The Knights of Bushido Audiobook By Lord Russell of Liverpool cover art

The Knights of Bushido

A History of Japanese War Crimes During World War II

Preview

Try for $0.00
Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

The Knights of Bushido

By: Lord Russell of Liverpool
Narrated by: Simon Vance
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $24.95

Buy for $24.95

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

The war crimes trials at Nuremberg and Tokyo meted out the Allies' official justice; Lord Russell of Liverpool's sensational bestselling books on the Axis' war crimes decided the public's opinion. The Knights of Bushido, Russell's shocking account of Japanese brutality in the Pacific in World War II, describes how the noble founding principles of the Empire of Japan were perverted by the military into a systematic campaign of torture, murder, starvation, rape, and destruction. Notorious incidents like the Nanking Massacre and the Bataan Death March emerge as merely part of a pattern of human rights abuses. Undoubtedly formidable soldiers, the Japanese were terrible conquerors. Their conduct in the Pacific is a harrowing example of the doctrine of mutual destruction carried to the extreme, and begs the question of what is acceptable—and unacceptable—in total war.©2008 Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. (P)2013 Audible, Inc. 20th Century Japan World World War II Military War World History

Editorial reviews

A belief in Japan’s divinely mandated right to rule over Asia led to stunning atrocities during the Second World War. Lord Russell of Liverpool, a lawyer who worked with the British Army during the war, offers a vivid and detailed catalogue of these bloody and vicious war crimes in his 1958 volume The Knights of Bushido.

The cruelty of the Japanese military was seen in Nanking, where thousands of innocent Chinese were raped and murdered by Japanese soldiers and its prisoner of war camps, where international treaties were ignored and soldiers were starved and tortured.

With his British accent, narrator Simon Vance strikes a dispassionate tone that allows the gravity of Lord Russell’s careful research and unembellished prose to speak for itself.

What listeners say about The Knights of Bushido

Highly rated for:

Important Story Detailed Accounts Clear Narration Well-documented Atrocities Comprehensive Coverage
Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    251
  • 4 Stars
    90
  • 3 Stars
    31
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    247
  • 4 Stars
    70
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    222
  • 4 Stars
    83
  • 3 Stars
    21
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great book

A great book that has a wonderful source of information on the history of Japan.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Very Difficult at Times to Read On...

Would you consider the audio edition of The Knights of Bushido to be better than the print version?

I enjoy audible with a good pair of headphones much more reading a book. Yes it was better for sure.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Really not applicable as there were many. I would have to give the narrator the credit for best performance.

Have you listened to any of Simon Vance’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I have not. I will purchase future books if they are of interest if Mr. Vance is the narrator!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No as I stated at times because of the truth of what really happened in the camps in Japan it was mind boggling how many men were killed and the way they were killed. Truly disgusting is all I can say. I feel more of the persons responsible should have been tried and hung!

Any additional comments?

I would just worn folks this is a very technical account of what really went on in these camps and at times you will get very angry and if you have a lite stomach ill at what you are reading if you think about what transpired. We owe a tremendous amount to the men that sacrificed their lives for out freedom!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The Benighted of Bushido

If you could sum up The Knights of Bushido in three words, what would they be?

Japan's WW2 Crimes

Who was your favorite character and why?

I honor all the more now than before the courage and tenacity of Allied POWs.

What about Simon Vance’s performance did you like?

Clear, even toned narration.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Would be too difficult. Too heartbreaking.

Any additional comments?

This is an important, dreadful story. Whenever possible, we need to be reminded of Japan's War Crimes and, more importantly, of their intransigence in owning up to these
crimes against humanity.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Well presented.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I learned quite a lot about the conduct of the Japanese during the war that I had not been aware of.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Not for the faint of heart

This was a great and terrible book at the same time. My grandma had told me about the hatred for the Japanese during WWII and how two of her high school friends were killed during the Bataan death march, but this book paints the full picture of the depths of depravity and horror that can be conjured up by the human mind.

Countless acts throughout the Sino-Japanese war to WWII are described here and broken into sections that describe how the Japanese dealt with situations (Pilots, Sea Battles, Prison Camps, Civilian Populations, Cannibalism). While it is not chronological, I feel it is a far better way of sorting through the information, as you can begin to see the Japanese mindset towards certain prisoners or situations.

The book does a good job of accurately portraying the horror experienced by the world during this time. The examples are brutal (babies thrown up and "caught" on a bayonet), but it helps show a whole side of World War II that is not talked about much, and gave me a new found admiration of the "Greatest Generation" who overcame such evil.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Study of war crimes

One of the best works on war crimes, easy to understand and well written. Many of the examples are quite graphic.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brutal.

I think that it's a great learning Experience about Japan during the second world War

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Harrowing even to listen too.

The atrocities of WWII Germany are well know to me, but I was woefully unaware of the extent of the atrocities committed by the Japanese.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Eye-opening

Very well documented in telling the facts and the stories but not overly gratuitous. A stark reminder for us to never forget the hardships and atrocities suffered by those in wartime & to strive for the best within us.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Grim but important to know

Would you listen to The Knights of Bushido again? Why?

Probably not, as much of it is ghastly: once one is familiar with the contents, it seems a bit pointless to go through the horrors a second time.

What about Simon Vance’s performance did you like?

Excellent. However, Japanese names are often not pronounced correctly, but this is not a major problem.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes, it distressed me to learn about so many men behaving so horribly.

Any additional comments?

One of the essential moral issues anyone living after 1945 has to face is how masses of people could behave so brutishly, and in in the name of some ideal. The barbarism shown by German, Japanese and Russian military during World War II was not the wayward behavior of a few psychopaths or deviants but a systematic descent into almost unthinkable evil on the part of huge numbers of people deliberately incited by a few, and this in the name of some ideology. In each of these three cases, it came about in a unique way, and it is important and interesting to understand the particular elements at play. And in each instance, it is the perpetrators that are themselves the primary victims — the Japanese even more directly than others, since Japanese recruits were deliberatly brutalized (beaten and humiliated) to take away their humanity and turn them into instruments of brutality.

I take this occasion to recommend the most enlightening book I know on the problem of evil : Barbara Oakley's 2007 book 'Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend'

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful