PublishedPen And Sword, April 2024 |
ISBN9781399037877 |
FormatHardcover, 224 pages |
Dimensions23.4cm × 15.6cm |
From its invasion of Manchuria through to the Allies' victory in 1945 the Japanese Imperial Army was guilty of widespread atrocities against its enemies and, in particular, the civilians of occupied countries. Massacre, human experimentation, starvation, forced labour and even cannibalism were commonplace during that period.
It has been estimated that the number of deaths which resulted from these atrocities range from anything from three to fourteen million people. Using this appalling record the author explains in graphic detail the cruelty of Japanese military forces, drawing attention to the impact on ordinary people. He explores the possible reasons why people committed such horrendous acts. Seventy-eight years have passed since the surrender, yet the Japanese government has never squarely acknowledge their crimes, nor has it made an official apology. Over the years since, a handful of extreme right-wing elements in Japan has depicted the war and the atrocities as 'the liberation of backward nations.' They have attempted to reinterpret bloody massacres as 'a self-defensive holy war.' As his father Hugh Lowry suffered grievously as a Prisoner of War on the infamous Thai/Burma Railway, the author knows first-hand of the lasting psychological and physical wounds suffered by victims of Japanese brutality. This disturbing book should serve as a warning that such extreme and widespread behaviour should never be repeated. AUTHOR: Cecil Lowry is the son of a former Far Eastern Prisoner of War Hugh Lowry. His father was taken prisoner of war on 15 February 1942. He then spent three and a half years slaving on the infamous 'Death Railway' in Thailand where he endured terrible treatment by the Japanese. In 2002 Cecil began to research his father's time in the Far East, resulting in the publication of three previous books under the Pen and Sword Military imprint, No Mercy from the Japanese (with John Wyatt, 2008), Last Post Over the River Kwai (2018) and Frank Pantridge MC: Japanese Prisoner of War and Inventor of the Portable Defibrillator (2020). He has also written Two Years of Tenko: Life as a 16-year-old in a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp. Cecil lives in Stockport. 16 b/w illustrations
