Historian Mitsuyoshi Himeta reports that a " Three Alls Policy " ( '' Sankō Sakusen '' ) was implemented in China from 1942 to 1945 and was in itself responsible for the deaths of " more than 2.7 million " Chinese civilians . This scorched earth strategy , sanctioned by Hirohito himself , directed Japanese forces to " Kill All , Burn All , and Loot All " . Additionally , captured Allied servicemen and civilians were massacred in various incidents , including : Special Japanese military units conducted experiments on civilians and POWs in China . One of the most infamous was Unit 731 under Shirō Ishii . Unit 731 was established by order of Hirohito himself . Victims were subjected to experiments including but not limited to vivisection and amputations without anesthesia and testing of biological weapons . Anesthesia was not used because it was believed that anesthetics would adversely affect the results of the experiments
Unit 731
Unit 731
Japanese war crimes