Harrowing war photographs show a Japanese soldier preparing to behead a Chinese soldier in the late 1930s in Nanking, China
The book focuses on the behaviour of five groups in history including the Japanese Army in China in 1937 - the start of the second Sino-Japenese war between China and the Empire of Japan which came to an end, along with the Second World War, in 1945. In just six weeks, hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were slaughtered by the Imperial Army in and around Nanking, which was then the capital of China. Another group examined by Zapotoczny is the Einsatzgruppen - paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass killings, primarily by shooting. Nazi behaviour in Russia during the war is also analysed along with the actions of the Red Army after it had swept into Berlin in 1945. Zapotoczny also examines pictures from the My Lai massacre - one of the most notorious incidents of the Vietnam War. Up to 500 unarmed civilians were killed by U.S. soldiers during the episode in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968. Harrowing war photographs show a Japane...