What do you think?
Rate this book
The Knights of Bushido: A Short History of Japanese War Crimes
This is the classic, standard account of Japanese war crimes; a best seller in its time, but out of print for many years. Between 1931 and 1945 Japanese troops rampaged through one defeated country after another, executing civilians, despoiling cities, massacring prisoners and cruelly exploiting prisoners of war and native populations. This carefully constructed history charts this brutal swathe of destruction, objectively examines individual crimes and details the reasons behind Japan's unprecedented disregard for accepted humanitarian principles. Japanese troops behaved with considerable brutality in their war against China a campaign designed 'to punish the people of China'. The Nanking massacre of December 1937 was just one example of the appalling series of atrocities the Japanese inflicted on the conquered Chinese. Japan also excelled in the mistreatment of prisoners of war. Allied troops unfortunate enough to fall into Japanese hands were abused, humiliated, starved and forced to serve as slave labor. This sweeping indictment of atrocities committed by the forces of the Rising Sun is a detailed and carefully documented study and one which throws light onto one of the most disturbing episodes of World War II.
334 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1958
128 people are currently reading
931 people want to read
About the author
Langley Russell, 2nd Baron Russell of Liverpool
21 books18 followersEdward Frederick Langley Russell, 2nd Baron Russell of Liverpool C.B.E., M.C. (10 April 1895-8 April 1981), known as Langley Russell, was a British soldier, lawyer and historian.
He was one of the chief legal advisers during war-crimes proceedings, for both the Nuremberg trials and the Tokyo tribunal, held following the end of the Second World War.
He was one of the chief legal advisers during war-crimes proceedings, for both the Nuremberg trials and the Tokyo tribunal, held following the end of the Second World War.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
September 15, 2020
This interesting book derived its name from a curious episode, later given as evidence before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East:
After having being subjected to all the standard forms of torture, the victim was marched blindfold for a considerable distance and then halted. He heard voices and marching feet, the sound of a squad loading their rifles as a firing party would.
Then, however, a Japanese officer approached the American pilot and said, "We are the Knights of Bushido, of the Order of the Rising Sun. We do not execute at sunset, but at sunrise."
The pilot was marched back to his cell, and told that unless he talked before dawn he would be executed...
Lord Russel's book is a shocking, no-holds-barred account of Japanese misdeeds during WWII.
When the Geneva Convention was re-enacted, Japan did not sign it. Its military, then rising in power, refused to follow the rules the diplomats had prepared because they expected every man to fight to death, and didn't want to be bound by cumbersome international obligations once they invaded China, as they did two years later. The problem, military leaders reasoned, was that if they treated Chinese prisoners humanely, they might lose control; as the atrocities commited during the occupation, especially at Nanking, showed, the Convention would have got in the way.
When war broke out with Great Britain and the United States late in 1941, the Japanese vaguely indicated that they would behave in accord with the spirit of the Geneva Convention. Notoriously, they did not. The stories in Lord Russel's book are horrible – starvation, torture, human experimentation, disease, cannibalism.
Lord Russel draws upon a large number of affidavits, eye-witnesses' statements, and documents produced at various trials to create a concise but nevertheless comprehensive account of Japanese war crimes.
In the initial chapter, the struggle for political power in Japan is compellingly traced. The author examines the two admirable principles of Japanese conduct, dating from the birth of the Empire of Japan, which ironically were responsible for Japan's aggressive militaristic expansionist policy in the 20th century. The principles are "Hakko Ichio" and "Kodo" – the former meant simply making the world one big family, and the second meant that the first could be achieved only through loyalty to the Emperor. Those two estimable concepts, however, were awfully misinterpreted and misused, again and again, by those who urged Japan towards a policy of territorial expansion.
In summary, "Hakko Ichio" was the moral goal, and loyalty to the Emperor was the road that led to it. Thus, Dr. Okawa, who after the end of the war was brought before the Tokyo Tribunal, published a book in 1924 on the very same subject. In it, he argued that as Japan had been the first State in existence it was her "Divine Mission" to rule the world, and that it was highly important for all Japanese to have a nationalist spirit with a capital "N".
From this point on, Lord Russel continues his disturbing narrative with the atrocities themselves.
The right of all prisoners at war to be properly housed, fed, and treated with humanity became recognized late in the 18th century. In early times they were frequently butchered or sacrificed to gods. If they were not killed, they were mor often than not enslaved, though somtimes exchanged or ransomed.
By the first decade of the 20th century, international law had provided that they must be treated humanely and their property respected, they must be decently housed, fed, and their status of war prisoners respected, and that the relief provided for them by the Red Cross and similar organizations must he given to them.
Each and every of this provisions, Lord Russel shows, was violated by the Japanese over and over again. Prisoners were murdered, they were bayoneted, they were tortured, they were beaten, starved, and robbed of their possesions. They were forced to work on Japanese military projects – Canadians worked in the shipyards and the mines – and even on the notorious killer-railways projects through the jungles of South-East Asia.
As Russel reveals in his shocking narrative, however, this was only the tip of the iceberg. The Japanese habitually and brutally contravened the laws of war while moving prisoners from place to place. He describes in detail the notorious "prison hulks" – coal bunkers with no air and inadequate sanitation, used to transport prisoners by sea.
Another inhumane practice depicted in the book are the "death marches": prisoners were forces to march long distances without food without water and without rest. Sick and wounded had to march alongside the fit. Prisoners who fell behind were beaten, tortured, and killed. Lord Russel discloses the much evidence available about this brutal practice, and the fact that the Japanese Government and military authorities were fully aware of it.
The book also allows some insight into the nightmarish prison camps, where thousands lost their lives and death was often regarded as a merciful release from unendurable suffering. It was a customary practice to make the prisoners build their own huts instead of sheltering them, thus exposing them to all weather until they'd completed their camp, and the camp commandants operated under the motto "No work, no food" a.k.a starvation.
The most appalling and surprising part of Knights of Bushido for me – and no doubt for most the readers – was Lord Russel's account of cannibalism in the Japanese army. An Indian soldier wondered whether he was awake of dreaming when he witnessed, hiding behind a tree, how half an hour after a forced landing, an American pilot had been beheaded by the Kempei Tai (horror-inspiring Japanese police officers who are notorious for sending prisoners of war to human-experimentation laboratories during the war) beheaded the pilot, cut flesh from his arms, legs, hips, and buttocks, and later cut it in small pieces and fried it.
Lord Russel dedicates a few pages to vivissection and human experiments but not with much detail, which doesn't make it any less horrifying, though.
In summary, Knights of Bushido is an unpleasant, gruesome but well documented and well told story. The set of well-choosen illustrations and drawings contribute even more to the overall impression. I cannot say that I enjoyed this book, but it was a very informative history of a forgotten but nevertheless important side of the Second World War.
* For the interested, I highly recommend Unit 731 Testimony. It is a disturbing but very well researched account of the Japanese human experimentation program during WWII.
After having being subjected to all the standard forms of torture, the victim was marched blindfold for a considerable distance and then halted. He heard voices and marching feet, the sound of a squad loading their rifles as a firing party would.
Then, however, a Japanese officer approached the American pilot and said, "We are the Knights of Bushido, of the Order of the Rising Sun. We do not execute at sunset, but at sunrise."
The pilot was marched back to his cell, and told that unless he talked before dawn he would be executed...
Lord Russel's book is a shocking, no-holds-barred account of Japanese misdeeds during WWII.
When the Geneva Convention was re-enacted, Japan did not sign it. Its military, then rising in power, refused to follow the rules the diplomats had prepared because they expected every man to fight to death, and didn't want to be bound by cumbersome international obligations once they invaded China, as they did two years later. The problem, military leaders reasoned, was that if they treated Chinese prisoners humanely, they might lose control; as the atrocities commited during the occupation, especially at Nanking, showed, the Convention would have got in the way.
When war broke out with Great Britain and the United States late in 1941, the Japanese vaguely indicated that they would behave in accord with the spirit of the Geneva Convention. Notoriously, they did not. The stories in Lord Russel's book are horrible – starvation, torture, human experimentation, disease, cannibalism.
Lord Russel draws upon a large number of affidavits, eye-witnesses' statements, and documents produced at various trials to create a concise but nevertheless comprehensive account of Japanese war crimes.
In the initial chapter, the struggle for political power in Japan is compellingly traced. The author examines the two admirable principles of Japanese conduct, dating from the birth of the Empire of Japan, which ironically were responsible for Japan's aggressive militaristic expansionist policy in the 20th century. The principles are "Hakko Ichio" and "Kodo" – the former meant simply making the world one big family, and the second meant that the first could be achieved only through loyalty to the Emperor. Those two estimable concepts, however, were awfully misinterpreted and misused, again and again, by those who urged Japan towards a policy of territorial expansion.
In summary, "Hakko Ichio" was the moral goal, and loyalty to the Emperor was the road that led to it. Thus, Dr. Okawa, who after the end of the war was brought before the Tokyo Tribunal, published a book in 1924 on the very same subject. In it, he argued that as Japan had been the first State in existence it was her "Divine Mission" to rule the world, and that it was highly important for all Japanese to have a nationalist spirit with a capital "N".
From this point on, Lord Russel continues his disturbing narrative with the atrocities themselves.
The right of all prisoners at war to be properly housed, fed, and treated with humanity became recognized late in the 18th century. In early times they were frequently butchered or sacrificed to gods. If they were not killed, they were mor often than not enslaved, though somtimes exchanged or ransomed.
By the first decade of the 20th century, international law had provided that they must be treated humanely and their property respected, they must be decently housed, fed, and their status of war prisoners respected, and that the relief provided for them by the Red Cross and similar organizations must he given to them.
Each and every of this provisions, Lord Russel shows, was violated by the Japanese over and over again. Prisoners were murdered, they were bayoneted, they were tortured, they were beaten, starved, and robbed of their possesions. They were forced to work on Japanese military projects – Canadians worked in the shipyards and the mines – and even on the notorious killer-railways projects through the jungles of South-East Asia.
As Russel reveals in his shocking narrative, however, this was only the tip of the iceberg. The Japanese habitually and brutally contravened the laws of war while moving prisoners from place to place. He describes in detail the notorious "prison hulks" – coal bunkers with no air and inadequate sanitation, used to transport prisoners by sea.
Another inhumane practice depicted in the book are the "death marches": prisoners were forces to march long distances without food without water and without rest. Sick and wounded had to march alongside the fit. Prisoners who fell behind were beaten, tortured, and killed. Lord Russel discloses the much evidence available about this brutal practice, and the fact that the Japanese Government and military authorities were fully aware of it.
The book also allows some insight into the nightmarish prison camps, where thousands lost their lives and death was often regarded as a merciful release from unendurable suffering. It was a customary practice to make the prisoners build their own huts instead of sheltering them, thus exposing them to all weather until they'd completed their camp, and the camp commandants operated under the motto "No work, no food" a.k.a starvation.
The most appalling and surprising part of Knights of Bushido for me – and no doubt for most the readers – was Lord Russel's account of cannibalism in the Japanese army. An Indian soldier wondered whether he was awake of dreaming when he witnessed, hiding behind a tree, how half an hour after a forced landing, an American pilot had been beheaded by the Kempei Tai (horror-inspiring Japanese police officers who are notorious for sending prisoners of war to human-experimentation laboratories during the war) beheaded the pilot, cut flesh from his arms, legs, hips, and buttocks, and later cut it in small pieces and fried it.
Lord Russel dedicates a few pages to vivissection and human experiments but not with much detail, which doesn't make it any less horrifying, though.
In summary, Knights of Bushido is an unpleasant, gruesome but well documented and well told story. The set of well-choosen illustrations and drawings contribute even more to the overall impression. I cannot say that I enjoyed this book, but it was a very informative history of a forgotten but nevertheless important side of the Second World War.
* For the interested, I highly recommend Unit 731 Testimony. It is a disturbing but very well researched account of the Japanese human experimentation program during WWII.
June 15, 2015
The three stars should not be taken as a criticism. This book gives a fairly detailed account of Japanese atrocities in WWII, written by a man who was himself a lawyer and one of the top British legal advisors at Nuremburg and at Tokyo. The first chapter contains a brief, but well focused account of the political rise of the military faction in Japan from 1931 to Pearl Harbor, and the subsequent chapters then present documentary and anecodotal evidence of Japanese war atrocities (from both victim witnesses and from Japanese war diaries) -- mostly (though not exclusively) directed against Chinese and Westerners, or other racial minorities (like the Mantanani Suluks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanes...).
It is quite a dismal tale.
Originally published in 1958, the book still shows the scars of the trauma, but Lord Russell succeeds in maintaining a fairly even and documentary approach.
One of the more interesting chapters details the use, by the military brass, as a sort of ritual act, of cannibalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanes...
In general, though, the catalogue of atrocities (though the author does not descend into lurid description) is just that -- hence, the missing star.
That said, a depressing account..., as I've said.
Proof once again that the most dangerous animal known to man... is Man
It is quite a dismal tale.
Originally published in 1958, the book still shows the scars of the trauma, but Lord Russell succeeds in maintaining a fairly even and documentary approach.
One of the more interesting chapters details the use, by the military brass, as a sort of ritual act, of cannibalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanes...
In general, though, the catalogue of atrocities (though the author does not descend into lurid description) is just that -- hence, the missing star.
That said, a depressing account..., as I've said.
Proof once again that the most dangerous animal known to man... is Man
February 16, 2025
Although having read other books that highlight the absolute worst side of humanity, this was still a really tough read to get through. It was very informative though for anyone interested in war crimes of WW2. It's a valuable account from Lord Russell of the atrocities taking places in the far east.
And I thought the Nazis were bad. Jesus, no wonder suicide pills were handed out like sweets in the event of capture over there. Some of the torture for example was truly sickening and off the chart if there ever was chart for torture from the lightest methods to the most terrible. From eye witness accounts, the treatment of prisoners of war, crimes on the high seas, cannibalism, vivisection & mutilation, and the various war crimes trails that took place in the aftermath, it's not the sort of book I'd normally read on the eve of Christmas, as it basically made me feel like shit.
I can now forget about penis' being cut off, wrists and ankles being smashed to pieces, and all the other savagery that I won't begin to mention, and enjoy the festivities. The house bar - well, my drinks cabinet - now opens at 11.00 and not 15.00, but only for Christmas time.
August 5, 2024
I remember reading this book back in my school days (the 1970s) and although it is not a bad book it is a book hopelessly of its time that it is impossible to evaluate except without so many caveats as to make any review impossibly long.
I am not denying that the Japanese did many horrible things but the cultural bias of the era, which was within a hair's breadth of outright racism (instead of the implicit and unacknowledged racism that it doesn't conceal), makes it hopelessly biased. Even when it comes to dealing with Japanese actions it is those against white troops and white civilians which take precedence. I can no longer remember how much, if any, space the author gave to the 90,000 civilians (ie 'natives') who died building the Burma railway compared to the 12,000 Allied prisoners of war but it was clearly vestigial. It would be twenty or more years, before the realisation that it was actually the 'native' populations in the areas the Japanese invaded that suffered the most during WWII.
This is a book of its time and while it would be wrong to say it should not be read, if it is read it must be read with a permanent health warning flashing before your eyes.
I am not denying that the Japanese did many horrible things but the cultural bias of the era, which was within a hair's breadth of outright racism (instead of the implicit and unacknowledged racism that it doesn't conceal), makes it hopelessly biased. Even when it comes to dealing with Japanese actions it is those against white troops and white civilians which take precedence. I can no longer remember how much, if any, space the author gave to the 90,000 civilians (ie 'natives') who died building the Burma railway compared to the 12,000 Allied prisoners of war but it was clearly vestigial. It would be twenty or more years, before the realisation that it was actually the 'native' populations in the areas the Japanese invaded that suffered the most during WWII.
This is a book of its time and while it would be wrong to say it should not be read, if it is read it must be read with a permanent health warning flashing before your eyes.
June 2, 2020
Russell's books gives a cursory history of Japanese war crimes during World War II. The book is separated into chapters, each one describing Japanese war crimes in a specific context or carried out against a specific population. After a few chapters, the book becomes repetitive, predictable, and reads like a list. The author provides little analysis of the policies or frame of mind of the perpetrators of the crimes, but this absence of analysis is probably for the best--a few times the author slips into Judaeo-Christian, Eurocentric normative biases and his tone occasionally suggests a posture of looking down his nose at a savage people who need Christianity. Luckily, this viewpoint is confined to only a few comments and doesn't pervade the work as a whole. The writing is a bit dry and clinical; the reader can feel the distance between the author and the events. For the context in which it was written, the book does a good job of publicizing the worst of Japanese atrocities for a general audience. I rounded down the 2.5 rating to two stars because I feel that the book has a higher rating than it should. If you want to read one book that will give you an analysis of Japanese war crimes and the cultural context that molded people to be able to commit such crimes, this book is not it. If you want a list of the terrible things that the Japanese did in World War II and to feel a little better about dropping nuclear weapons on civilians, then I guess this would be a suitable read.
May 17, 2015
I confess this was a grim read, frankly almost impossible to slog through. Nevertheless, I think it is necessary to bear witness to unspeakable horrors, in order to honor those who were tortured or killed in the commission of war crimes. The author describes every sort of torture imaginable, from the removal of fingernails to the forcing of prisoners to kneel on sharpened stones. The book is written in a lucid, straightforward style, and it's also well-organized.
The author describes conditions in internment camps, and publishes verbatim internal memos ordering the maltreatment of prisoners. The worst crimes perpetrated by the Japanese army against their prisoners (be they Chinese, American, or European), such as vivisection and cannibalism, are also described in gruesome detail.
The book does a good job of explaining why the Japanese felt they had a divine mandate to mistreat prisoners, as the author explains that the Japanese code of Bushido (dating back to the days of the Samurai) held that to die in battle was preferable to capture, and that to become a prisoner was the most disgraceful thing that one could be in time of war. Indeed, even suicide was preferable. Thus, the Japanese felt more than justified in their mistreatment of P.O.W.s.
The book's coda is devoted to describing the sentences that international tribunals handed out to the most egregious of the war criminals. There are also a fairly good number of (horrific) photographs of prisoners contained in the book, as well as artwork done by the captives themselves, in order to illustrate their plight. These paintings/drawings are all the more remarkable for the fact that they were usually accomplished in secrecy, and with only the most limited of supplies.
Highly recommended, but be forewarned. This is not light reading.
The author describes conditions in internment camps, and publishes verbatim internal memos ordering the maltreatment of prisoners. The worst crimes perpetrated by the Japanese army against their prisoners (be they Chinese, American, or European), such as vivisection and cannibalism, are also described in gruesome detail.
The book does a good job of explaining why the Japanese felt they had a divine mandate to mistreat prisoners, as the author explains that the Japanese code of Bushido (dating back to the days of the Samurai) held that to die in battle was preferable to capture, and that to become a prisoner was the most disgraceful thing that one could be in time of war. Indeed, even suicide was preferable. Thus, the Japanese felt more than justified in their mistreatment of P.O.W.s.
The book's coda is devoted to describing the sentences that international tribunals handed out to the most egregious of the war criminals. There are also a fairly good number of (horrific) photographs of prisoners contained in the book, as well as artwork done by the captives themselves, in order to illustrate their plight. These paintings/drawings are all the more remarkable for the fact that they were usually accomplished in secrecy, and with only the most limited of supplies.
Highly recommended, but be forewarned. This is not light reading.
February 19, 2018
During World War II the Japanese commited atrocities against subject non-Japanese and against prisoners-of-war. These Japanese warrior code prohibited surrender or capture, so with little regard for the Geneva Convention, they sytematicall killed or worked to death POWs. This book gives a glimpse of that practice.
October 23, 2022
I have long been suspicious of the concept of war crimes and prosecution of defeated people by the victors. We should have learned at least in the wake of the Marshall Plan and the use of truth and reconciliation at the end of apartheid in South Africa that forgiveness and support in rebuilding provide the better path to lasting peace. But that doesn't mean that atrocious behavior can be condoned or swept under the rug. Some of the things that the Japanese military did in World War II often with orders or at least tacit approval from the highest level were truly horrific. They need to be documented, exposed, described and remembered, as this book does. The perpetrators must be held morally accountable, even in cases where I am not so sure that criminal prosecution is the right choice.
I was already aware of most of what is covered in this book, which focuses largely on (i) the needless torture and intimidation of civilian populations, most famously in the Rape of Nanking, which was certainly not an isolated incident and (ii) the mistreatment of prisoners of war, which was extreme and wrong, but somehow offends me less than what was done to the civilian populations. I had not previously known of the officially sanctioned cannibalism, which was shockingly widespread and was revealing of how far the philosophy of Japanese superiority and domination extended.
The end of the book includes an interesting legalistic discussion of what constitutes a war crime. I learned a bit about the history of the legal framework for war crimes and what defenses are permitted, in particular the defense of following orders, but I couldn't help feeling that the reduction of war crimes to legalisms misses the point of finding the right way to respond to actions that are intended to be morally and emotionally offensive, to intimidate, and to induce PTSD. It strikes me that the law is not the best way to respond to these problems. It's more about finding ways to develop social norms and technologies that make these activities less likely to happen and then responding with a different form of justice, more along the lines of truth and reconciliation when they happen. I definitely don’t have the complete answer, though I do feel sure that the legalistic response has many problems and needs to be changed.
I was already aware of most of what is covered in this book, which focuses largely on (i) the needless torture and intimidation of civilian populations, most famously in the Rape of Nanking, which was certainly not an isolated incident and (ii) the mistreatment of prisoners of war, which was extreme and wrong, but somehow offends me less than what was done to the civilian populations. I had not previously known of the officially sanctioned cannibalism, which was shockingly widespread and was revealing of how far the philosophy of Japanese superiority and domination extended.
The end of the book includes an interesting legalistic discussion of what constitutes a war crime. I learned a bit about the history of the legal framework for war crimes and what defenses are permitted, in particular the defense of following orders, but I couldn't help feeling that the reduction of war crimes to legalisms misses the point of finding the right way to respond to actions that are intended to be morally and emotionally offensive, to intimidate, and to induce PTSD. It strikes me that the law is not the best way to respond to these problems. It's more about finding ways to develop social norms and technologies that make these activities less likely to happen and then responding with a different form of justice, more along the lines of truth and reconciliation when they happen. I definitely don’t have the complete answer, though I do feel sure that the legalistic response has many problems and needs to be changed.
October 6, 2021
i read this dry death tome purportedly for "literary research" reasons and now i have had imparted on me all manner of japanese death march enforcement tactics and yet not one evocative moment of terror or human fright. mere summary of atrocity is not human enough to convince of its reality, which is of course very real. and with each toothless book of historical nonfiction i read i fall deeper into the school of thought that all history should be doubly biased and subjective because without that human voice the truth is reduced to static.
April 8, 2017
The book outlines with supporting documentary evidence a little of the atrocities that were carried out by the Japanese during the Second Wolrd War. The author a lawyer having served on the trials of the war crimes criminals in Nuremberg and Tokyo. The book serves to dispel a myth since it is with great disillusion that the supposed knights who should have lived by a code of chivalry were worse than murdering beasts. The actions of the Japanese were worse than those of the Nazi Germans and it is very alarming that so little of these monstrosities were made aware of the civilised world and little action taken against the perpetrators. Even in the book itself, the Court sentencing was very lenient with token prison sentences meted out to the offenders. The Japanese managed to hide their actions and the facts were slow to emerge, this was due to the cunning systems that they adopted e.g .going back to graves of decapitated soldiers and burning the remains.
The book states that during the war in Europe out of the estimated 240,000 captured American and British POW’s 4 % perished whilst in the Pacific theatre this was something like 27%. American airmen were the most unfortunate since they were singled out for summary execution for their bombing raids. And yes the Japanese had their own Gestapo in the likes of the Kempei Tei who administered torture until what they wanted to hear came out and then killed the victim and anybody else close to him. Apart from the decapitations which were a sport and even ended in competition and photo captions between the officers, the Japanese liked to perform bayonet practice on their victims ranging from POW’ s but also on civilian men, women, children and even babies.What was even more obnoxious was the cannibalism carried out by the soldiers on the prisoners, one of whom barely 1 hour after capture!! Red cross parcels and medicines were not delivered to the POW but retained and shared between the Japanese along with any valuables rings watches looted from the POW .
Notwithstanding the lists above what I feel is lacking in the book is that it does not mention the various units set up by the Japanese: Unit 731 ( amongst others, Unit 100, 8604 etc) which was the equivalent of the European side of the horrible crimes committed throughout the Holocaust in the medical experimentation of the concentration camps. Unit 731, however, was just as terrifying and as much of a violation of human life with vivisection and the developing of vaccines to carry bubonic plague and biological weapons with testing on live human beings as well. However, as with Operation Paperclip in Germany, the details of experiments carried may have been the passports for the perpetrators.
Our ignorance of these inhuman actions can no longer be an excuse and it is for the betterment of our society and the future of humanity that we need to be aware and to speak out against them.
How did the POW's manage to come through at least in sound mind, In times of adversity man finds comfort in religion, that and a sense of humour in the gullible Japanese, fixing a sign on a POW camp in Latin which read He laughs best who laughs last!
The book states that during the war in Europe out of the estimated 240,000 captured American and British POW’s 4 % perished whilst in the Pacific theatre this was something like 27%. American airmen were the most unfortunate since they were singled out for summary execution for their bombing raids. And yes the Japanese had their own Gestapo in the likes of the Kempei Tei who administered torture until what they wanted to hear came out and then killed the victim and anybody else close to him. Apart from the decapitations which were a sport and even ended in competition and photo captions between the officers, the Japanese liked to perform bayonet practice on their victims ranging from POW’ s but also on civilian men, women, children and even babies.What was even more obnoxious was the cannibalism carried out by the soldiers on the prisoners, one of whom barely 1 hour after capture!! Red cross parcels and medicines were not delivered to the POW but retained and shared between the Japanese along with any valuables rings watches looted from the POW .
Notwithstanding the lists above what I feel is lacking in the book is that it does not mention the various units set up by the Japanese: Unit 731 ( amongst others, Unit 100, 8604 etc) which was the equivalent of the European side of the horrible crimes committed throughout the Holocaust in the medical experimentation of the concentration camps. Unit 731, however, was just as terrifying and as much of a violation of human life with vivisection and the developing of vaccines to carry bubonic plague and biological weapons with testing on live human beings as well. However, as with Operation Paperclip in Germany, the details of experiments carried may have been the passports for the perpetrators.
Our ignorance of these inhuman actions can no longer be an excuse and it is for the betterment of our society and the future of humanity that we need to be aware and to speak out against them.
How did the POW's manage to come through at least in sound mind, In times of adversity man finds comfort in religion, that and a sense of humour in the gullible Japanese, fixing a sign on a POW camp in Latin which read He laughs best who laughs last!
June 29, 2016
This is a well documented but not so well-written description of the war crimes committed by the Japanese spanning the period from their invasion of China through the end of the Second World War. The material can be difficult, both because it becomes a litany of horrors visited upon captured soldiers and civilians, and because the writing is dry and at times difficult to follow. It does serve as an important historical reminder. Although the Nazis have the reputation for atrocities committed against so-called "inferior" peoples (mostly Jews and Slavs), and the Soviets for committing atrocities against their own people, the Japanese appear to have taken a very comprehensive tack - they starved, beat, tortured, shot, stabbed, degraded and killed anyone who was not Japanese. They did so deliberately, with forethought and in application of a set of policies that were occasionally written but more frequently implicit or allowed. And while not all Japanese soldiers and commanders participated or were complicit, it is clear that (like the Germans of this period) the pervasive cultural imperative tolerated and even encouraged sadism and murder. Women and children were not spared. The sick or starving were not cared for but encouraged to die. This is a moral inversion that humans remain all too susceptible to even in our (somewhat) more enlightened times.
July 15, 2021
Ho recuperato "I cavalieri del Bushido" nell'ottica di scrivere un approfondimento per la mia pagina instagram sui crimini di guerra giapponesi.
Lord Russell di Liverpool fu procuratore legale ai processi di Norimberga e Tokyo ed ebbe la possibilità di visionare i documenti e accedere testimoni oculari. Grazie a queste preziose fonti, l'autore non risparmia i dettagli di episodi più o meno sconosciuti come le marce della morte, i campi di concentramento, il cannibalismo e i brutali massacri.
Non siamo di fronte ad una cronaca fine a se stessa, ma anche ad interessanti riflessioni sul rampante militarismo degli anni '30, l'espansionismo come misura di "protezione verso i fratelli asiatici" contro il colonialismo occidentale e un sunto degli atti processuali per cui furono condannati alcuni dei criminali più efferati.
Difficile, drammatico, ma illuminante.
Non è una lettura facile ma offre validi strumenti per poter capire meglio questa pagina dimenticata lontana (ma non troppo) dalla visione europeocentrica che siamo abituati a vedere e sentire. Ovviamente lo stile riflette la prosa degli anni che ha, ma perfettamente fruibile.
Lord Russell di Liverpool fu procuratore legale ai processi di Norimberga e Tokyo ed ebbe la possibilità di visionare i documenti e accedere testimoni oculari. Grazie a queste preziose fonti, l'autore non risparmia i dettagli di episodi più o meno sconosciuti come le marce della morte, i campi di concentramento, il cannibalismo e i brutali massacri.
Non siamo di fronte ad una cronaca fine a se stessa, ma anche ad interessanti riflessioni sul rampante militarismo degli anni '30, l'espansionismo come misura di "protezione verso i fratelli asiatici" contro il colonialismo occidentale e un sunto degli atti processuali per cui furono condannati alcuni dei criminali più efferati.
Difficile, drammatico, ma illuminante.
Non è una lettura facile ma offre validi strumenti per poter capire meglio questa pagina dimenticata lontana (ma non troppo) dalla visione europeocentrica che siamo abituati a vedere e sentire. Ovviamente lo stile riflette la prosa degli anni che ha, ma perfettamente fruibile.
November 19, 2019
A bit dated now having been originally written in the 1950’s but still presents a damming indictment of the conduct of Japanese forces in the Second World War. Hard to grasp man’s inhumanity to man but this is barbarism on an industrial scale! No half measures here, why torture and kill one when you can torture and kill hundreds and thousands! Let’s hope lessons have been learned from books like this and the reporting of the trials of war criminals but I doubt it judging by the reports coming out of recent conflicts in Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East.
October 7, 2020
*** I enjoyed reading the book but it was not one of my favorite nonfiction books I have read.
The information is about the Japanese brutality inflicted on POW and civilians. Some of the details are very gruesome.
I have read books about survivors from POW camp in Manilla, Phillipines and rape of Nanking. This book provided more detailed information of what the POW survivors dealt with in the camps and sentences Japanese and collaborators received in war trials.
*highly recommend reading Ghost Soldiers and The Rape of Nanking to complement this book.
The information is about the Japanese brutality inflicted on POW and civilians. Some of the details are very gruesome.
I have read books about survivors from POW camp in Manilla, Phillipines and rape of Nanking. This book provided more detailed information of what the POW survivors dealt with in the camps and sentences Japanese and collaborators received in war trials.
*highly recommend reading Ghost Soldiers and The Rape of Nanking to complement this book.
April 20, 2015
I read this after finishing The Narrow Road to the Deep North as I had little if no knowledge of Japan's involvement in the Second World War let alone the appalling atrocities they committed from what I learnt at school.
I'm glad I read this book but nonetheless the content is deeply disturbing. A very good, 'easy' to read, detailed history of the Japanese war crimes committed during WW2.
I'm glad I read this book but nonetheless the content is deeply disturbing. A very good, 'easy' to read, detailed history of the Japanese war crimes committed during WW2.
January 31, 2017
This is a difficult book to rate. I am inclined to agree with the other reader reviews here on goodreads that the book's presentation is a bit dry. However, since the purpose is to inform and document I decided not to deduct a star for that.
December 28, 2012
A good insight into the Japanese side of world war 2, it also opened my eyes to a lot of the war crimes
February 1, 2016
Hakko Ichiu means making the world one family. Kodo means that Hakko Ichiu can only be obtained through loyalty to the Emperor.
There was a person named Dr. Okawa who published a book in 1924, saying that Japan was the first state in the world and it's Divine Mission was to rule the world.
”The International Military Tribunal at Tokyo said this in its judgment. 'During a period of several months the Tribunal heard evidence from witnesses who testified in detail to atrocities committed in all theatres of war on a scale so fvast, yet following so common a pattern, that only one conclusion is possible. The atrocities were either secretly ordered, or willfully permitted by the Japanese Government, or individual members thereof, and by the leaders of the armed forces.'”
Japan and China
”There is overwhelming evidence that the Mukden Incident was carefully planned by officers of the Army General Staff, officers of the Kwantung Army, members of the Cherry Society and others, with the object of affording a pretext for the occupation of Manchuria by the army and the setting up of a new State as a satellite of Japan.”
The book says that Japan did not call the Sino-Japanese conflict a war, but an incident. The Chinese troops were labeled bandits, which meant that when they were taken prisoner they were not prisoners-of-war and thus did not fall under any of the protections of that title. The book says “many of them were massacred, tortured, or drafted into Japanese labor camps.” It cites one camp where half of the prisoners died of starvation or torture.
The author also says that the Japanese fought the war with a purposeful barbarity, thinking it would break the will of the Chinese people.
The book refers to various massacres, including one in three towns in the vicinity of Fushun where 2,00 men, women and children were murdered.
Referring to the Rape of Nanking, the author says that neither the commander nor the officers made any attempt to discipline the troops as they “looted, then burned, they raped and they murdered....They went on killing until the gutters ran with blood and the streets were littered with the bodies of their victims.”
Specifically, there were about twenty thousand cases of rape in the first month of Japanese occupation. They raping, killing, looting and burning went on for six weeks, and the lowest estimate of the number of Chinese soldiers and civilians killed was around two hundred thousand, according to the author.
There were also atrocities committed in the Shanghai area. Hankow was much the same. In 1941, all the members of 300 families were killed in a village in the province of Jehol. Over 600 civilians were massacred in Wei-Yang.
Treatment of Prisoners of War
There was a Treaty of Friendship between Prussia and the US in 1985 relating to prisoners of war, saying it was not legal to keep them in convict prisoners or to manacle them. Much later, in 1907, there was the Fourth Hague Convention, to which Japan was a signatory. So, even though Japan was not a party to the Geneva Convention, she was still bound under the principles of the Fourth Hague Convention to treat prisoners of war decently.
In talking about the prisoners of war under the Japanese, the author says “They were murdered, they were bayoneted, they were tortured, they were beaten. They were robbed of their possessions. They worked night and day in appalling conditions and on prohibited tasks. They were kept in filth and squalor and many of them were starved to death or reduced to living skeletons.”
He adds: “Prisoners of war were murdered by shooting, decapitation, drowning, and other methods. They died during death marches on which prisoners of war who were sick and quite unfit for any form of exertion were forced to march for long distances in conditions that even fit troops could not have been expected to stand. Many of those who fell out of the column were shot or bayoneted to death by the escort.”
Further: “Prisoners of war, recaptured after escaping, were shot, and captured aviators beheaded, in the usual Japanese method by sword. Even cannibalism was not unknown.”
In the European theater, around 4% of the British and American prisoners of war died; in the Pacific theater, that number was around 27%.
The book also talks about how the prisoners of war were punished for crimes or imagined crimes. Sometimes the entire group of prisoners would be punished for the action of one or two of their number.
The book says that the Japanese tried to hide the conditions in the prisoner-of-war camps, and they put out propaganda saying the prisoners were being taken very well care of.
Next follows an entire chapter on the murder of crews of American planes that were shot down. It doesn't make pleasant reading.
The next chapter is on the Burma-Siam railway. Again, it doesn't make pleasant reading, noting that at least 60,000 native died during the building of the railway, and 16,000 Allied prisoners died.
There is an entire chapter on “The massacre and murder of Prisoners of War.” Again, it's not a chapter for the faint of heart.
A chapter on “The Prison Hulks” refers to boats on which prisoners were shipped, and details the deplorable conditions on the boats. Some prisoners were given a book entitled “Regulations for Prisoners” and the death penalty was the punishment for any of a number of offenses.
The next chapter is on “The Death Marches.” It includes the Bataan death march, a 1942 march of Dutch prisoners which was similar, and other information. This is followed by a chapter on the Prison Camps. It goes into what happened at a dozen specific camps and general groups of camps. In the middle of this is the book's section of pictures.
Chapter X is on the Civilian Internment Camps. The book says that the conditions in those camps weren't any better than the ones for the prisoners-of-war. Thousands died in the camps.
”War Crimes on the High Seas” is next and starts off talking about how survivors of torpedoed ships were murdered by submarines using machine guns and other weapons. Very specific instances are noted by the author.
Now, if all this hadn't been enough to upset a person, the next chapter certainly should be. It's title is “Cannibalism, Vivisection and Mutilation.” It should give you a good idea of what it's about. There is even a paper reproduced that is titled “Order Regarding Eating Flesh of American Flyers.”
The next chapter goes into how the Japanese treated the civilian populations of countries they overran. As in other chapters, very specific instances are described.
The Japanese thought police/secret police, also known as the Kempai Tai, is the subject of the next chapter. They were experts in torture, and thousands of Allied prisoners of war were tortured by them. Eight separate forms of torture are described.
The final chapter, and the Appendix, deal with the war crimes and specific individuals.
There was a person named Dr. Okawa who published a book in 1924, saying that Japan was the first state in the world and it's Divine Mission was to rule the world.
”The International Military Tribunal at Tokyo said this in its judgment. 'During a period of several months the Tribunal heard evidence from witnesses who testified in detail to atrocities committed in all theatres of war on a scale so fvast, yet following so common a pattern, that only one conclusion is possible. The atrocities were either secretly ordered, or willfully permitted by the Japanese Government, or individual members thereof, and by the leaders of the armed forces.'”
Japan and China
”There is overwhelming evidence that the Mukden Incident was carefully planned by officers of the Army General Staff, officers of the Kwantung Army, members of the Cherry Society and others, with the object of affording a pretext for the occupation of Manchuria by the army and the setting up of a new State as a satellite of Japan.”
The book says that Japan did not call the Sino-Japanese conflict a war, but an incident. The Chinese troops were labeled bandits, which meant that when they were taken prisoner they were not prisoners-of-war and thus did not fall under any of the protections of that title. The book says “many of them were massacred, tortured, or drafted into Japanese labor camps.” It cites one camp where half of the prisoners died of starvation or torture.
The author also says that the Japanese fought the war with a purposeful barbarity, thinking it would break the will of the Chinese people.
The book refers to various massacres, including one in three towns in the vicinity of Fushun where 2,00 men, women and children were murdered.
Referring to the Rape of Nanking, the author says that neither the commander nor the officers made any attempt to discipline the troops as they “looted, then burned, they raped and they murdered....They went on killing until the gutters ran with blood and the streets were littered with the bodies of their victims.”
Specifically, there were about twenty thousand cases of rape in the first month of Japanese occupation. They raping, killing, looting and burning went on for six weeks, and the lowest estimate of the number of Chinese soldiers and civilians killed was around two hundred thousand, according to the author.
There were also atrocities committed in the Shanghai area. Hankow was much the same. In 1941, all the members of 300 families were killed in a village in the province of Jehol. Over 600 civilians were massacred in Wei-Yang.
Treatment of Prisoners of War
There was a Treaty of Friendship between Prussia and the US in 1985 relating to prisoners of war, saying it was not legal to keep them in convict prisoners or to manacle them. Much later, in 1907, there was the Fourth Hague Convention, to which Japan was a signatory. So, even though Japan was not a party to the Geneva Convention, she was still bound under the principles of the Fourth Hague Convention to treat prisoners of war decently.
In talking about the prisoners of war under the Japanese, the author says “They were murdered, they were bayoneted, they were tortured, they were beaten. They were robbed of their possessions. They worked night and day in appalling conditions and on prohibited tasks. They were kept in filth and squalor and many of them were starved to death or reduced to living skeletons.”
He adds: “Prisoners of war were murdered by shooting, decapitation, drowning, and other methods. They died during death marches on which prisoners of war who were sick and quite unfit for any form of exertion were forced to march for long distances in conditions that even fit troops could not have been expected to stand. Many of those who fell out of the column were shot or bayoneted to death by the escort.”
Further: “Prisoners of war, recaptured after escaping, were shot, and captured aviators beheaded, in the usual Japanese method by sword. Even cannibalism was not unknown.”
In the European theater, around 4% of the British and American prisoners of war died; in the Pacific theater, that number was around 27%.
The book also talks about how the prisoners of war were punished for crimes or imagined crimes. Sometimes the entire group of prisoners would be punished for the action of one or two of their number.
The book says that the Japanese tried to hide the conditions in the prisoner-of-war camps, and they put out propaganda saying the prisoners were being taken very well care of.
Next follows an entire chapter on the murder of crews of American planes that were shot down. It doesn't make pleasant reading.
The next chapter is on the Burma-Siam railway. Again, it doesn't make pleasant reading, noting that at least 60,000 native died during the building of the railway, and 16,000 Allied prisoners died.
There is an entire chapter on “The massacre and murder of Prisoners of War.” Again, it's not a chapter for the faint of heart.
A chapter on “The Prison Hulks” refers to boats on which prisoners were shipped, and details the deplorable conditions on the boats. Some prisoners were given a book entitled “Regulations for Prisoners” and the death penalty was the punishment for any of a number of offenses.
The next chapter is on “The Death Marches.” It includes the Bataan death march, a 1942 march of Dutch prisoners which was similar, and other information. This is followed by a chapter on the Prison Camps. It goes into what happened at a dozen specific camps and general groups of camps. In the middle of this is the book's section of pictures.
Chapter X is on the Civilian Internment Camps. The book says that the conditions in those camps weren't any better than the ones for the prisoners-of-war. Thousands died in the camps.
”War Crimes on the High Seas” is next and starts off talking about how survivors of torpedoed ships were murdered by submarines using machine guns and other weapons. Very specific instances are noted by the author.
Now, if all this hadn't been enough to upset a person, the next chapter certainly should be. It's title is “Cannibalism, Vivisection and Mutilation.” It should give you a good idea of what it's about. There is even a paper reproduced that is titled “Order Regarding Eating Flesh of American Flyers.”
The next chapter goes into how the Japanese treated the civilian populations of countries they overran. As in other chapters, very specific instances are described.
The Japanese thought police/secret police, also known as the Kempai Tai, is the subject of the next chapter. They were experts in torture, and thousands of Allied prisoners of war were tortured by them. Eight separate forms of torture are described.
The final chapter, and the Appendix, deal with the war crimes and specific individuals.
November 28, 2024
For readers who are obsessed with history books about atrocities (as I am), this is the perfect book. Before reading it, I wanted to read a book about what "Bushido" is and I read Inazo Nitobe's book, Bushido: The Soul of Japan.
As with all religions and some philosophies, the original concept of Bushido, the "ethics of the samurai" was reinterpreted and distorted by the Japanese military to adapt this code to promote nationalist ideals and absolute loyalty to the emperor.
The result of this was the complete disregard for human life shown by the Japanese aggressors in every country they invaded and the immeasurable cruelty with which the Japanese treated their POWs.
The book details the atrocities committed against civilians, against prisoners of war, and deals with the macabre medical experiments, robbery, looting, rape, and torture committed by the Japanese.
From the first to the last page, Edward Russell details all these atrocities, which made me wonder if the Japanese Imperial Army can be considered the most bestial and barbaric in the history of humanity, more so than the Mongol hordes and on the same low level as the Nazis.
Throughout the book, we are not exposed to ANY act of kindness; we do not meet any "righteous among the nations" within this army that was more fanatical than today's Islamic suicide bombers.
Lord Russell alerts us to the role of political and military leaders in shaping beliefs that legitimize inhumane acts. Unfortunately, as we can see in today's world, expansion and contempt for human life are still commonplace for humanity. Every time a social/military caste believes it has more rights than others, it manipulates its own population to justify mass evil. Religion + exacerbated nationalism are still the main reasons for us to kill each other.
As with all religions and some philosophies, the original concept of Bushido, the "ethics of the samurai" was reinterpreted and distorted by the Japanese military to adapt this code to promote nationalist ideals and absolute loyalty to the emperor.
The result of this was the complete disregard for human life shown by the Japanese aggressors in every country they invaded and the immeasurable cruelty with which the Japanese treated their POWs.
The book details the atrocities committed against civilians, against prisoners of war, and deals with the macabre medical experiments, robbery, looting, rape, and torture committed by the Japanese.
From the first to the last page, Edward Russell details all these atrocities, which made me wonder if the Japanese Imperial Army can be considered the most bestial and barbaric in the history of humanity, more so than the Mongol hordes and on the same low level as the Nazis.
Throughout the book, we are not exposed to ANY act of kindness; we do not meet any "righteous among the nations" within this army that was more fanatical than today's Islamic suicide bombers.
Lord Russell alerts us to the role of political and military leaders in shaping beliefs that legitimize inhumane acts. Unfortunately, as we can see in today's world, expansion and contempt for human life are still commonplace for humanity. Every time a social/military caste believes it has more rights than others, it manipulates its own population to justify mass evil. Religion + exacerbated nationalism are still the main reasons for us to kill each other.
March 15, 2021
Holy shit.
This one was hard to read (listen). And that's without it even talking about Unit 731 (NSFL). This book very very briefly talks about the Rape of Nanking, and then primarily talks about POWs and occasionally swings into treatment of civilians. And it's shocking. I tagged this as horror because it's absolutely horrifying. The worst part about it, is that it makes it sound like many of the Japanese soldiers did this with glee. It really makes takes the Nazis for a run for the money, so to speak. Nazis still did immense horrors and more importantly at immense scales or quantities of people. This is the sort of thing that comes when propaganda absolutely dehumanizes the enemy. When your enemy is said to eat your babies alive, your soldiers are going to treat them equally. Dark Dark Dark time in history across the globe, for sure.
The final chapter(s) talks about the trials and punishments doled out to certain soldiers and generals and people after the war. It also kind of talks about the "I was just following orders" defense and how it fit with Japanese society and chain of command culture. So that was somewhat interesting.
I can only recommend to a reader with a strong stomach and a strong heart. And the hope that this sort of treatment stays in the past.
This one was hard to read (listen). And that's without it even talking about Unit 731 (NSFL). This book very very briefly talks about the Rape of Nanking, and then primarily talks about POWs and occasionally swings into treatment of civilians. And it's shocking. I tagged this as horror because it's absolutely horrifying. The worst part about it, is that it makes it sound like many of the Japanese soldiers did this with glee. It really makes takes the Nazis for a run for the money, so to speak. Nazis still did immense horrors and more importantly at immense scales or quantities of people. This is the sort of thing that comes when propaganda absolutely dehumanizes the enemy. When your enemy is said to eat your babies alive, your soldiers are going to treat them equally. Dark Dark Dark time in history across the globe, for sure.
The final chapter(s) talks about the trials and punishments doled out to certain soldiers and generals and people after the war. It also kind of talks about the "I was just following orders" defense and how it fit with Japanese society and chain of command culture. So that was somewhat interesting.
I can only recommend to a reader with a strong stomach and a strong heart. And the hope that this sort of treatment stays in the past.
Read
September 7, 2021Riveting stuff. This book is.
Detailed account of war crimes in asia.
The axis was given stipe due to u.n assembly.
It starts with the nanking massacre.
Where group inititive engroped china.
Then the internment where captive soldiers
Helped build the siam-berma rail road.
The same terror stories In detail account.
The japanese cannibal making puff eyes at a nun.
Then u realise the japanese had a high grade torture system. Even in vietnam.
"The deer hunter." Movie.
There torture was extreme to make soldiers not want to argue. It would brake u.
Alot of the reason the war was that way was the japanese abuse on there enemy.
Questionable. how extreme . too.
In the end details on high ranking japanese co hosts.
Still well organized military struggle.
A man dosnt just know how to go bezerk and do war.
Hes driven there threw training or mission objective.
Still that conflict was bad...
Detailed account of war crimes in asia.
The axis was given stipe due to u.n assembly.
It starts with the nanking massacre.
Where group inititive engroped china.
Then the internment where captive soldiers
Helped build the siam-berma rail road.
The same terror stories In detail account.
The japanese cannibal making puff eyes at a nun.
Then u realise the japanese had a high grade torture system. Even in vietnam.
"The deer hunter." Movie.
There torture was extreme to make soldiers not want to argue. It would brake u.
Alot of the reason the war was that way was the japanese abuse on there enemy.
Questionable. how extreme . too.
In the end details on high ranking japanese co hosts.
Still well organized military struggle.
A man dosnt just know how to go bezerk and do war.
Hes driven there threw training or mission objective.
Still that conflict was bad...
January 24, 2021
An absolutely fantastic book which ended up being the foundation of my university dissertation of the treatment of Allied POWs under the Japanese. Though extremely dark and gruesome in places, I feel that this book is necessary in understanding the sheer barbarity of the Japanese during the Second World War. The book covers all aspects of the war crimes: from the massacre of Chinese civilians in Nanking; to the gruelling Bataan Death March of American and Pilipino troops after the fall of Manila in 1942. Lord Russell, arguably the most respected historian on the topic of Second World War Criminal Trials, provides an uncensored review of the war. An essential read for the avid historian, or anyone with and interest in the depths humanity is willing to go in times of war.
January 2, 2022
The Knights of Bushido: A History of Japanese War Crimes During World War II, by Lord Russell of Liverpool (2016, 10 hours, 44 minutes audiobook). This is an exhaustive and exhausting recitation of war crimes committed by the Japanese from their invasion of Manchuria in 1931 to the conclusion of WWII. The rape of Nanking, China (and a book by that name) is widely known, as are some other specific instances of wartime brutality, but this book chronicles nearly innumerable instances of intentional, purposeful war crimes against prisoners of war and non-combatants in Japanese areas of occupation. The descriptions are horrific and unsettling.
March 23, 2023
This is an excellent book on the atrocities committed by members of the Japanese military during World War II. The book was written not long after the events and relies heavily on the testimony of prisoners of war, citizens of occupied countries and Japanese military men. It is coming today for many people to ignore these atrocities and concentrate on the Japanese Americans in turn during World war II. As grievous as the internment was it does not even approach the horse perpetrated by the imperial Japanese army. Additionally for those who are appalled by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki looks like this should be required reading.
December 20, 2025
This is a book of its time. Written shortly after WW2 it is too close to the action to provide a nuanced and clear explanation for the 'why' of the brutality and sheer horror that the Japanese inflicted on people of all races and colours. There are not nearly enough references to make the book a useful 'list' of atrocities. Indeed, it is lazily referenced and footnoted and those footnotes that do exist tend to promote the author's other book. The value of this book lies not in its listing of atrocities but in demonstrating the views of many in 1958 when it was first written.
August 1, 2017
Although this is the kindle edition (I can't see any other). I read this book back in the late 70's.
This book and The Scourge of the Swastica were the first books I read with such brutal tales of horrific war crimes and since I was a young rookie they caused me to have some troubled dreams. I'm sure the power of the information inside has not diminished any. This is not Shakespear, though I do consider them to be important reads for those who know little of the crimes commited by the Japanese and Germans during world war 2. If you are of a sensitive nature you may want to give them a miss. On the other hand if you want truth instead of rumours then you may find them useful.
This book and The Scourge of the Swastica were the first books I read with such brutal tales of horrific war crimes and since I was a young rookie they caused me to have some troubled dreams. I'm sure the power of the information inside has not diminished any. This is not Shakespear, though I do consider them to be important reads for those who know little of the crimes commited by the Japanese and Germans during world war 2. If you are of a sensitive nature you may want to give them a miss. On the other hand if you want truth instead of rumours then you may find them useful.
April 16, 2023
I'm not going to lie. I've read tough books before. Books with very horrific subject matter, sort of as a desire to educate myself on atrocities committed throughout history and even currently in today's world.
This was a really tough read for me. I had a lot of trouble getting through it to be honest, not because it was badly written but because of the subject matter and scenes, horrors, depicted in the book.
This was a really tough read for me. I had a lot of trouble getting through it to be honest, not because it was badly written but because of the subject matter and scenes, horrors, depicted in the book.
April 2, 2018
Many comments seem to say that this book is 'well-documented' - its not
He is not a historian, does not show his research
So no, this isn't well researched, or well-documented
There are some internal inconsistencies. Ultimately, this is fundamentally unreliable.
I think he was sincere, but I don't think he did adequate research for such an immense topic
He is not a historian, does not show his research
So no, this isn't well researched, or well-documented
There are some internal inconsistencies. Ultimately, this is fundamentally unreliable.
I think he was sincere, but I don't think he did adequate research for such an immense topic
September 26, 2024
A heart rending account of the WWII atrocities performed by the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy, where they sexually abused, beat, tortured, starved and murdered tens of thousands of allied soldiers and civilian men, women and children.
It’s overwhelming and researched in depth, and yet I’ve read horrific accounts that didn’t make it into the book.
So, read with caution.
It’s overwhelming and researched in depth, and yet I’ve read horrific accounts that didn’t make it into the book.
So, read with caution.
April 27, 2025
A good overview of Imperial Japans war crimes without getting bogged down or into to graphic. While I think for accessibility reasons that is a good thing but leaving some details out as "unspeakable horrors" can be an issue using this as a source. Luckily the book is well cited. I think it's important more people learn about Japan in the 30s-40s
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews