldier bent over the face of another American soldier who had been mortally wounded by a Claymore mine planted by the Viet Cong. Behind him, another dying American soldier collapsed. A few minutes later, a second mine exploded, killing photographer Charlie Cella and several other American soldiers.

　　During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army's 5th Infantry Division was sent to Vietnam in January 1966 and assigned to the 25th Infantry Division. The 5th Infantry Division was a mechanized unit that used armored personnel carriers and Patton tanks. For three months after entering Vietnam, the 25th Infantry Division and the 5th Infantry Division were engaged in continuous ground battles with the Viet Cong. They secured a base near Tan An Hoi in the Kuchi district of the Haugia region of South Vietnam. They fought against the thick vegetation, insects, swarms of red ants, and cunning guerrillas who sniped from hiding places they had prepared over many years.

　　Early in the morning of February 14th 1966, the 5th Infantry Company left their position and crossed the Ben Muong waterway to move and scout the area on the other side of the waterway. The thickly forested rubber plantation was riddled with Viet Cong tunnels and snipers were hiding in them. Three hours after leaving at 6:30am, the 5th Infantry Company steadily carried out a mopping-up operation, destroying thatched huts and tunnels and confiscating hidden rice stores.

　　Ten men from the 5th Infantry Company were wounded by 11:00 a.m. Shortly after that, two Claymore anti-personnel mines were detonated by the Viet Cong, killing eight and wounding three. After the first Claymore explosion, Charles Cherrapper of the Associated Press, who was treating a dying American soldier, was killed by a second mine.

Immediately after the Boxer Rebellion in China, many Boxers were captured by the Qing government and the Eight-Nation Alliance. On September 7th 1901, the Boxers were surrounded by soldiers from the Eight-Nation Alliance and beheaded.

   Immediately after the Boxer Rebellion in China, many Boxers were captured by the Qing government and the Eight-Nation Alliance. On September 7th 1901, the Boxers were executed by having their heads cut off while surrounded by soldiers from the Eight-Nation Alliance. The executions were carried out by the Japanese army, and representatives from the Allied forces watched on. In the center, the Chinese Boxers sat with their hands tied behind their backs. The first two were executed and left as corpses. There was no end to the Chinese and foreigners who came to watch.

      In May 1900, the Allied Forces formed an eight-nation alliance consisting of eight countries: the Russian Empire, Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Japan, under the pretext of suppressing the Boxer Rebellion. They executed the Chinese in various cruel ways to prevent them from rebelling. Criminals and rebels were executed in public squares in front of crowds of onlookers, and their corpses were left at the execution site as a warning.

      After the Eight-Nation Alliance occupied Beijing, they burned, killed, looted, and plundered. They killed all the Chinese people, leaving none alive, and they killed Chinese people for fun and for competition. They beheaded innocent Chinese people as members of the Boxers, and there were frequent cases of people being shot. The Eight-Nation Alliance chased men, women and children with guns, and shot and stabbed the elderly, the weak, women and children. A group of French soldiers drove the Chinese people into the street and continued shooting for more than ten minutes, and not a single person survived. The British army killed the Boxers and the masses in groups with artillery fire, the Germans killed everyone they encountered, and the allied forces were extremely cruel, causing a great tragedy that shocked China and the world with massacres such as shooting, stabbing, strangling, burning, clubbing, strangling, rape, and murder. However, the disciplined Japanese army alone maintained a moderate and polite attitude.

After the Pacific War, on August 1st 1947, Dutch soldiers carefully approached the bodies of Indonesian independence activists in the eastern city of Malang on the island of Java.

After the Pacific War, on August 1st 1947, Dutch soldiers carefully approached the bodies of Indonesian independence activists in the eastern city of Malang on the island of Java. If they encountered resistance from the Indonesians, the Dutch army occupied the area in a very brutal way. Thousands of innocent Indonesians were killed in the fighting.

　　Conflicts arose between Indonesian patriots and Dutch people who had been released from Japanese military detention. During the Japanese occupation, 150,000 Dutch people and Dutch military soldiers were detained in poor conditions. After liberation, the Dutch military was particularly hostile towards Indonesian rebels.

　　During the Indonesian War of Independence (1945-1949), the battle for control of Surabaya on the island of Java in October and November 1945 was one of the bloodiest. In the battle, 6,000 British troops attempted to disarm more than 100,000 Indonesian irregulars. The poorly equipped Indonesian forces suffered thousands of casualties in the three-week battle. After Surabaya, the British took a more neutral stance between the Dutch and the Indonesians.

　　From late 1945 to early 1946, the Dutch moved their troops to occupy major Indonesian cities, replacing the British and Australians who wanted to leave. In January 1946, the Dutch army expelled the Indonesian government from Jakarta and moved the capital to Yogyakarta. In order to bring the struggle for independence to a close, the Netherlands and the Republic of Indonesia signed an agreement in Linggajati on November 12, 1946. The Netherlands recognized the authority of the Republic of Indonesia, while maintaining control over the mineral-rich islands of eastern Indonesia.

　　The Dutch still wanted to regain control of the whole of Indonesia. To achieve this goal, the Dutch launched the Linggajati Offensive in July 1947, which aimed to overthrow the Linggajati Agreement and conquer Java and Sumatra. This offensive, known as the “police action”, was successful, and the Dutch occupied many cities in the Republic. On August 4th 1947, a ceasefire was agreed upon through the mediation of the United Nations. On December 7th 1949, the Netherlands transferred sovereignty to the Republic of Indonesia.

Beno Ohnelg, a university student from West Germany, was killed by a policeman named Karl-Heinz Krahs during a demonstration he attended for the first time in West Berlin on June 2, 1967.

　　Benno Ohnesorg was a university student in West Germany who was killed by a policeman during a demonstration in West Berlin. The student Benno Ohnesorg lost his life to a policeman's bullet. It was the first political demonstration Ohnesorg had ever attended. His death spurred the expansion of the left-wing German student movement.

　　On June 2, 1967, Onnesorg took part in a student protest against the state visit of the Shah of Iran near the Deutsche Oper. Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, was attending a performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Deutsche Oper that night.

　　The pro-Shah demonstrators, including agents of the Shah's intelligence service, turned the student protest into a violent confrontation. The police overreacted, adopting brutal tactics in an attempt to control the crowd. Amid the continuing mayhem, the student demonstrators dispersed into side streets. In the courtyard of Kurm Street, Onnorg was shot in the back of the head by police officer Karl-Heinz Klass. Ohnelg died before receiving treatment at the hospital.

　　　The police officer, Class, was tried in the same year, 1967, and was found not guilty on November 27, 1967. This incident had a significant impact on the rise of left-wing terrorism in West Germany in the 1970s, culminating in the June 2 Movement and the Red Army Faction.

Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson receives the compliments of the L 3rd laf. 1/5/1946 Regt., 33rd Division, Japan.

                            Undisclosed photos of Japanese

Atomic-bomb survivors

U.S. Atomic Bomb Surveys

The National Archives College Park, Maryland

　　　February 23, 2024          

SC-228537

SC-228537

Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson receives the compliments of the L 3rd laf. 1/5/1946 Regt., 33rd Division. Japan

Signal Corpe Photo WPA-46-64436 (Musdelius) released by BPR 3/12/1946

orig. neg.  Lot 13455 acf 228537

Members of the Far Eastern Advisory Commission listen to Col. John R. Hall describe effects atomic bomb had on Hiroshima. He is a surgeon of 10th Corps and had with him chosen victims of the atomic bomb to show the Commission. Japan. 1/26/1946

                  　　　　Undisclosed photos of Japanese

Atomic-bomb survivors

U.S. Atomic Bomb Surveys

The National Archives College Park, Maryland

February 23, 2024  

SC-241255

SC-241255

At extreme left Haj. Gen. Frank R. McCoy and Maj. Gen. P.N. Clarkson, CG, 10th Corps, and members of the Far Eastern Advisory Commission listen to Col. John R. Hall describe effects atomic bomb had on Hiroshima. He is a surgeon of 10th Corps and had with him chosen victims of the atomic bomb to show the Commission. Japan. 1/26/1946

Signal Corps Photo #WPA-46-64689 (Direda), released by BPR 4/1/1946.

orig. neg. Lot 13534  Pg