The Japanese , however , did not always believe they could rely on Korean laborers to fight alongside them . In '' Prisoners of the Japanese '' , author Gaven Daws wrote , " O n Tinian there were five thousand Korean laborers and so as not to have hostiles '' at their back '' when the Americans invaded , the Japanese killed them . " After the war , 148 Koreans were convicted of Class B and C Japanese war crimes , 23 of whom were sentenced to death ( compared to 920 Japanese who were sentenced to death ) , including Korean prison guards who were particularly notorious for their brutality during the war . The figure is relatively high considering that ethnic Koreans made up a very small percentage of the Japanese military . Judge Bert Röling , who represented the Netherlands at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East , noted that " many of the commanders and guards in POW camps were Koreans – the Japanese apparently did not trust them as soldiers – and it is said that they were sometimes far more cruel than the Japanese . " In his memoirs , Colonel Eugene C. Jacobs wrote that during the Bataan Death March , " the Korean guards were the most abusive . The Japs did n't trust them in battle , so used them as service troops ; the Koreans were anxious to get blood on their bayonets ; and then they thought they were veterans . " Korean guards were sent to the remote jungles of Burma , where Lt. Col. William A. ( Bill ) Henderson wrote from his own experience that some of the guards overseeing the construction of the Burma Railway " were moronic and at times almost bestial in their treatment of prisoners . This applied particularly to Korean private soldiers , conscripted only for guard and sentry duties in many parts of the Japanese empire . Regrettably , they were appointed as guards for the prisoners throughout the camps of Burma and Siam . " The highest-ranking Korean to be prosecuted after the war was Lieutenant General Hong Sa-ik , who was in command of all the Japanese prisoner-of-war camps in the Philippines
Japanese war crimes
Japanese war crimes
Korea under Japanese rule