Peter Williams is an Australian author and military historian of WWII.

‘I had no qualms fighting the Australians, just as I have killed without remorse any of the Emperor’s enemies: the British, the Americans and the Dutch’, so admits Takahiro Sato in this ground-breaking oral history of Japan’s Pacific War.

Thanks to years of research and over 100 interviews with veterans, the Author has compiled a fascinating collection of personal accounts by former Japanese soldiers, sailors and airmen. Their candid views are often provocative and shocking. There are admissions of brutality, the killing of prisoners and cannibalism.

Stark descriptions of appalling conditions and bitter fighting blend with descriptions of family life. Their views on the prowess of the enemy differ with some like air ace Kazuo Tsunoda who believed the Australians ‘worthy’. Some remain unrepentant while others such as Hideo Abe are ashamed of his part in Japan’s war of aggression.

The result is a revealing insight into the minds of a ruthless and formidable enemy which provides the reader with a fresh perspective on the Second World War.

Peter Damian Williams is an Australian military historian and author, born in 1957 in Hobart. He holds degrees in BA, Dip. Ed, MA, and PhD, and has taught history in the Northern Territory and Japan. Williams specializes in military history, with a focus on Australia's involvement in global conflicts. His publications include analyses of the Gallipoli campaign, the Japanese 18th Army in New Guinea, and the Kokoda Track during WWII. Notable works include "Japan's Pacific War: Personal Accounts of the Emperor's Warriors" and articles in the Sydney Morning Herald and Wartime magazine. Williams lives in Canberra and continues to contribute to military historiography through research and writing.