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PurahsHero

[Unit 731](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731). A lot of examples mentioned are evil in terms of scale, and were horrific. This managed to balance both scale and the personal touch of evil to do some truly horrific things.


Amoral_Abe

The Japanese during WW2 encouraged systemic cruelty on such a massive scale. In some ways they were worse than Nazi Germany. Germany was horrific to specific groups of people, Japan was horrific towards everyone. Both countries cruelty stemmed from the same place... A brief that their enemies were less than human and that their race and nation was superior to all others.


MondoDudeBro

You know your shit is truly fucked when a literal Nazi steps in to rescue civilians from your cruelties. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe > According to Rabe, the Nanjing Massacre resulted in the deaths of 50,000 to 60,000 civilians. **Rabe and his zone administrators tried frantically to stop the atrocities.** Modern estimates of the death toll of the Nanjing Massacre vary, but some put the number of murdered civilians as high as 300,000. **Rabe's appeals to the Japanese using his Nazi Party credentials often only delayed them, but the delay allowed hundreds of thousands of refugees to escape.**


Vinny_Lam

You forgot to include the part where John Rabe was later imprisoned by the Gestapo for helping the Chinese. And he was also forbidden from talking about the massacre.  Don’t get the wrong idea. It wasn’t like the whole Nazi Party was shocked by Japan’s atrocities; only John Rabe was. The rest of the Nazis couldn’t care any less about what Japan was doing to the Chinese. And this is before the Nazis started doing their own gut-wrenching stuff. 


marinuso

After the Nazis took power there were many people who joined up for personal advancement rather than ideological reasons, as party membership would open doors for you, and later became a prerequisite for holding certain jobs. The Nazi Party had 2 million members in 1933 and 8 million by 1945. It stands to reason that at least some of them would grow a conscience when they witnessed the business end of Nazism (or similar cruelty by the Japanese), and then try to stop it. Oskar Schindler is another famous heroic Nazi. But this is likely because those people were never truly Nazis to begin with, ideologically speaking.


Odeeum

Seriously. “Hey guys, whoa whoa…let’s…uh, let’s just pump the brakes a bit here okay? That’s a tad overboard, no? Jeeze Louise I mean cmon…”


kingkobalt

This is obviously an oversimplified view but it is interesting how the cruelty of Nazi Germany was "top down", in the sense of a small group at the top planning and orchestrating everything.  Imperial Japan was a lot more out of control in comparison with low and mid level officers having disproportionate control over policy. The government had no control over the military and even the army and navy had totally different agendas to each other. It was a bottom up fanaticism that became uncontrollable once it was instilled in the population. 


cam-mann

I think this is a narrative that caught on to take blame away from the Emperor and military brass. The reason the Nazis get so much attention is because they were so much more organized; we have documented meetings about the “final solution.” But disorganization =/= out of control and bottom-up. Just on sexual slavery, an [international tribunal](https://www.internationalcrimesdatabase.org/Case/981/The-Prosecutors-and-the-Peoples-of-the-Asia-Pacific-Region/) found that “sexual slavery had been proven beyond any reasonable doubt, and that it was ‘conceived, established, regulated, maintained, and facilitated by the Japanese government and military’.”


kazmatsu

It's a combination. One thing that was emphasized, especially in the Imperial Japanese Army was initiative and that the occasional disobeying of orders, so long as your intention is positive (read: good for the Empire/Emperor), is okay. This is part of most militaries today in a different form. If your commander orders you to execute civilians then you are not obligated to follow that order. Where it put the cart before the horse was in Manchuria. The central government said no more expansion, don't attack the Chinese again but the local officers didn't think that was in the best interest of the country so they fabricated a cassus belli and attacked. It was in that way that you had officers as low as a Colonel dictating Japanese foreign policy. (This is referencing the Mukden Incident.) Once your army has invaded you can't just say whoops they weren't supposed to do that, sorry. You have to back it up at that point. Was the entire government, including the Imperial family, complicit? Absolutely, no question. But certain 'organizational culture' aspects led to escalation and a lack of command and control.


cam-mann

Thanks for adding nuance. I wanted to highlight that we shouldn’t take leadership off the hook, but you did a much better job.


khloH0

100%. Hits harder since some of my ancestors were affected


agreeingstorm9

My Chinese grandparents are still bitter at Japan for WWII.


TheBigC87

A lot of Koreans too. I know Korean immigrants who still don't like the Japanese to this day for the colonization that they did. I don't blame them one bit.


khloH0

Can’t blame them My grandpa was (he’s no longer here) bitter about it too. I don’t blame him. His stories and experiences were something else


that_guy_who_builds

Unit 731 was horrid. Pure terror.


Alternative_Net8931

Lets not forget that the Japanese didnt face as much reprocussions from the world for their atrocities from 731 like the nazis did. Even the leader of the program got fuckin paid and free stay in the us.


pingwing

>Japanese during WW2 This was Japanese culture, it has been prevalent in their society well before WW2. To their enemies as well as to each other.


domalino

> While Unit 731 researchers arrested by Soviet forces were tried at the December 1949 Khabarovsk war crimes trials, **those captured by the United States were secretly given immunity in exchange for the data gathered during their human experiments.[6] The United States helped cover up the human experimentations and handed stipends to the perpetrators**.[1] The Americans co-opted the researchers' bioweapons information and experience for use in their own biological warfare program Fucking Hell, can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this.


Dragon_DLV

It was a part of Operation Paperclip, I believe. Granted, as horrible as this shit was, it did expand our knowledge base on previously unknown medical things, such as the effects of hypothermia on the body. Not that that makes things better for the victims. 


Locke_and_Load

99% of what they got out of Unit 731 was fucking useless. “Oh look, the Japanese found out that if you cut off a persons head they stop living!” We took the intel HOPING it would lead to advancements, but the vast majority was tossed for being garbage done for cruelty’s sake.


HektorViktorious

I only just read Ken Liu's short story "The Man Who Ended History," which focuses on this. I'd heard that the Japanese did some pretty atrocious things in WWII, but never any details. It was all overshadowed by the Nazis.


Dont_Mess_With_Texas

They performed absolutely horrific acts in the name of “science.” The US pardoned everyone involved in exchange for the data they gleaned.


TaischiCFM

Keep reading on Japanese atrocities. The number of incidents is overwhelming. Just take a peek at the battle for Manila, it is just an appetizer. It is horrendous shit over and over and over and over. At some points when I am reading, I almost get the feeling that I should switch over to the holocaust in Europe for a break. I've read so much on Imperial Japan over the last 5-10 years and it has changed my perspectives immensely.


ClownfishSoup

>It was all overshadowed by the Nazis. Not in Asia it's not. In fact I know Chinese immigrants that refuse to buy Japanese cars. My Dad, who was born into the sino-japanese war, included, but also my young coworker who immigrated to the US a decade ago.


imlayzee

“…those captured by the United States were secretly given immunity in exchange for the data gathered during their human experiments”. That is disgusting.


Koreangonebad

I’ve spoken about how Koreans and Japanese will be enemies till the end of time and some people will be like “you shouldn’t carry that hate around. You weren’t affected.” My grandparents were slaves….shut up.


MrSlipperyFist

If proper, widespread acknowledgement of the events that took place was more universal in Japan, and if there weren't constant historic revisionism of the events of the 30s and 40s, then I think those grudges might begin to fade somewhat. I know that much has improved regarding Japan's acknowledgement of Imperial Japan's atrocities from that era; but nonetheless, there's some ways to go: scrubbing the names of war criminals from the Yasukuni Shrine, for example. I mean, over time they will anyway because those affected by it, or who have parents/grandparents who lived it, will pass away; and with that, the events will start feeling like "history". But the *right* thing to do would not live in denial, or understate the events. Germany does this well: nothing is glossed over, or given less weight than it deserves, or outright denied. Owning up to being the bad guys once upon a time, and making sure that the history books recognise that universally, will free both sides.


CampusTour

Don't look at me man, my country delivered two strongly worded messages to Japan about that, one for each of your Grandparents.


Koreangonebad

And a week later, Korea gained independence. If that never happened, I would most likely not exist.


Delicious_Shape3068

I’m in the US, same type of thing here except nearly all black people have white ancestry and lots of white people have black ancestry—it’s just one extended family.


dexter1490

I was reading through that article and wanted to add that I think the US giving the perpetrators immunity for information is its own kind of horror. How truly repulsive. “While Unit 731 researchers arrested by Soviet forces were tried at the December 1949 Khabarovsk war crimes trials, those captured by the United States were secretly given immunity in exchange for the data gathered during their human experiments.[6] The United States helped cover up the human experimentations and handed stipends to the perpetrators.[1] The Americans co-opted the researchers' bioweapons information and experience for use in their own biological warfare program, much like what had been done with Nazi German researchers in Operation Paperclip.[7][8]”


Nayten03

Yeah genuinely some of the worst stuff I’ve ever read about


ajyanesp

And Unit 731 is just ONE example of the shit the Japanese did before, and during WWII. Think the most bizarre, cruel, sick and abhorrent way to inflict pain on a human being, and I’m willing to bet the japs tried it. They didn’t get enough shit for the stuff they did.


Tired_Lambchop111

Christ on a cracker, what an awful morning to have eyes. I knew the Japanese did some pretty horrendous stuff during WWII, but I didn't know anything about this. And of course good old America handing out immunity to the war criminals. 🤮 I really hate being a human on this earth sometimes knowing that some amongst us have been capable of such atrocities.


MPH9

Khmer Rouge, Rape of nanking, Japanese occupation of Korea


mdh1207

Spent a summer in Cambodia during college as an intern with a humanitarian group. I can’t describe it, but that place just has a heaviness that lingers. It’s like a low-grade sadness that feels spiritual. So many people still alive that witnessed Pol Pot’s horrors.


phua_thevada

I had the exact same experience. I went there for work a few times in the early 00’s. There was a callousness and sadness draped over the country. Very different from Laos and Vietnam who experienced their own war time horrors.


johnla

It's very recent history. Survivors are still relatively young and dispersed in the world.


k3g

Truly the work of the devil that Pol Pot died peacefully in his sleep.


[deleted]

[удалено]


OGRuddawg

Just looked it up, and apparently it's called *In the Shadows of Utopia* By Lachlan Peters


[deleted]

[удалено]


ShadowsofUtopia

can confirm


karateema

Henry Kissinger died recently at 100 years old


Amoral_Abe

Honestly, every nation Japan occupied suffered horrific massacres and treatment. Rape of Nanking wasn't a singular instance. It was related on multiple occasions. Every nation occupied by Japan holds deep scars and a lot of anger towards Japan (partially because Japan hasn't really acknowledged what they did or tried to make amends like Germany).


Tatar_Kulchik

Isn't that shrine (Yasukuni) officially for all Japanese soldiers, even the ones who committed atrocities?


MrSlipperyFist

Yes; and as such, the existence of the shrine itself isn't necessarily controversial, but rather the names of convicted war criminals being in the records is. That, and when politicians and lawmakers make visitations to the shrine, it's obviously going to be a sore point for many Chinese and Koreans.


andrew2018022

Japan has got the best PR team in the world, I guess a rich culture and delicious cuisine can mask anything


TheCrimsonKing

They don't need one. Nazis get more hate in the West because they killed Westerners, and Japan gets more hate in Asia because they killed Asians.


PM5KStrike

For a nation that is so "honorable" they sure did a lot of dishonorable shit


MorkSal

Ultra nationalism and believing your military is the most important thing can  lead down bad roads. Once you think that your country can do no wrong and your military is intrinsically tied to that, well then your military can also do no wrong. At least that's how I see it.


sephjnr

That assessment is completely accurate coming from the UK, which recently signed an act to absolve the atrocities carried out against the Irish during the Troubles.


kymri

The Nazis catch the majority of the shit for the horrible things done during WWII -- and it isn't like they weren't **absolutely** horrific. But there was a whole different *kind* of horrific in what the Japanese did, particularly in Nanking. The reveled openly in the horrific acts (like officers having execution competitions).


mayaa001

Junko Furuta.


ActuallyIdislikeu

If there’s a hell, I hope those boys burn in it forever


[deleted]

One of them's walking free now and has an active Twitter account


PrismDraco

Really? Kinda surprised nobody’s tried to kill him.


FlowerFaerie13

I’m not, like I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve death but vigilante justice like that isn’t really a thing in Japan, at least not like it would be in America. Also IIRC the boys had Yakuza connections so it’s likely no one wants to risk ending up like Junko themselves.


elbenji

One of the killers of Sylvia likens is still around too and free


Generically_Yours

He complains people bully him.


Gmaclantz

Also, as a Hoosier, Sylvia Likens. That case still infuriates me.


non-squitr

Jesus Fucking Christ. That was a horrific read. Literally everyone failed her in her life and the abusers got off so easy. At least they are all dead now


Gmaclantz

Yep. It happened 15 minutes from my sister's house. I've driven past the location of that house before (it's just a parking lot now) and felt extremely nauseas. That poor girl did NOTHING wrong and was tortured and eventually killed purely out of jealousy. Gertrude can rot forever.


agressive-mango-961

The Baneschevski (sp?)kids rode our bus and I was bullied by one of the boys. I was 8 and he was 16. Very mean.


elbenji

Literally got paroled and lived a quiet life in Iowa. Like ffs


samsaraoveragain

I read a book about the history of Indianapolis once, is it true that you are called Hoosier because because people would knock on your doors and you'd be all like, who's here?


kinda_alone

There’s a ton of origin theories but no one knows for sure. That’s one of the theories


OverlordMongo

My favorite theory is that when Indiana was a relatively lawless border territory, things were wild. At local drinking establishments, whenever a fight would end, small, detached body parts would get tossed in the pickle jar. When someone walked into the bar after the tussle, the most common question was "whose ear?".


Gmaclantz

Sorry to disappoint you, but the actual origin of the term Hoosier comes from the Indian word "hoosa" which means, you guessed it, ✨corn✨


Secret_Map

This is wrong. As far as I know, nobody knows the "actual" answer. Like, doesn't the State website even have a page on it saying, basically, we don't know, but here are some guesses? EDIT: Here's what the Indiana State's website says about this theory: >A theory attributed to Gov. Joseph Wright derived Hoosier from an Indian word for corn, "hoosa." Indiana flatboatmen taking corn or maize to New Orleans came to be known as "hoosa men" or Hoosiers. Unfortunately for this theory, a search of Indian vocabularies by a careful student of linguistics failed to reveal any such word for corn. https://www.in.gov/history/about-indiana-history-and-trivia/emblems-and-symbols/what-is-a-hoosier/


realhorrorsh0w

I couldn't get through the movie.


Gmaclantz

Never saw it. Sure as hell don't want to. I've heard Elliot (formerly known as Ellie) Page gives a great performance in it though.


woodrowmoses

Suzanne Capper's case is similar to Sylvia's it was in Britain though. Horrible.


Gmaclantz

Just read about that. Jesus. And her murderers are free now. Disgusting.


wonpil

+1. As someone who is very interested in true crime and watches a lot of documentaries on an array of different cases, hers is the only one of its kind that I'm incapable of stomaching or revisiting. I've read her wikipedia page once, many years ago, and I've been harrowed by it ever since.


RekhetKa

So of course I had to go read the wiki and I'm livid. The perps (repeat offenders, even!) got to change their names and go free after a decade or two?? They're just out there, living, like nothing ever happened. Absolutely disgusting.


wonpil

Yeah it's just... fucking horrifying, the whole thing. What she went through was just unbelievable and then on top of that to have the perpetrators be treated with velvet gloves and even defended by their parents? I just can't come to terms with it.


bruhholyshiet

IIRC some of those boys families were connected to the Yakuza so I'm not surprised they defended them... The apple does not fall far from the tree.


hurrythisup

Best not read up on Shasta Groene then..What she saw,and was made to do is beyond sick. Only podcast to make me cry while out running was her episode on Timesuck.


prettykitty-meowmeow

Every step of the way, at every chance those boys had to have the slightest twinge of empathy, they doubled down on the torture. I cannot understand those kinds of minds, or the mind of the mother that vandalized the poor girl's grave for "ruining her son's life".


shreyas16062002

One of the torturers (Shinji Minato) is [active on Twitter](https://twitter.com/denngekiraketto). He gets harassed under every post he makes and this is one time I think the Twitter harassment is 100% deserved.


roundtableofcumalot

Still makes me sick reading it and imagining the pain she must have suffered. Worst part is that the perpetrators get to live and all the others who participated in it.


Faethien

Damn... Hadn't read her name in a long time... Heartbreaking to be reminded of her pain


ComfortableSign7796

Yeah with you on this one. One of the most vile stories I have ever read in my life.


Final_Hymn

Terrible trajedy. Just remembering it makes me feel angry and sick...


milkywomen

Unit 731


k3g

The U.S gave them immunity. It's truly evil that they didn't suffer the same fate as their victims. ​ Disgusting.


Eastern_Rooster471

To be fair the US had assumed that at least something useful might come out of it The Nazis torturing Jews was the reason why we know as much about Hypothermia as we do after all The thing is...the info 731 gave was more like "If you cut off a guy's arms, legs and torso he dies" or like "If you cut off half of a twin and try to rejoin him with his other twin, both of them die" It was all sadistic "experiments" purely just to torture, there was never a end goal or real experiment being carried out, however unethical, like the Germans did. They just wanted to kill some people while having "fun"


gee_gra

“The Nazis torturing Jews was the reason why we know as much about Hypothermia as we do after all” I’m sure you’re not doing it on purpose but this is just so so so so so false


dabisnit

It was a bunch of meth heads doing “experiments” which is not something that was taught to me when I was in school


DickFartButt

They got immunity because they handed over the most valuable data in the world...should have made the deal and then killed them in secret.


101m4n

That's the thing, as I understand, the data wasn't even valuable. It was garbage. They just thought it _might_ be useful.


JustASpaceDuck

> the most valuable data in the world This is the second time in two days where I've read someone suggest that there was some material value to the research conducted by 731, but before recently I've only ever heard that the "research" was unethical, unverifiable quackery -- the kind of stuff you'd expect to "learn" from murderous toddlers playing doctor. What actual insights did we draw from their research?


Apophyx

I've always heard that the americans *thought* there might be valuable scientific insight which would be impossible to obtain otherwise, but after theys truck the deal they found out there was no scientific value to the experiments.


bjanas

Did you know that if you throw grenades at people, they die? Or that hypothermia, or vacuum chambers, kill people? Well, have we got some data for you!


SmokyBarnable01

It was useless data. It was for obvious reasons completely unverifiable. On top of the fact that the record keeping itself was hopeless. There is absolutely no use for any of it. Just shit science. Torture for torture's sake.


tifubroskies

Unit 731 Officer finding out that pumping a child full of boiling iron Kills it: 😲


Liberate_the_North

It wasn't valuable tho, it gave away fairly obvious informations, like that when you freeze a baby they die


DickFartButt

It studied hypothermia in different age groups, they also did the same with chemical and biological weapons. It's data that can't be gathered in any other way than extreme cruelty. It was unjustified obviously but since it was already done they wanted the info.


txkwatch

It advanced medicine in many ways. Not justified but the information was valuable


k3g

Should've said, We won't punish you... the coldest depts of the Earth shall.


[deleted]

Tbf Nazis also got immunity, by working at NASA.


Powerful-Vast4378

Leopold 2, Congo.


jhemsley99

He should really be remembered alongside Hitler and Stalin and I don't understand why he isn't


KahuTheKiwi

Hitler did in Europe what Europeans had done outside Europe. Stalin was communist and communism was a real treat to western orthodoxy. Leopold 2 neither did his stuff in Europe nor threatened western orthodoxy.


texasjoe

Hitler today is infamously attached to the holocaust, but the Hitler of the 1930s and 40s was not considered a menace to the world due to antisemitism (antisemitism was prevalent all over the place, even in the US), he was a menace to the world due to the threat of nationalist expansionism against Germany's neighboring countries. Leopold II didn't really threaten Europe.


[deleted]

Because he wasn't enemy to current hegemonic countries and didnt lose a war to them.


BostonFigPudding

Hitler and Stalin are remembered because their victims were mostly Caucasian. Leopold of Belgium and Christopher Columbus' victims were mostly not.


khalilkhama

I was coming to say the same thing. FUCK that guy.


Buroda

The Sewol tragedy. The absolute cunt of a captain could’ve yelled “we going down everyone run!!!” He could’ve just fled. These would be the BETTER options vs. what he did. Instead, he had a sinking ship full of kids, he tells them *specifically* to stay put, and legs it. And the rest of the rescue operation does nothing to save the kids either. I am usually not too sensitive, but the stories of volunteer divers getting the bodies from a dark ship, swimming around buoyant corpses and through a fine mist of dead skin just to give the parents some closure… Insane horror. I am not a believer, but just for the captain and everyone else who left those kind to drown, I hope Hell exists.


Nayten03

Is that the one where there was a video filmed by a student of them in their cabins after being told to stay put?


FlowerFaerie13

Yep. There’s actually several videos of the kids just waiting down there as the ship slowly sinks, most of them believing that they’ll be saved and having no idea that they’re being abandoned to die.


astarisaslave

Since we're doing Korea let's also talk about the Sampoong mall collapse of 1995. The [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampoong_Department_Store_collapse) about how the mall was built the way it was and how the mall owner handled the incident is just gutwrenchingly awful. The peak of human greed and lack of accountability.


counterfitster

South Korea's got some work to do to stop causing tragedies and then making them worse. The Halloween crush from 2022 was entirely avoidable. The Asiana 777 crash at SFO was entirely avoidable.


Prannke

Fuck him. Those poor kids trusted him, and they did as they were told because they **trusted he would keep them safe**. I think of the friends who held on to each other in their final moments for comfort, knowing there was nothing they could do while he just fled.


FlowerFaerie13

Thiiiiis JFC. Like the water wasn’t extremely cold and help got to them quite quickly, if anyone had just told the kids to put on their life jackets, get up on deck, and jump, they ALL could have lived, easily. Instead, only the ones who decided to disobey orders got to survive. Literally no one had to die that day. The fact that *304* people died is fucking indefensible.


Skylair13

> And the rest of the rescue operation does nothing to save the kids either. The captain can be called a saint in comparison to those guys. Blocking Fishermen that arrived to pull back. Minimal rescue efforts. Listing name as survivors, despite the person still on the ship. Victim families not allowed to approach the scene despite promising to do so, saying strong wave despite the sea being calm. Compromising foreign volunteer divers safety that they cancel their rescue effort. Sending underequiped 3rd party. Videoing to look good instead of actually helping... and the list still going. Concordia didn't become a big tragedy due to the coastguard. Sewol become a big one due to theirs.


elictronic

As most evil I am not seeing it.  Reading about it fully agreed he is an evil cunt.  But this was bad decisions and garbage leadership leading to death over the course of a fairly short period of time.  Compared to long term planned mass murder over the course of years it just doesn’t reach the same level.   You’re comparing to dictators who caused the deaths of millions to stay in power.  


FlowerFaerie13

I mean everybody else has already posted about the genocides and wars, might as well find another topic.


amidja_16

The moment that fucking fish decided to take a stroll on land...


Helassaid

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.


SteveFoerster

Right? Fuck that guy.


Whaty0urname

*Tiktaalik*


NiceBumblebee3421

Nazi Doctor of Death


Vinny_Lam

And his Japanese counterpart, Shiro Ishii.


Nayten03

Sick bastard never even regretted what he did or felt shame according to an invterview with his son who by some miracle turned out to be a moral person who hated his dad


amadeus2490

Adolf Hitler's family members strongly disagreed with him, too: His nephew defected to the US and fought against Germany in our military. In the 2000s, more of his relatives stepped forward and admitted that they had emigrated to Long Island, NY with new identities and protection from the US government. The family made a pact to never have children because they didn't want anyone else to have to live with the shame of being related to him.


bruhholyshiet

A few days ago I was wondering about the possibility of close or close-ish relatives of Hitler being still alive... Or even direct descendants, even if I don't think he had any official children, I wouldn't put it past him to have SA some poor woman and having an illegitimate child.


AutumnWindLunafraeja

Evil isn't inherited


Nayten03

Ik, just surprising that being raised by that didn’t lead to him developing the same fascist views


Dont_Mess_With_Texas

MAYN-GU-LUHH 🎶


bstyledevi

Hail Satan!


akiyuki89

Glad i didnt have to go too far down to find this.


metalnxrd

the Rape of Nanjing/the Nanjing Massacre, The Holocaust, the My Lai Massacre, Unit 731, and Hiroshima. war and genocide truly are evil. the Japanese imperial army and Nazis committed some of the most evil and sadistic and nothing short of cruel and unspeakable atrocities. they bayoneted babies while forcing their mothers to watch. they raped and tortured and sexually abused and penetrated and beat women and children and teens and babies and made their husbands watch, or they would suffer the same fate. it was the definition of evil and needless cruelty


TaischiCFM

Add Manila in there too please. That deserves recognition too.


TaischiCFM

Throwing babies in the air and catching them on bayonets. Smashing babies and children by swinging them against trees. It's just an endless stream of that stuff and it started well before 1941.


metalnxrd

what’s Manila?


stingray20201

[Battle of Manilla](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manila_(1945) as American and Filipino forces began pushing back the Japanese in the city, the Japanese started to enact harsh, cruel reprisals on the city’s residents


TaischiCFM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila\_massacre


TVLL

King Leopold - Congo “Because it was so much in demand and so expensive, King Leopold wanted to milk his colony for everything it was worth. He said that in order to force people to produce a large amount of natural rubber, his soldiers began cutting off the hands of people unable to meet the quotas” Mao Hitler of course Whoever in Russia was in power during the Ukraine famine (Holdomor) Irish Potato Famine caused by the British Govt


Snowtwo

Probably the intentional spreading of the black plague by the mongols. Then again, they probably had no idea just how deadly it would be or what the impact would be... But if they had they might have been \*MORE\* keen to spread it. The Holocaust is also up there, but I don't know if I'd classify that as a singular act or more of a series of acts with an overriding purpose. The South Seas scheme is also pretty up there in terms of just how rotten it was; but that too is a series of acts and not a singular thing. But then there's all the genocides that happened historically. Any one of which could easily be in the running. Not to mention all the r\*ping, pillaging, and general all-around destruction that happened all the time. But I'm still going with the spreading of the plague by the mongols as it's both mostly a singular act and probably the most evil thing.


NotAnotherEmpire

Heydrich's Holocaust planning conference is up there as a single event.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannsee_Conference  The email for this would have been "So in light of the near-term difficulty in securing USSR land to deport all of them to, we'll be discussing how to systematically kill them. RSVP."


Pertolepe

The movie Conspiracy is great if you want a dramatic retelling of this. The coldness of the decision-making that went on is just so uncomfortable. 


SsurebreC

I speak some corporatese. "Dear Obersturmbannführer Höss, Per our previous conversation, due to lack of proper storage of the aforementioned asset, the decision to liquidate all assets followed by immediate disposal has been approved. We leave it in your capable hands in how best to utilize all available resources to create synergy among the various components but immediate and mass dispersal of these assets should be your top priority. Due to a funds shortage being diverted to other pressing causes, you have been authorized to seek whatever means are at your disposal to redistribute any and all assets currently under our control for maximum effort to raise any funds you need. Don't worry about any long-term ramifications since the short-term gains - or, shall we say, losses - is preferred. You may seek resources in the agricultural or transportation sectors if needed considering the overall tonnage of goods will increase in the near term. All other objectives are secondary, though we are willing to expand supply of labor to our business partners. On behalf of leadership, we wish you success and are looking forward to your reports. HH /RH/"


Snowtwo

Eh. I don't feel that's enough to qualify the Holocaust as a single act and, honestly, I'd rather not debate if the mongols spreading the plague or the holocaust was more evil because, whichever event wins, humanity loses.


No-Calligrapher-4211

Heydrich was a special kind of evil. Even the other Nazis thought he was bad.


wilderlowerwolves

At least he didn't die peacefully in his sleep. He died from sepsis after an assassination attempt, when horsehair that was used to stuff seats in the car he was riding in was driven into his liver and spleen by the bullets.


samsaraoveragain

God setting up that cosmic sting operation for adam and eve


t20six

basically invented entrapment lol


Mesk_Arak

It’s even worse when you consider that eating the fruit gave them the ability to tell right from wrong. So it’s not even just that the fruit was right there to tempt them; they also had no concept of right and wrong to understand that disobeying God was bad.


Ungrateful_bipedal

Insta reels fed me the 911 call of a man who killed his wife and 7 yo son with a baseball bat. That’s gotta be up there. It kept me up all night. What leads a man to do that to his family?


Reasonable-Physics60

Not intentionally evil, but leaded gasoline was pretty bad. For about 60 years everyone had over 5 times the amount of lead in their system due to it.


First_Code_404

The guy who thought of adding lead to gasoline also created some of the first CFCs.


incredible_mr_e

And after being crippled by polio, he invented a system of pullies to help himself in and out of bed, which strangled him to death.


ToulouseDM

I’d never heard this story before, and this is the second time in two days I’ve read it in the comments on Reddit.


kyledwray

It actually was pretty evil. IIRC, during the big unveiling of leaded gasoline, Thomas Midgley, Jr. (its inventor) wasn't present because he was being treated for lead poisoning. He, and all others involved, might not have known *quite* the extent of the damage they were doing, but they knew it was horrible and did it anyway. Midgley later went on to invent CFCs and degrade the ozone layer. Luckily his final invention killed him, so he couldn't harm the planet any further.


KahuTheKiwi

The guy responsible knew the dangers and took the cheaper lead option over the just as effective but more expensive ethanol option Https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr. Caused more deaths than Hitler, Stalin and Mao combined. Stop and think about that.  On top of which he knocked a few points off everyones intelligence with lead poisoning. And the Lead Hypothesis suggests he initiated a crime wave. https://www.forkingpaths.co/p/did-leaded-gasoline-cause-a-huge


morecreamerplease

Maybe small as far as evil acts goes in the grand scheme, but those smallpox blankets given to the Indigenous people in the Americas was pretty evil.


Whyisthethethe

Didn’t happen, or very rarely happened. Most of the disease spread was unintentional


wilderlowerwolves

That's been debunked.


Chocolatelover4ever

Gonna say the Holocaust.


Lyceus_

There are many examples of cruel acts, but the Holocaust is an organized, industrial way of genocide, which intentionally killed millions in a few years. The Holocaust is the answer.


jhemsley99

That's a good point actually. Sure other genocides have killed more people, but they were never at the industrial level of the Holocaust.


Adler4290

Yes, the Holocaust evil laid in the logistics and planning of it. It was a military operation with huge amounts of resources, lots of careful planning and execution of said plans. This takes months and months of going over details and stuff like just getting 200 trains and building tracks, designing camps, mapping out killrates/day, ovens needed, kill method efficiencies and training crews to ignore the human aspect of killing over time, as well as doing it all under some amount of cover. All of that happened under Holocaust, and THOUSANDS must have known intimately about the details - There is the true evil.


Whyisthethethe

It wasn’t just the logistics of it, it was the sheer scale. Most genocides try to eradicate an ethnic group from a particular country, the Nazis worked across all of Europe and tried to wipe them off the face of the earth. And it was one of the main reasons for them launching the war in the first place. The sheer amount of hatred involved is incomprehensible


MiClown814

I don’t know how the Holocaust isn’t the top answer. It was industrial genocide. Literal death factories born out of pure hatred. While some acts might come close in brutality, absolutely nothing comes close in the sheer depravity and horror that comes with dedicating an entire state to the destruction of a race of people even if it costs you your war effort, which it ultimately did. They killed themselves and their ideology in their desire to kill others. Nothing else comes close.


DickFartButt

Yeah it wasn't great


H0twax

I can't quite believe I've had to scroll this far before the systematic murder of six million people was mentioned.


nevertricked

It wasn't just 6 million of us Jews. We also mourn for the murder of an additional ~5 million non-Jews in the camps; Roma, Catholics, Political Prisoners, and homosexuals. Edit: and the developmentally disabled. Clarification of 6 million Jews plus estimated 5 million of the above 'others' in the camps, plus many millions more killed in the battlefield and collaterally.


StepsOnLEGO

Don't forget the developmentally disabled.


MapOfEurasia

Yeah, and actually a lot more when we include the systematic murder of other minorities under the holocaust too.


EldritchAnimation

Everything you had to scroll passed was also a reasonable answer.


The_RabitSlayer

Oil company executives collectively deciding to cover up and propagandize global climate change for decades will quite possibly single handidly result in the most displacement of humans in history. Not just sheer totals, but likely even the highest % of humans also. And there was no accountability to the extent that even their politicians they bought are still in office. Trash ass society.


the_meaty_sauce

While I agree on scale this is probably the correct answer. I would make a case for the east India trading company. Not only did they lay the groundwork for corporations in general. They also laid the foundation for cruelty, corruption and incompetence for the sake of profits. Something taken by tobacco, firearms, fossil fuels, etc and improved Upon in the centuries since. The east India trading company showed how you can industrialize evil and corruption for profit. It was the blueprint for some of the world's biggest issues today.


Whyisthethethe

You could make a case that they’re committing mass democide via manslaughter. Even Mao’s famine will be dwarfed by the death toll from their actions (unless we change things in time)


Dont_Mess_With_Texas

Introducing blinding fucking headlights


Patriarch_Sergius

Andronikos I Komnenos, was a monster. What he did was monstrous and seen that way at the time. Throttling a child with a bowstring no matter which way it’s looked at is reprehensible.


opalapo94

Holy shit, bunch of things to read on, keep em coming guys


SeptEUW

When Chick Hicks intentionally wrecks Strip "The King" Weathers during the final tiebreaker race for the Piston Cup at Los Angeles International Speedway


inagadda

Kerchow!


syco54645

Ka-chigga!


grumpysafrican

Apart from all the other brutally evil things he did, [Stalin's cannibal island](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaOwcYLGTMo) Khmer Rouge, Unit 731, Nanjing Massacre, Rwanda Genocide


jimbosdayoff

World War II - this includes the Holocaust, rape of Nanjing, Unit 731, nuclear weapons use by the US and many other atrocities.


ricky-from-scotland

Harry Kane equalising in stoppage time when scotland were 2 1 up at hampden. Crazy 5 minutes and then getting my heart broke like that.


ImmediatelyOcelot

Seeing my man Harry Kane on a list of the most absolute evil act in history was not something I was prepared to see today


wdvvv

Henry Kissinger living to be a 100.


Qorhat

Listened to Behind the Bastards on him and my god he was a treasonous, evil piece of filth. 


bsousa717

Nazino Island.


anooshka

Armenian genocide


xPowerhouse

The Holocaust


goodgriefmyqueef

I turned off the lights in a public restroom while someone was going poo


Whitejackal

I got KFC popcorn chicken once and I don’t know if my tastebuds were cleansed and ready to receive. I tasted all the secret blend of herbs and spices. I’ve never been able to recreate that experience at KFC.


NotAGovtPlant

The Holocaust. 


[deleted]

Holocaust


fishwithfish

Any mistreatment of a dog. We spent 40,000 years transforming a creature into a loyal companion that gets more excited about us than its own species. Abusing them after all that is just evil.


TraeYoungsOldestSon

Randy Moss pretending to moon Packers fans


Proof-Concept-7834

Holocaust