Horror in the East: The Japanese at War 1931-1945 |
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Laurence Rees
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Pages: 160 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 0563534265
Pub: BBC Books
Pub date: 2001-10-11
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 34932
Editorial Review:
You wouldn't necessarily want to live inside the head of Laurence Rees, author of Horror in the East, but you could well argue that its should be compulsory for everyone to spend at least a few hours in his company. Beginning with the brutality of the conflict between Japan and China in the 1930s and ending with the nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Horror in the East is a compelling account of the atrocities of war and, as with his sister volume The Nazis: A Warning from History, Rees has searched long and hard to find vivid and, at times mind-numbing, eyewitness accounts of man's inhumanity to man--not least from the recruits who were forced to kill restrained Chinese prisoners in bayonet practice.
For many popular historians, incidents such as the Rape of Nanking are simply labelled evil, thereby relieving them of the responsibility of thinking about what happened and trying to understand what motivates people to behave in such a way. Rees is too intelligent and fair-minded an historian for this; instead he explores how the Japanese army changed from a culture where prisoners of war were treated with civility and respect during the First World War to one where cruelty and barbarism ruled. Rees lays the blame squarely on the conformity demanded by the Emperor Hirohito and stresses that the Japanese army were often as brutal to their own as they were to their enemies. He also makes the point that revisionists tend to airbrush history to suit their own ends. Far more people died in the firebombing of Tokyo than died in either of the nuclear attacks, but the stain of Tokyo has long since been submerged under the more emotive mushroom clouds.
At the time Rees wrote Horror in the East, these attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were among the most powerful images of war in the world's history; already they have been superseded by the footage of the September 11, 2001 strikes on the World Trade Center in New York City. At times like these, when the need for objectivity and fair mindedness is at a premium, historians, such as Rees, are like gold dust. --John Crace
Reader Reviews:
Informative (0/0 people found this helpful)
Laurence Rees does it again with another great read. Informative and full of facts. Only dissapointment was that the book is rather short and it was over too quickly.
must read for everyone interested in the Pacific War (24/27 people found this helpful)
Rees succeeds brilliantly in analysing and explaining why Japanese soldiers behaved as they did from the very beginning when they occupied China and committed war crimes on a scale that rivals those of the Nazis or, more recently for example those committed in Rwanda. He gives the reader a detailed insight into Japanese mentality, the social structure (to some extent still unchanged) and tries to get behind who was really in command in Japan at that time: the Japanese Officers or Hirohito. If you read "The Rape of Nanking" by Iris Chang (which I also recommend), by reading this book, you will know why it could happen. Highly recommended.
A must read for everyone interested in the Pacific War (10/11 people found this helpful)
This book has been long overdue and to my knowledge it is the first attempt at really explaining what drove Japanese soldiers to behaviour that, on occasions, made other war crimes look like the acts of "boy scouts". No account of WWII, the Pacific War, or of war crimes committed during WWII is complete without Rees' analysis of what drove soldiers and what made them tick during these times. He also draws some stunning paralles between the behaviour witnessed among German and Russian troops on the European Eastern Front and the Japanese in Asia. Read it!
A must read for everyone interested in the Pacific War (9/13 people found this helpful)
This book has been long overdue and to my knowledge it is the first attempt at really explaining what drove Japanese soldiers to behaviour that, on occasions, made other war crimes look like the acts of "boy scouts". No account of WWII, the Pacific War, or of war crimes committed during WWII is complete without Rees' analysis of what drove soldiers and what made them tick during these times. He also draws some stunning paralles between the behaviour witnessed among German and Russian troops on the European Eastern Front and the Japanese in Asia. Read it!
Final part of a masterly trilogy (27/33 people found this helpful)
Without hype, and disgracefully neglected by the literary editors of the British press, Laurence Rees has been quietly producing a masterly study of the Second World War in a trilogy of books which accompany his three award-winning television series.
Horror in the East is a fitting culmination to the work begun in The Nazis - a Warning from History and War of the Century. With passion, but without losing the vital objectivity that is his trademark, both as a writer and as a producer, Rees not only tells us what the Japanese did in their wars in the East, but attempts to answer the question why. His conclusion is startling: that the crimes committed by the Japanese, the Nazis and the Russians, were a product of a "situational ethic" - that is, that young men were conditioned by their societies to behave in an inhumane way, and were able to cast aside moral restraint. In other words, they were no 'worse', intrinsically, than you and I.
I would very much like to see Rees develop this thesis and apply it to the allies: terror bombing in Germany and Japan for example - was this also only possible because of similar conditions prevailing in Britain and the US at that time?
As the world drifts into fresh horrors, books such as this one, and writers such as Rees, have never been more important.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Military History -> Wars, Battles & Campaigns -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Military History -> War Crimes -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Military History -> Prisoners of War
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Military History -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> History -> World History -> World War II 1939-1945 -> Battles & Campaigns -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> History -> World History -> World War II 1939-1945 -> Countries -> Asian
Books -> Subjects -> History -> World History -> World War II 1939-1945 -> Countries -> Japan
Books -> Subjects -> History -> World History -> World War II 1939-1945 -> Origins
Books -> Subjects -> History -> World History -> World War II 1939-1945 -> Prisoners of War
Books -> Subjects -> History -> World History -> World War II 1939-1945 -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Countries & Regions -> Asia -> 1900-1945
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Countries & Regions -> Asia -> East Asia -> Japan
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Countries & Regions -> Asia -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> History -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Animal Care & Pets -> General AAS
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
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