Once known as Japan’s “Poet Shogun,” General Masaharu Homma commanded the Bataan Death March, a 65-mile forced transfer of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners in 1942. Thousands died from starvation, disease, and brutality. Witness how a man once respected as a diplomat became known as the “Be...

Kenji Doihara, known as Japan’s “Lawrence of Manchuria,” was the mastermind behind Japan’s invasion of Manchuria, which he turned into a vast opium empire. As head of the Japanese secret service in China, he spread addiction, crime, and terror—enslaving millions and creating a sprawling criminal ...

He was educated in Japan’s most prestigious military institutions, but Akira Muto used his skills to wage a campaign of mass murder. He was one of Japan’s most ruthless WWII generals, responsible for the Nanjing Massacre and the Manila Massacre, where hundreds of thousands were murdered. From his...

Prince Yasuhiko Asaka was no ordinary soldier—he was royalty. In 1937, Prince Asaka commanded Japanese troops during the infamous Nanjing Massacre, where as many as 300,000 civilians and unarmed soldiers were killed. Despite eyewitness accounts of his orders to “kill all captives,” Asaka was neve...

On December 7, 1941, Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor plunges the Pacific into war. Within hours, Japanese forces strike across Asia — from Malaya to the Philippines — led by one of Japan’s most capable and feared commanders, General Tomoyuki Yamashita, later known as the “Tiger of Malaya....

Born in 1889 in Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture, Moritake Tanabe followed his father, a former samurai, into a military career. Rising through the ranks of the Imperial Japanese Army, he became a skilled officer and strategist, serving as a military attaché in France and later as Chief of Staff of th...

Born in 1882 in Japan’s Okayama Prefecture, Hisao Tani devoted his life to the Imperial Japanese Army. A graduate of the prestigious Army War College and veteran of the Russo-Japanese War, he was known as an intelligent, disciplined, and ambitious officer who embodied Japan’s growing militarism.
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