There is no precise estimate on the number of prisoners because of the massacres of captives on 9 March 1945 and the following days and disappearances of people in the bush trying to flee.

The prisoners were mostly soldiers of all ranks, gendarmes, police and security agents, customs officers, officials or agents of public service in positions of responsibility. The majority consisted of metropolitan and Métis to which the Japanese had demonstrated their hatred.

It should be recalled that many soldiers and civilians were rescued by their wives Indochinese who took all the risks to locate and to provide material support despite the surveillance of Japanese.

Many families were assigned residence or interned and among them many women, metropolitan, mestizo and indigenous communities suffered severe abuse and torture of a rare moral perversity.

In September 1945 after the defeat of Japanese prisoners were freed for themselves and took up arms, others interned in the bush had to await the arrival of representatives of allied forces to end their captivity. The internment of families ended upon the deposit of weapons by the Japanese, but some families interned in Annam and some soldiers were handed over by the former occupants of the Viet Minh and had to wait for the first quarter of the year 1946 to reach freedom.


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At any time of their captivity, the prisoners had to suffer the brutality and crustiest of the enemy. The mortality rate may seem low compared to losses incurred in other captivity, including those recognized in captive Viet Minh. It is good, however, that this internment lasted only six months. One can imagine what would have been lost if the captivity had lasted several years.

The ferocity of the enemy flourished mainly in the border area of Tonkin in early captivity. The massacre of prisoners was systematic (Langson, Haiphong, Bac-Ghiang, Thakhek, etc..). Some sadistic refinement was even implemented during these executions: invitations, human shields, followed by decapitation games, etc..

Children Troupe Dalat, folded on Cambodia, were led, despite their young age, to Kratie Prison, notorious for its horrific atrocities, before being sent to Pakse and Paksong.

During the first months, some prisoners could seem protected by remaining in their block or neighborhood (Hue, Bal-Me-Thiot, Thu-Do-Word, etc..) But in May and early June 1945, it was the great migration in conditions of transport, extrêtement painful steps towards the citadel of Hanoi, or the camp of Martin Pallières in Saigon.

The influx of those prisoners tired, anemic, malnourished (4 to 5000 per camp) would severely affect the standards of hygiene and cleanliness, and weather conditions, lack of medication, lack of adequate food helping, mortality became extreme.

This mortality does not increase quickly enough to the taste of Japanese who will send, from late June 1945, over 2,000 prisoners in the most unhealthy: Paksung and especially Hoa-Binh, creating this as a "real camps slow death "of RC6.

Height of cruelty, at the end of the war, the "final solution" was planned for the Europeans, thus creating a true traumatic neurosis in all military and civilian prisoners of the Japanese.

Recall that the Tribunal of war criminals serving in Saigon condemned to death and executed Lieutenant Colonel T. Shigeoru, Chief of Staff of the Japanese division from China to attack the French forces during the coup of force on 9 March 1945.