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The [[Empire of Japan]], which had signed but never ratified the [[Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War (1929)|1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/WebSign?ReadForm&id=305&ps=S |title=International Humanitarian Law – State Parties / Signatories |publisher=Icrc.org |date=27 July 1929 |access-date=14 April 2012}}</ref> did not treat prisoners of war in accordance with international agreements, including provisions of the [[Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)|Hague Conventions]], either during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] or during the [[Pacific War]], because the Japanese viewed surrender as dishonorable. Moreover, according to a directive ratified on 5 August 1937 by [[Emperor Hirohito]], the constraints of the Hague Conventions were explicitly removed on Chinese prisoners of war.<ref>Akira Fujiwara, ''Nitchû Sensô ni Okeru Horyo Gyakusatsu'', Kikan Sensô Sekinin Kenkyû 9, 1995, p. 22</ref>
Prisoners of war from China, the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the Philippines held by Japanese imperial armed forces were subject to murder
According to the findings of the [[International Military Tribunal for the Far East|Tokyo Tribunal]], the death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1 percent, seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians.<ref name =hidden>{{cite book|author =Yuki Tanaka|title = Hidden Horrors |date =1996|pages = 2, 3|publisher = Avalon Publishing|isbn = 978-0813327181}}</ref> The death rate of Chinese was much higher. Thus, while 37,583 prisoners from the United Kingdom, Commonwealth, and Dominions, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from the United States were released after the [[surrender of Japan]], the number for the Chinese was only 56.<ref name =hidden/><ref>[[Herbert Bix]], ''[[Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan]]'', 2001, p. 360</ref> The 27,465 [[United States Army]] and [[United States Army Air Forces]] POWs in the Pacific Theater had a 40.4 per cent death rate.<ref>{{cite news |title=World War II POWs remember efforts to strike against captors |agency=Associated Press |url=http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2012/10/world_war_ii_pows_remember_the.html |newspaper=The Times-Picayune |date=5 October 2012 |access-date=23 June 2013|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230130141927/https://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2012/10/world_war_ii_pows_remember_the.html|archive-date=January 30, 2023}}</ref> The War Ministry in Tokyo issued an order at the end of the war to kill the remaining POWs.<ref>"[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bataan/peopleevents/e_atrocities.html title=Japanese Atrocities in the Philippines] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030727223501/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bataan/peopleevents/e_atrocities.html |date=27 July 2003 }}". Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)</ref>
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