On Violence and Perpetrators 17 Vio­lence in War During a war, vio­lence is ­legal to kill the ­enemy ­because it is only consid- ered excessive if it is deemed illegitimate, vio­lence is as normal as it can be in the context of war.23 War itself is based on or­ga­nized vio­lence and a space-­ time continuum in which killing and ­dying are essential. Destruction is the purpose of war, and killing the ­enemy without being killed is the task. Vio­ lence is therefore functional in war, and as discussed earlier, it becomes legit- imate for securing victory and/or self-­defense.24 Yet ­there are two perspectives on this form of vio­lence soldiers’ and society’s views on their own cohort’s use of vio­lence is often positivistic, whereas the “other’s” use of vio­lence is con- demned as cruel, excessive, and illegitimate.25 Especially in colonial armies, the use of vio­lence against an “inferior” ­enemy (a narrative similar to that used by the Japa­nese Imperial Army fighting against Chinese troops) caused no conscious issues for soldiers. In expansive or pacifying wars in the colo- nial era, the use of brute force almost became a military habitus.26 Guerilla warfare tends to arise in such a circumstance and is chosen to fight a supe- rior force. It blurs the line between civilians and combatants, leading to extreme forms of vio­lence against ­those who, in the soldier’s minds, may or may not be enemies.27 If we consider the Japa­nese army’s war in China as a form of colonial con- flict, we must take ­ these preconditions into consideration to better under- stand the violent eruptions in the region (e.g., in Nanjing). The paranoid fear of guerilla fighters, which ­ were unidentifiable to the Japa­nese, might have led to a preventive form of vio­lence against ­ those whom the soldiers perceived as dangerous enemies. However, the specific space-­time continuum involving the Rape of Nanjing ­ will be discussed in detail ­ later. Colonial wars also paint enemies as they are portrayed in ste­reo­typical colonial narratives. Further- more, if professional translators are unavailable to solve language barriers between soldiers and civilians, then vio­lence may result from miscommu- nication. Another ­factor that can stimulate vio­lence is the geo­graph­i­cal dis- tance between soldiers and ­legal jurisdictions the farther away a war takes place from home, the less control the state seems to have, which is why conflicts in colonial environments tend to follow dif­fer­ent rules.28 German historian Susanne Kuss explains forms of vio­lence in colonial conflicts by analyzing the following aspects: 1. geo­graph­i­cal setting 2. cultural geography 3. local protagonists 4. foreign protagonist groups
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