The Knights of Bushido

Bernie Weisz's Review of "The Knights of Bushido" by Lord Liverpool 10/15/09

Lord Russel of Liverpool, whose real name was Edward Frederick Langley Russell (1895 to 1981) published this book in 1958. After being queried to write a Japanese version as a companion to the book he wrote on the history of Nazi war crimes, he began this work. The Scourge of the Swastika: A History of Nazi War Crimes During World War II Lord Russell set out to meticulously chart the barbaric path of destruction the Japanese military perpetuated between 1931 to 1945. This book takes the reader on the rampage the Japanese troops took through China, S.E. Asia, Java, Sumatra, Borneo and other countries, executing citizens, raping innocent women, massacring prisoners of war on both land and out at sea, and finally, exploiting P.O.W's and native populations

Lord Russell curiously names this book "The Knights of Bushido". The term "Bushido" means the "Way of the Warrior". This was a Japanese code of conduct which described the concept of bravery, courtesy, and especially of the "ideal knight". Personifying "Bushido", the Japanese soldier was supposed to embody the "seven virtues" of this code, which were "rectitude" (integrity and moral excellence), "courage", "benevolence" (kindness), "respect", "honesty" , "honor" and "loyalty". After reading this book, it is very hard for the reader to juxtapose the Japanese code of conduct with the atrocities the forces of the "Rising Sun" committed, which was everything from murder and rape, to torture and cannibalism. I initially tried to find this "Bushido" on exploring how the Japanese forced women to serve as "Comfort Women" (prostitutes used to serve and satisfy the sexual desires and burn off excess testosterone of the Japanese military machine. But in this endeavor, the Japanese pursuance of this theoretically honorable code was not to be found.

Lord Russell starts off with a horrifying example of the plunder the Japanese wrought in China, starting with the fictitious Sept. 18, 1931 "Mukden, China Incident", an incident that simply never occurred. Please read the book:"Horror in the East: Japan and the Atrocities of World War II" by Laurence Rees. Falsely claiming that a Chinese Brigade had attacked a Japanese patrol on a railway in Mukden, the "Rising Sun" government used this as a spurious justification to invade and occupy Manchuria, and eventually land it's troops on Hong Kong, French Indo-China, Thailand, Malaya, the Netherland East Indies, the Philippines, New Guinea, all territory lying between Eastern India and Burma on the one hand, Australia and New Zealand on the other.

The reader of this book will aghastly digest Lord Russell's description of the massacre of 200,000 Chinese civilians and P.O.W's in the first six weeks of the Japanese "Central China Expeditionary Force" occupation of Nanking. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II As Lord Liverpool described: "The Japanese troops were then let loose like the hordes of Genghis Khan to ravish and murder (in Nanking). Many were crazed with drink, but no attempt was made by their commander or their officers to maintain discipline among the occupying forces. They looted, they burned, they raped and they murdered. Soldiers marched through the streets indiscriminately killing Chinese of both sexes, adults and children alike, without receiving any provocation and without any rhyme or reason. They went on killing until the gutters ran with blood and the streets were littered with bodies of their victims. Rape was the order of the day, and resistance by the victim, or by members of her family who tried to protect her, meant almost certain death". Lord Russell informs the reader that the Japanese commanders gave their troops full license to commit wholesale murder, arson, looting and rape, of which incredulously 20,000 occurred occurred in the first month of hostilities. Lord Russell followed the Japanese Armies swath through China, where they fought like barbarians. Contrary to being "Knights of Bushido" they brought death, suffering and destruction to innocent people and defenseless villages wherever they went.

Lord Liverpool takes up the majority of this book with his description of the general treatment of P.O.W.s. Blood & Bushido: Japanese Atrocities at Sea 1941-45 While clearly explaining the laws of both the "Hague and Geneva Conventions, which outlined P.O.W. treatment, Liverpool points out that the object of holding prisoners of war was to prevent them from rejoining their own forces and again taking up arms. However, Lord Liverpool gives one paradigm after another of how the Japanese murdered, beat, bayoneted and tortured P.O.W.'s . There are within the pages of this book countless stories of how prisoners of war were robbed of their possessions and how they worked day and night in horrifying conditions on prohibited tasks. Naked Island There are photos in this book that show that not only were they kept in filth and squalor, but to use the Japanese Prime Minister Tojo's expression of "No Work, no food" became the pretext for Japanese abuse and P.O.W. deprivation. Many of the P.O. W's were starved to death or reduced to living skeletons working 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, exposed to the disese ridden elements, with little sleep and scarce nutrition. The story of the "Bataan Death March" makes the reader of this book wonder if the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were sufficient retribution.

Other topics Lord Russell discusses are the murders of captured aircrews (all shot down and captured airmen who bombed Japan received the death penalty), the Japanese atrocities perpetuated on the P.O.W's engaged in building the "Burma to Siam Railway", and the absolute worst place for a P.O.W to be, inside a Japanese transport ship. Called a "prison hulk" or a "Hellship" , P.O.W.s were transported from place to place by the Japanese at sea in holds and coal bunkers of dilapidated vessels with no drinking water, food, air, lavoratory facilities nor medical attention. An interesting book that goes in depth on these Japanese atrocities is "Death on the Hellships: Prisoners at Sea in the Pacific War" by Gregory F. Michno. Being unidentifiable with Japanese markings, the "Hell Ships" were subjected to Allied attacks from sea and air and many P.O.W.'s suffered hellish deaths. Of the 126,000 British, American and Australian P.O.W's forced to ride them, over 19,000 died by "friendly fire" of pursuing Allied submarines and warplanes.

Lord Russell devotes another large part of this book to the prison camps per se, both military and civilian. Lord Russell documents the Japanese actions against the inmates, including, but not limited to vivisection, rape, torture and cannibalism, which accounts of are not printable in this review. Finally, Lord Russell finishes this book by recounting the barbaric actions of Japan's navy in the wake of it's attacks on Allied shipping, including the ramming of lifeboats, the machine-gunning of survivors and the bayoneting and beheading of captives.
Lord Russell allows the reader to feel that justice ultimately prevailed with his account of the war crimes trial results. The "Double Tenth"(Singapore) and "International Military Tribunal" (Tokyo) convictions and executions of the individual war criminals are examined.A Trial of Generals: Homma, Yamashita, Macarthur This is a tremendously enlightening book that all students of 20th Century history need to examine. However, Lord Russel makes it clear to the reader that all the atrocities described in this book are descriptive of the "bottom line". He leaves us with the following warning: "For every revolting incident which has been described, a hundred have been omitted". I can be reached at [email protected]