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Imperial Japan acted with extreme cruelty during WW2. Allied prisoners of all nationalities were subjected to mistreatment and faced terrible mortality rates. The post-war Tokyo Tribunal estimated 27% of all Western prisoners died in Japanese captivity, which was far greater than the Western POW mortality rate in German captivity. This percentage was even higher for Chinese prisoners, with only 56 Chinese POWs being released by Japan at the end of the war. The infamous Bataan Death March of 1942 resulted in the deaths of thousands of Filipino and American prisoners, as a result of exhaustion, starvation, and direct abuse. This event exemplified Japanese treatment of POWs. Torture, death marches, forced labour, and mass executions were all common. When short on food some Japanese soldiers even cannibalized their prisoners.
The Japanese did not set up a "Final Solution"-type plan to fully exterminate any ethnic/religious group, but they did dehumanize other 'races' to justify their brutal subjugation. This racism helped motivate many of their war crimes. More than 20 million civilians died during Japan's occupations of Asia, most of them Chinese (though Indonesians, Filipinos, Koreans, Malays, Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Burmese also suffered). Western and Asian women of various ages were often exploited by the Japanese as prostitutes.
Sources:
Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II by Y Tanaka
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P. Bix
The Looting of Asia by Chalmers Johnson
Comfort Women
Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II by Yoshimi Yoshiaki
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/war-crimes-wwii-japanese-practised-cannibalism-indian-soldiers-1460601