Punishment
Behind Japanese Military Brutality
Will be published approx. on 3. September 2026
Book
Hardback
456 pages
978-1-80526-679-2 (ISBN)
Description
A chilling exploration of how Imperial Japan framed war as justice-and how that moral logic helped unleash extraordinary brutality across Asia and the Pacific.
Why was the Japanese Army so brutal before and during World War Two? This haunting question anchors a sweeping investigation into the moral universe of Imperial Japan's soldiers, tracing their path from the twilight of the samurai age to the ashes of Manila in 1945.
Punishment uncovers a world in which war was conceived not merely as combat, but also as justice. Officers and soldiers learned to navigate two rival visions of war: one restrained by the 'foreign gaze' of the Western world, the other rooted in older traditions that cast adversaries as 'rebels' and 'bandits' deserving exemplary punishment. However, these competing strategies were intertwined, in an interplay of mutual mitigation and brutalisation. Drawing on archival material in six languages and fieldwork conducted across Asia-from Taiwan's indigenous highlands to Manchuria's sorghum fields and the streets of Nanjing-Danny Orbach reveals how ambiguity, obedience, fear and ideology converged on the battlefield. Vague orders could become massacres, and the boundary between necessity and cruelty became perilously thin.
Part detective story, part moral history, Punishment illuminates how a modern state slid into devastating violence-and why that descent was neither inevitable nor easily explained.
Why was the Japanese Army so brutal before and during World War Two? This haunting question anchors a sweeping investigation into the moral universe of Imperial Japan's soldiers, tracing their path from the twilight of the samurai age to the ashes of Manila in 1945.
Punishment uncovers a world in which war was conceived not merely as combat, but also as justice. Officers and soldiers learned to navigate two rival visions of war: one restrained by the 'foreign gaze' of the Western world, the other rooted in older traditions that cast adversaries as 'rebels' and 'bandits' deserving exemplary punishment. However, these competing strategies were intertwined, in an interplay of mutual mitigation and brutalisation. Drawing on archival material in six languages and fieldwork conducted across Asia-from Taiwan's indigenous highlands to Manchuria's sorghum fields and the streets of Nanjing-Danny Orbach reveals how ambiguity, obedience, fear and ideology converged on the battlefield. Vague orders could become massacres, and the boundary between necessity and cruelty became perilously thin.
Part detective story, part moral history, Punishment illuminates how a modern state slid into devastating violence-and why that descent was neither inevitable nor easily explained.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-80526-679-2 (9781805266792)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Danny Orbach is an associate professor in the History and Asian Studies Departments at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received his PhD from Harvard University. He is the author of The Plots Against Hitler; Curse on This Country; and Fugitives (also published by Hurst).
Content
Acknowledgements Introduction PART I: PURSUIT OF CIVILIZATION Chapter 1. Potato Samurai: Introducing the Principle of Punishment Chapter 2. Knights, Samurai, and Barbarians: The Standard of Civilization Chapter 3. Under Foreign Eyes: The Taiwan Expedition, 1874 Chapter 4. Fighting a Civilized War: The First Sino-Japanese War, 1894 Chapter 5. Relapse into Barbarism?: The Massacre of Port Arthur, November 1894 Chapter 6. Race to the Bottom, Race to the Top: The Boxer Rebellion, 1900 Chapter 7. Vengeance: The Allied Expedition to Beijing, June-August 1900 Chapter 8. The Foot of the White Man: Japan and the Allied Occupation of Beijing, 1900 PART II: THE BANDITIZATION OF WARFARE Chapter 9. Burning Sorghum Fields: The Dark Corner of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904 - 1905 Chapter 10. Red Beards: The World of the Mounted Bandits Chapter 11. Playing on the Russian Chessboard: Japan Enters Siberia, 1918-1919 Chapter 12. Burn, Irrespective of Size: The Road to Ivanovka, 1919 Chapter 13: The Beast Tugs at Its Chains: Nikolaevsk and Its Aftermath, 1920 Chapter 14. The Seeping Oil: Pursuing Chinese "Bandits," 1931-1937 PART III: THE ROAD TO NANJING Chapter 15. Punishment Resurgent: From Shanghai to Nanjing Chapter 16. "Wipe them All": The Decision to Kill the Prisoners Chapter 17. Security and Purity: The Hunt for Hidden Soldiers Chapter 18. City of Death: The Rape of Nanjing Chapter 19. Under Dimming Eyes: The Decline of the Foreign Gaze PART IV: THE PACIFIC WAR: REACHING ROCK BOTTOM IN THE PHILIPPINES, 1942-1945 Chapter 20. Brutality without Bandits: The Death March of Bataan, 1942 Chapter 21. From Good Subjects to Bandits: Towards the Manila Massacre , 1942-1945 Chapter 22. Pride and Despair: The Manila Massacre, February 1945 Conclusion: Behind Japanese Military Brutality List of Abbreviations Notes Select Bibliograph