Horror In The East

The brutality of Japanese soldiers towards both allied prisoners of war and millions of civilians in Asia during the Second World War was one of the greatest horrors of the Twentieth Century. Here Laurence Rees, award-winning historian and author of Auschwitz and The Nazis: a Warning from History, turns his attention to a crucial question: why were these atrocities carried out? In this classic and seminal study, Rees talks openly with perpetrators and victims alike, and asks how seemingly ordinary people were driven to mass murder, rape and suicide. Uncovering startling first-hand testimonies of cruelty and barbarity, Horror in the East looks to individual experiences to understand this dark and violent chapter of human history. 'Another stunning slice of history from Laurence Rees' Daily Telegraph review of Horror in the East, BBC TV

The question is as searing as it is fundamental to the continuing debate over Japanese culpability in World War II and the period leading up to it: "How could Japanese soldiers have committed such acts of violence against Allied prisoners of war and Chinese civilians?" During the First World War, the Japanese fought on the side of the Allies and treated German POWs with respect and civility. In the years that followed, under Emperor Hirohito, conformity was the norm and the Japanese psyche became one of selfless devotion to country and emperor; soon Japanese soldiers were to engage in mass murder, rape, and even cannibalization of their enemies. Horror in the East examines how this drastic change came about. On the basis of never-before-published interviews with both the victimizers and the victimized, and drawing on never-before-revealed or long-ignored archival records, Rees discloses the full horror of the war in the Pacific, probing the supposed Japanese belief in their own racial superiority, analyzing a military that believed suicide to be more honorable than surrender, and providing what the Guardian calls "a powerful, harrowing account of appalling inhumanity...impeccably researched."

In his view, much if not all of the horror that plagued East Timor in 1999 and in the 24 preceding years could have been avoided had countries like Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, and especially the United States, not provided Indonesia with valuable political, economic, and military assistance, as well as diplomatic cover.

From adapter and illustrator Gou Tanabe, comes H.P Lovecraft's The Hound and Other Stories. This manga adaptation of some of Lovecraft's best stories is perfect for manga fans and Lovecraft fans alike. With art resembling more of a western comic book, this book lends itself well as a 'gateway' for those who are looking to get into manga! A pair of decadent young men pursue the abhorrent thrill of grave robbing...a German submarine's crew is driven mad by the call of an underwater temple...an explorer in the Arabian desert discovers a hideous city older than mankind. This moody and evocative manga gets back to the dark foundations of the Cthulhu Mythos, adapting three of H.P. Lovecraft's original stories that first shaped the outlines of cosmic horror!

Circulating Fear: Japanese Horror, Fractured Realities, and New Media explores the changing role of screens, new media objects, and social media in Japanese horror films from the 2010s to present day. Lindsay Nelson places these films and their paratexts in the context of changes in the new media landscape that have occurred since J-horror's peak in the early 2000s; in particular, the rise of social media and the ease of user remediation through platforms like YouTube and Niconico. This book demonstrates how Japanese horror film narratives have shifted their focus from old media—video cassettes, TV, and cell phones—to new media—social media, online video sharing, and smart phones. In these films, media devices and new media objects exist both inside and outside the frame: they are central to the films’ narratives, but they are also the means through which the films are consumed and disseminated. Across a multitude of screens, platforms, devices, and perspectives, Nelson argues, contemporary Japanese horror films are circulated as an ever-shifting series of images and fragments, creating a sense of “fractured reality” in the films’ narratives and the media landscape that surrounds them. Scholars of film studies, horror studies, media studies, and Japanese studies will find this book particularly useful.

This book is a major historical and cultural overview of an increasingly popular genre. Starting with the cultural phenomenon of Godzilla, it explores the evolution of Japanese horror from the 1950s through to contemporary classics of Japanese horror cinema such as Ringu and Ju-On: The Grudge. Divided thematically, the book explores key motifs such as the vengeful virgin, the demonic child, the doomed lovers and the supernatural serial killer, situating them within traditional Japanese mythology and folk-tales. The book also considers the aesthetics of the Japanese horror film, and the mechanisms through which horror is expressed at a visceral level through the use of setting, lighting, music and mise-en-scene. It concludes by considering the impact of Japanese horror on contemporary American cinema by examining the remakes of Ringu, Dark Water and Ju-On: The Grudge.The emphasis is on accessibility, and whilst the book is primarily marketed towards film and media students, it will also be of interest to anyone interested in Japanese horror film, cultural mythology and folk-tales, cinematic aesthetics and film theory.

How does a culture respond when the limits of childhood become uncertain? The emergence of pre-adolescence in the 1980s, which is signified by the new PG-13 rating for film, disrupted the established boundaries between childhood and adulthood. The concept of pre-adolescence affected not only America's pillar ideals of family and childhood innocence but also the very foundation of the horror genre's identity, its association with maturity and exclusivity. Cultural disputes over the limits of childhood and horror were explicitly articulated in the children's horror trend (1980-1997), a cluster of child-oriented horror titles in film and other media, which included Gremlins, The Gate, the Goosebumps series, and others. As the first serious analysis of the children's horror trend, with a focus on the significance of ratings, this book provides a complete chart of its development while presenting it as a document of American culture's adaptation to pre-adolescence. Each important children's horror title corresponds to a key moment of ideological negotiation, cultural power struggles, and industrial compromise.