Dimensions
164 x 241 x 23mm
'Horror In The East' focuses on the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers in World War II. In this incisive but accessible study, Laurence Rees confronts one of the most dramatic and important historical questions of the 20th century - why did Japanese soldiers commit such monstrous acts of violence against Chinese civilians and allied Prisoners of War?
During the First World War, the Japanese fought on the Allied side and treated captured German soldiers with civility. In the years that followed, Japan came to reject Western values and ideas under the reign of Emperor Hirohito. Conformity was the norm: the army regime became brutal, and the Japanese psyche one of selfless devotion to the country and emperor. By the time of World War II, Japanese soldiers were indulging in mass murder, rape, suicide and even cannibalisation of the enemy. 'Horror In The East' examines how this drastic change came about.
On the 60th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, this book looks at the shocking events of the war in the Pacific, which culminated in the total devastation of the atomic bomb. It probes the Japanese belief in their own racial superiority, and analyses a military that believed suicide to be far more honorable than surrender.
