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.