Name Hiroshi (war | ||
Hiroshi Abe (born ca. 1922) is a former Japanese soldier and a repented war criminal. As a first lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, he supervised construction of the Burma Railway at Songkrai. Over twelve thousand Allied prisoners of war died under his supervision.
Abe was sentenced to death as a B/C class war criminal and imprisoned in Changi Prison. In 1948, his sentence was commuted to 15 years. He was released in 1957.
"The construction of the railway was in itself a war crime. For my part in it, I am a war criminal."
In 1995, Abe testified against the Japanese government in a lawsuit seeking compensation for Koreans in Japan during World War II. "This was probably the first time for a former Japanese officer to testify in court in the trial of war compensation issues."