Kempeitai: Japan's Dreaded Military Police [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Raymond Lamont-Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 1998

The Kempeitai, Japan's secret military police and counter-espionage service, were one of the most dreaded organizations of the Second World War. Through sheer horror tactics they degraded their victims to demonstrate their superiority over reluctant nations and break the human spirit. First-hand accounts in this book bring the atrocities to life.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Sutton Publishing; illustrated edition edition (November 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750915668
• ISBN-13: 978-0750915663
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,553,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A great opportunity missed, June 27, 2001

By 

William O'Chee (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kempeitai: Japan's Dreaded Military Police (Hardcover)

This could have been a brilliant book - the subject certainly has spectacular prospects - but it was not to be. Fifty years on there are few survivors of the legions of the Kempeitai, and even fewer survivors of their victims. It could have been a timely piece of scholarship. Instead we are treated a poor collection of anecdotes which lack suffcient breadth and analysis to be evidence of anything other than the incidents they describe, not the Kempeitai as a whole, nor their operations. More disappointing is the author's unconcealed antipathy towards his subject, as a result of his father's wartime experiences. If you need a book on the subject then consider buying it, but otherwise look elsewhere.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars kempeitai: japan's dreaded military police, August 8, 2000

By 

rick peacock (guelph, ON, CAN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kempeitai: Japan's Dreaded Military Police (Hardcover)

Japan's military police were as evil as the more well known german geatapo. The daily lives of the military police and their prisoners is glossed over. More detail is put into the administration and organization of the military police. The book is very dry reading and not much of a story. Time moves quickly in this book, with not many pages devoted to any one area or incident, but with only 168 pages i suppose that is to be expected. An interesting title, reduced to very boring reading, i am disappointed.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brief overview of the holocaust in Asia, March 10, 2007

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Kempeitai Japans Dreaded Military Police (Hardcover)

For reasons that are very difficult to understand, when the subject of war crimes in World War II comes up, it almost always involves the actions of the Germans. Even though the Japanese were just as brutal to the population of the areas they occupied and even more brutal to enemy POW's, it is a subject that is rarely discussed. In Japan, formal acknowledgements of the war crime actions of the Japanese during the war are rare and tepid.
The Kempeitai were the Japanese version of the German Gestapo, feared by all, including their fellow Japanese. While it is impossible to thoroughly chronicle their actions in only 167 pages, Lamont-Brown gives a good overview of the role the Kempeitai played in the war. They routinely executed civilians and captured allied personnel and on occasion even ate their flesh. Japanese medical personnel carried out horrific medical experiments on humans and were later granted immunity by General MacArthur in exchange for the records of their experiments.
This book is an example of one that should be read by more people. It is sad and unfortunate that more people do not know and appreciate the actions of the Japanese during the Second World War. Those who suffered through it remember it well, but shortly they will be gone and it is up to historians to keep the memories of their suffering alive.