“Narratives Without Guilt: The Self- Perception of Japanese Perpetrators.” by Frank Jacob.

Historian Frank Jacob identifies Japan’s unpreparedness for the vast number of prisoners they took at the fall of Singapore, the occupation of the Philippines and the takeover of the Dutch East Indies. The Japanese exploited their prisoners as a labour force, for example in the construction of railroads. Looking at the life and conditions of POWs in Japanese camps, Jacob illustrates how the treatment of the prisoners shocked the US public, as the Japanese were “responsible for the physical and psychological destruction of their prisoners” (104). Following John Dower’s War without Mercy (1986), Jacob traces how US and Japanese soldiers perceived each other, showing that stereotypes of animality were used on both sides to portray their enemy. Furthermore, through Sir Harold Atcherley’s diary, a former POW in a Japanese prison camp, Jacob sketches the general treatment of POWs and the state of such camps. 

Focusing on the perpetrator’s perspective, Jacob follows Sönke Neitzel and Harald Welzer’s work on soldiers and their perception of the violent acts they have committed, while also linking this to Christopher Browning’s “ordinary men” (109). Jacob explains how, during the war, the soldiers away from home entered a “moral no man’s land” where they could reframe the legal contexts on a daily basis” (110) and argues that Japanese violence and treatment of POWs was not necessarily ordered, but can also be triggered by situational factors and problems. He then uses the statement of Takei Isami, commander of the building unit of POW camps, as an example, to illustrate that those responsible felt no remorse or sympathy for the many POWs that died in his camps, while also not feeling accountable. Jacob then contrasts this with statements from officer Gentarō Nagashima, who, on the other hand, states to have protested the food shortages for the POWs in his camp and medical captain Tomizō Higuchi, protesting the food shortages in the POW camps. Furthermore, both consider the higher ranks of the Japanese Army to be responsible for the perpetration in the POW camps. 

In his conclusion, Jacob illustrates that accusations made against the Japanese personnel working in the camps are met with denial and shows that they appoint higher officers of the Japanese military to bear responsibility for their actions. To him, this indicates a lack of remorse or guilt. Furthermore, Jacob states that “as long as the Japanese officers fulfilled their duty relating to their own field of expertise or demand, they were not guilty of everything else” (114). The chapter concludes with a comparison to the Eichmann trial and shows how the statements of the Japanese perpetrators repeat the “Eichmann narrative” (115), allowing them to present a clear conscience. 

Jacobs’s analysis illustrates the situation in the Japanese POW camps from both the perspective of victim and perpetrator. This chapter also suggests that the Japanese officers trialled failed to acknowledge their own perpetration, therefore not showing remorse or guilt, and instead shifted blame to their higher officers.

Author of this entry: Anne van Buuren

Jacob, Frank. “Narratives Without Guilt: The Self- Perception of Japanese Perpetrators.” Genocide and Mass Violence in Asia: An Introductory Reader, edited by Frank Jacob, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2019, pp. 101-116. doi.org/10.1515/9783110659054-006