The war crimes trials at Nuremberg and Tokyo meted out the Allies'official justice; Lord Russell of Liverpool's sensational bestsellingbooks on the Axis' war crimes decided the public's opinion. <em>TheKnights of Bushido</em>, Russell's shocking account of Japanesebrutality in the Pacific in World War II, describes how the noblefounding principles of the Empire of Japan were perverted by themilitary into a systematic campaign of torture, murder, starvation,rape, and destruction. Notorious incidents like the Nanking Massacre andthe Bataan Death March emerge as merely part of a pattern of humanrights abuses. Undoubtedly formidable soldiers, the Japanese wereterrible conquerors. Their conduct in the Pacific is a harrowing exampleof the doctrine of mutual destruction carried to the extreme, and begsthe question of what is acceptable—and unacceptable—in total war.