Punishment: Behind Japanese Military Brutality with Danny Orbach (Hurst, 2026)

Prof Danny Orbach traces the institutional and ideological roots of Japanese military brutality from the late samurai period through to Manila 1945 — arguing that the Imperial Army conceived of warfare as an act of justice, not just combat, and that two rival moral frameworks within the officer corps produced escalating violence. This isn't atrocity cataloguing; it's an attempt to explain the structural logic behind the behaviour, which makes it more useful than most treatments. Orbach's previous work on military mutinies gives him credibility on institutional military culture.