This photograph remains the hardest for me to look at, among the tens of thousands of war photographs I have ever seen. It shows the worst and the best sides of human nature in a single image.

Ukraine around 1942.

Australian commando Leonard Sifleet (1916–1943) shortly before his execution by Japanese officer Yasuno Chikao. Aitape, Papua New Guinea, around 1943. Sifleet, an Australian commando (Special Unit M), was captured on Aitape, an island off the coast of Papua New Guinea, after his team was ambushed by local Papuan soldiers loyal to the Japanese.

They were handed over to the Japanese, tortured, taken to the beach, blindfolded, and executed on the orders of Japanese Admiral Michiaki Kamada. Chikao ordered a soldier to photograph the act. According to various sources, Chikao died before the war ended, while others claim he was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death, but spent less than ten years in prison after the war.

Leonard Sifleet with his girlfriend Clarice Lane in 1941