THESE are the startling pictures which show the horrific moment Japanese troops used British prisoners of war for target practice.

The Japanese treatment of prisoners of war in World War II was barbaric - but photographs have emerged showing just how bad they treated their captives.

7 War criminals... Japanese troops here seem to be making a game of executing their prisoners of war Credit: News Dog Media

The set of pictures were found among Japanese records when British troops entered Singapore in 1945 and returned to colonial rule.

Tens of thousands of British and Commonwealth servicemen died from starvation, work, torture or disease in Japan’s prisoner of war camps during World War II.

Some of the Japanese atrocities were almost as bad as those of Nazis in Europe, or those committed by the death cult ISIS before its evil “caliphate” crumbled this year.

The photographs reveal the full scale of the inhuman brutality practised upon their helpless prisoners.

In the first image of the set, blindfolded prisoners of the Sikh Regiment of the British Indian Army are given a degrading target mark so that their captors can practice their shooting skills.

Stakes placed in the ground in front of them bear the butt numbers of each target.

7 The Sikh POWs lined up ready to be shot Credit: News Dog Media

7 Bayonets are then stuck in to make sure no-one survives Credit: News Dog Media

7 Japanese General Yamashita was in charge when the atrocities took place Credit: News Dog Media

The vast majority of Indian soldiers captured when Singapore fell to Japan in February 1942 belonged to the Sikh community.

In the photo, all of them sit in the traditional cross-legged prayer position - reciting their final prayers.

In the shocking second and third pictures, the Japanese troops can be seen readying their rifles and then shooting the helpless prisoners.

It is clear in these photographs that this is a target practice, not a straightforward military execution by a firing squad.

A firing squad usually has six or more shooters per condemned to guarantee a pretty instant death.

But in this case, the Japanese shooters are carefully assigned one prisoner each and each victim has a demeaning target mark.

In the final haunting image, the prisoners are seen dead on the ground while the Japanese troops check on their corpses.

7 Japanese troops marching into Singapore in 1942 after defeating the British... war crimes were to follow Credit: News Dog Media

7 An Australian POW, Sgt. Leonard Siffleet, who was captured in New Guinea about to be beheaded by a Japanese officer with a gunto, 1942 Credit: News Dog Media

When General Tomoyuki Yamashita captured Singapore from Winston Churchill described as the “worst disaster in British military history”.

Yamashita was later charged with war crimes after overseeing atrocities such as the ones in Singapore and many other massacres across south east Asia.

He was sentenced to death by hanging in 1946.

During the war, Japan captured nearly 140,000 Allied military personnel from Australia, Canada, Great Britain, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United States.

7 Emaciated Australian and Dutch prisoners of war held by the Japanese at Tarsau in Thailand Credit: News Dog Media

Korean sex slaves are rescued after being forced to act as 'comfort women' for brutal Japanese soldiers during World War Two

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