Three Alls Policy The Three Alls Policy ( , " Sankō Sakusen " ; ) was a Japanese scorched earth policy adopted in China during World War II , the three " alls " being " kill all , loot all , destroy all " ( Japanese : すべてを殺す 、 すべてを燃やす 、 すべてを略奪 ; ) . This policy was designed as retaliation against the Chinese for the Communist - led Hundred Regiments Offensive in December 1940 . Contemporary Japanese documents referred to the policy as . The expression " " Sankō Sakusen " " was first popularized in Japan in 1957 when former Japanese soldiers released from the Fushun war crime internment center wrote a book called " The Three Alls : Japanese Confessions of War Crimes in China " ( , " Sankō , Nihonjin no Chūgoku ni okeru sensō hanzai no kokuhaku " ) ( new edition : Kanki Haruo , 1979 ) , in which Japanese veterans confessed to war crimes committed under the leadership of General Yasuji Okamura . The publishers were forced to stop the publication of the book after receiving death threats from Japanese militarists and ultranationalists . Description . Initiated in 1940 by Major General Ryūkichi Tanaka , the " Sankō Sakusen " was implemented in full scale in 1942 in north China by General Yasuji Okamura who divided the territory of five provinces ( Hebei , Shandong , Shensi , Shanhsi , Chahaer ) into " pacified " , " semi - pacified " and " unpacified " areas . Okamura ' s strategy involved burning down villages , confiscating grain and mobilizing peasants to construct collective hamlets . It also centered on the digging of vast trench lines and the building of thousands of miles of containment walls and moats , watchtowers and roads . These operations targeted for destruction " enemies pretending to be local people " and " all males between the ages of fifteen and sixty whom we suspect to be enemies . " In a study published in 1996 , historian Mitsuyoshi Himeta claims that the Three Alls Policy , sanctioned by Emperor Hirohito himself , was both directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of " more than 2 . 7 million " Chinese civilians . His works and those of Akira Fujiwara about the details of the operation were commented by Herbert P . Bix in his Pulitzer Prize – winning book , " Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan " , who claims that the " Sankō Sakusen " far surpassed the Rape of Nanking not only in terms of numbers , but in brutality as well . The effects of the Japanese strategy were further exacerbated by Chinese military tactics , which included the masking of military forces as civilians , or the use of civilians as deterrents against Japanese attacks . In some places , the Japanese use of chemical warfare against civilian populations in contravention of international agreements was also alleged . Controversy and dispute . As with many aspects of World War II history , the Three Alls Policy is still a controversial issue . Because the name and source for this strategy is Chinese , some have denied its veracity . The issue is partly confused by the use of scorched - earth tactics by the Kuomintang government forces in numerous areas of central and northern China , against both the invading Japanese , and against Chinese civilian populations in rural areas of strong support for the Chinese Communist Party . Known in Japan as , Chinese soldiers would destroy the homes and fields of their own civilians in order to wipe out any possible supplies or shelter that could be utilised by the over - extended Japanese troops . Movie . The movie " The Children of Huang Shi " , which covers the Japanese invasion from 1938 to 1945 , is set in part along the " sankō sakusen " . Some of the content of this article comes from the equivalent Japanese - language article ( accessed on April 7 , 2006 ) .