Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila by James M. ScottMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
With its emphasis on atrocities, the book examines the butchery committed by Japanese troops against the Filipino population of Manila during the fighting there in February 1945. Brutal as the SS in Poland, the deliberate murder and rape of civilians is augmented by the haphazard rain of artillery fire employed by the attacking Americans. Survival in certain neighborhoods was problematic and whole families up to several generations were annihilated.
Decisions by commanding generals MacArthur and Yamashita are examined, with the book closing on War Crimes trials held in Manila only months after the war ended, with Japanese mines still being detonated by the unwary.
Well-written and fast-moving, Scott explores a little-known aspect of the fighting in the Pacific; an atrocity worth recalling the next time someone cries, 'Hiroshima.'
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