'What makes the Japanese record between 1937 and 1945 disgraceful is the consistent and institutionalised nature of the cruelty towards the helpless. Some Westerners seek to explain it by saying that the Japanese code of military honour decreed that a soldier die rather than surrender and that POWs had forfeited all right to be treated as humans. This is part of the post-war Western fashion for cultural relativism and it leads to a very dangerous moral double standard. Cultures certainly collide through misunderstanding, but there is also such a thing as essential evil.'
Timothy Mo in an article entitled 'They Will Not Apologise' in a 1998 edition of the Daily Telegraph newspaper
Life: When facing questions, Timothy Mo downplays his boxing background but pulls no punches. He is even forthright about racially charged subjects, which other writers hedge around gingerly or avoid altogether.
He freely admits he has no time for Chinese culture. He identifies himself firmly as a Brit and has spoken out forcefully against Western relativists who seek to explain Japanese World War II atrocities.
Both crusader and curmudgeon, Mo's long list of bete noires extends to his craft. He says he loathes the mind-bending process of writing and feels overwhelmed by the glut of rival books on the market.
Not that he has much reason to throw in the towel. Thanks to his extraordinary, swirling stylistic vigour, the 52-year-old remains one of the brightest literary stars Hong Kong has fostered.
The son of a Cantonese father and an English mother, Mo was educated by 'ferocious' Cantonese nuns at the Convent of the Precious Blood, then Mill Hill, the English public school where he excelled as a bantamweight boxer until an even better fighter gave him his comeuppance. Mo survived to read history at Oxford before becoming a journalist for the New Statesman and Boxing News.