War crimes and the Japanese military, 1941-1945

在第二次世界大战期间，日本军队在亚洲和太平洋地区对战俘、被拘留的平民和当地居民犯下了非同寻常的暴行。这些暴行震惊了日本的西方敌人，尤其是因为日本在20世纪初的军事行为被认为是非常人道的。该项目旨在解释日本战时暴行，确定其发生的具体情况，并考虑特定的战时背景。它挑战了对日本战时暴力的普遍解释，这种解释将暴力的原因定位于日本民族文化的根深蒂固的方面。这项研究有望有助于对战争和暴力的理解。

During the Second World War, Japanese military forces in Asia and the Pacific committed extraordinary atrocities against prisoners-of-war, civilian internees and local populations. These atrocities shocked Japan's Western enemies, not least because Japanese military behaviour in the early 20th century had been celebrated as remarkably humane. This project seeks to explain Japanese wartime brutality, identifying the specific circumstances in which it occurred and considering the particular wartime context. It challenges the prevalent explanation of Japanese wartime violence which locates the causes of brutality in deeply rooted aspects of Japanese national culture. This research is expected to contribute to understandings of war and violence.