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We all know the IJA inflicted death and suffering on a scope and scale that would embarrass the most ambitious psychopath across their occupied territories particularly in China.

My question is was there an actual point to the IJA's various atrocities and horrors they inflicted on civilian populations with particular focus on their behavior in China?

Was it to cow the locals into subservience, sheer sadism, to combat partisans and guerillas, or simply because they believed the people they were harming were subhuman?

How organized/systematic was IJA brutality in China, the Pacific, Indonesia, Southeast Asia etc?

Was it more casual and random than purposeful like the Nazis' crimes? Was there some sort of "Anything Goes" rule the IJA was operating under?
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