“Violence appears where power is in jeopardy, but left to its own course it ends in power’s disappearance.” – Hannah Arendt

暴虐非道
bou.gyaku.hi.dou

Literally: violence – oppress – not – road

Alternately: Inhumane cruelty and violence; atrocity and tyranny. By extension, an inhumanly cruel and violent person; a tyrant.

Notes: Perhaps due to how frequently applicable it across human history, this compound has a number of variants, including previous entry 悪逆無道.

Today’s post is in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins this evening, but the sad truth is that human history, human memory, and even the present moment are filled to the choking point with examples.

From this 2016 article about a rape and murder committed by a former US serviceman in Okinawa