This guide covers records related to Japanese war crimes in the Pacific theatre of the Second World War.
That atrocities are an inevitable part of even a modern war was well known in Australia prior to the First World War.
While Australians fought alongside the Allied powers in the European and Pacific theatres of the Second World War, and were the victims of atrocities in both, this guide covers generally only the Pacific theatre.
This decision reflects the reality that the bulk of Australian records on war crimes investigations and prosecutions concerns Japanese war crimes, not war crimes in Europe.
Issues relating to war crimes in Europe were largely left by Australia to be dealt with by the United Kingdom.