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