Tarumoto Jugi

Case Summary

2nd Lieutenant Commander Tarumoto Jugi was an engineer engaged in the construction of the Burma-Sian railway, responsible for supervising the labour of Allied POWs. He was charged with the inhumane treatment of these POWs, brutally and frequently assaulting and beating them, forcing sick prisoners to work, overworking them to the point of collapse, and causing the death of some of them.

For more information, see:

http://www.legal-tools.org/doc/6f1579/

http://www.legal-tools.org/doc/7f0667/

http://www.legal-tools.org/doc/674d63/

The defendant was extremely well-educated, as a law graduate from the Tokio Imperial University and was also able to speak English. Yet he was undeniably and especially cruel towards the Allied POWs he supervised. 

He is also one of the more prolific Japanese war criminals of the Burma-Sian Railway in the post-war era.

In 1995, as the 50th anniversary of V-J Day approached, the defendant appeared on Carlton TV programme to confront one of his POWs, Douglas Weir (Times Obituary). This meeting was reported in a British newspaper, The Spectator. Tarumoto's cruelty was also mentioned in a book, "Hellfire", by Cameron Forbes. Tarumoto himself also contributed to a book, "Railwaymen in the War: Tales by Japanese Railway Soldiers in Burma and Thailand 1941-47" by Kazuo Tamayama.

For more information, see:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.obituaries/Wew71Jcz6y8

 http://archive.spectator.co.uk/page/29th-july-1995/13

https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=MPY8a6-hfwcC&pg=PA324&lpg=PA324&dq=TARUMOTO+Jugi&source=bl&ots=w8U4rNSra5&sig=NZvNk4MqfKU8JRoFN1pnSpNwrc0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjAyvW-maTLAhULV44KHaHnAUQQ6AEIMDAE#v=onepage&q=TARUMOTO%20Jugi&f=false