ABSTRACT
In Japan, the term “war crimes” conjured up images of the inhumane treatment or murder of enemy soldiers, especially prisoners of war. The necessary materials for an exercise can be found among the large number of testimonies and evidence presented at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal held immediately after the Asia-Pacific War. The most significant case among these was the rape and massacre of Chinese women by the Japanese 10th Army and 16th Division in Nanjing in December 1937. The most important strategic objective of the Japanese in the Pacific War was to secure natural resources in Asia, especially the oil in the then Dutch colony of Indonesia. At the end of 1941 the Australian nurses in Singapore had received grave news regarding their British colleagues in Hong Kong. A number of passengers on the ship eventually reached Banka Island at different times and in different places, though many drowned.
