EDUCATION

2012 – 2016: Lancaster University, PhD in History

(Passed forthwith in July 2016)

Thesis Title: “The Strong Devour the Weak”: Tracing the Genocidal Dynamics of Violence in the Japanese Empire, 1937-1945

Supervised by Professor Aristotle Kallis & Professor Aaron Moore

2011 – 2012: Lancaster University, M.A in History

(Passed with distinction in September 2012)

Thesis Title: ‘A Dead Letter: The Genocide Convention and Possibilities of Prevention’

Supervised by Professor Aristotle Kallis

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS

RESEARCH

DFG Project: “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Irregular Warfare and the Dynamics of Violence on Panay during the Asia-Pacific War, 1942–1945” (Grant number: 560733860)

This project examines the relationship between irregular warfare and violence against civilians during the Asia-Pacific War (1937–1945) through a focused case study of Panay Island in the Philippines. Irregular warfare was a defining feature of the conflict across the region, often provoking harsh military responses. In many cases, civilians were targeted as suspected supporters of resistance movements, making violence against non-combatants a central dimension of this form of warfare.

Panay provides a uniquely rich and revealing case. Occupied by Japanese forces in April 1942 with little initial resistance, the island soon developed a significant guerrilla movement led by Lieutenant Colonel Macario Peralta Jr., supported by a civilian resistance government under Tomas Confesor. As conflict escalated, civilians were frequently caught between Japanese subjugation operations and guerrilla strategies of control, resulting in widespread suffering. Notably, Panay witnessed one of the earliest large-scale massacres of civilians in the Philippines in 1943, well before similar levels of violence emerged elsewhere, challenging conventional narratives that link such escalation primarily to the final stages of the war.

The project draws on an underutilised corpus of Japanese and Philippine wartime and post-war sources to conduct a local case study of irregular warfare and violence towards civilians on Panay. It adopts a multi-perspective approach, using these sources to examine the relationship between irregular conflict and violence in a holistic, dialectical way. In doing so, the project reconstructs a cohesive history of war and resistance on the island, while foregrounding the interactions between military and guerrilla actors and the civilian population. Through meticulous source-based investigation, the project identifies the factors which facilitated, mediated and shaped the ways in which violence manifested and evolved between 1942 and 1945. It conceptualises violence not as a singular phenomenon but as a spectrum, including strategic, structural and opportunistic forms, emerging from ongoing processes of interaction, adaptation and escalation. By tracing these dynamics at the local level, the study situates its findings within broader regional and comparative contexts, highlighting both shared patterns and distinctive features of the Panay case.

Ultimately, this research aims  to advance scholarly understanding of the mechanisms and logic of violence in irregular warfare. By identifying the factors that drive, shape and intensify violence against civilians, it contributes to wider theoretical discussions about the complex relationship between irregular warfare and violence, while offering insights with relevance beyond this historical case.

Edited volumes and monographs

(2025) Military Justice in Modern History: The Adjudication of War and Violence in a Globalising World (Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg) [with Tino Schölz and Urs Matthias Zachmann]. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110989588

Articles and book contributions

(2026) “The Dynamics of Japanese Military Justice and the Maintenance of Order in the Philippines, 1942–5,” Journal of Contemporary History, [Online first]. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220094261443233

(2026) “Military Justice on Trial: Efforts to Prosecute Japanese Commanders for ‘Denial of Fair Trial’ in the Post-Second World War Tribunals,” Contemporary Japan [Online first]. https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2026.2631835

(2025) “Military Justice and its Potential for Violence towards Civilians under Wartime Occupation: The Imperial Japanese Army in China, 1894–1941,” in Kelly Maddox, Tino Schölz and Urs Matthias Zachmann (eds), Military Justice in Modern History: The Adjudication of War and Violence in a Globalising World (Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg), 271–299. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110989588-011

(2025) “Military Justice in Modern History: An Introductory Overview,” in Kelly Maddox, Tino Schölz and Urs Matthias Zachmann (ed.), Military Justice in Modern History: The Adjudication of War and Violence in a Globalising World (Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg), 1–30 [with Tino Schölz]. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110989588-001

(2025) “The Two Faces of Military Justice in Occupied Territories: Japanese Military Justice during the Asia-Pacific War, 1937–45,” Revue Internationale de Droit Pénal, 8 , 119–142.

(2024) “Violencia de masas y radicalización de la estrategia bélica japonesa en el Sudeste Asiático, 1942–1945” [Instrumentalising Mass Violence: The Radicalisation of Japanese Military Strategy in Wartime Southeast Asia, 1942–45], Ayer. Revista De Historia Contemporánea, 134(2), 111–138. https://doi.org/10.55509/ayer/2199

(2024) “An Instrument of Military Power: The Development and Evolution of Japanese Martial Law in Occupied Territories, 1894–1945,” Law and History Review 42(2) [First online 2023], 367–391. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0738248023000524

(2023) “First Essentials of Survival: Ensuring the Support of Civilians in the Guerrilla Conflict with Japan on Panay, 1942–1945,” War in History, 30(3) [First online 2022], 300–319. https://doi.org/10.1177/09683445221136183

(2020) “An Island of Killing and Slaughter: Anti-Guerrilla Warfare and Civilian-Targeted Violence on Panay, 1943,” Journal of Contemporary History, 55(3) [First online 2019], 535–556. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022009419843313

(2017) “From Liberation to Elimination: Violence and Resistance in Japan’s Southeast Asia, 1942­–1945,” in Philip Dwyer & Amanda Nettlebeck (eds.) Violence, Colonialism and Empire in the Modern World (New York & London: Palgrave Macmillan), 243–264. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62923-0_12

(2015) “‘Liberat[ing] Mankind from such an Odious Scourge’: The Genocide Convention and the Continued Failure to Prevent or Halt Genocide in the Twenty-First Century,” Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal, 9(1), 48–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.9.1.1263