In March 1943, on the island of New Guinea, a young Australian pilot was put on a truck by his Japanese captors. It was twilight, and the young man gazed out wistfully at the hills and sea, lost in thought. When the truck eventually came to a halt, he was ordered down and told he was about to be killed. He knelt on the ground, and a few minutes later, he was beheaded by sword. Hissing could be heard as blood spurted from the neck. “The head,” noted a Japanese diarist, “is dead white, like a doll