During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), civilians in the combat zone feared the Russians more than the Japanese, and the Japanese met exemplary standards in their treatment of Russian prisoners of war—a fact confirmed by International Red Cross observers. Thereafter, within the span of a single generation, for reasons that are still puzzled over and debated by scholars, Japan’s military culture took an abrupt turn toward the barbarous. By the early 1930s, the behavior of Japanese troops was attracting international notoriety, and the trend only grew worse through the end of the Second World
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