Customer Reviews:
Princess Masako Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne.......2007-10-21
the very real story of a princess who is not living happily ever after, why do all royal families seem to attempt to strip princesses-in-training, expecting them to relinquish their creative minds, goals and imagination, all attributes that would enable them to serve a royal family, as well as a country to their highest potential...did they not learn anything from the tragedy of the loss of Princess Diana, who was finally beginning to breathe again...
"Prisoner of The Chrysanthemum Throne"--A Bogus Story.......2007-08-19
First of all,as a Japanese,I will not sit here and watch as an affair of my country is terribly distorted and misunderstood.Let me start by pointing out the most important fact unbeknownst to Western people:The majority of the Japanese people DO NOT sympathize with Princess Masako any more,because we already know the truth all too well.
Although we used to regard her in the early days as an efficient but "unfortunate" princess just as this book claims to be,now almost every Japanese inwardly thinks that she is just a loathesome,power-hungry upstart with gilded academic backgrounds and a seemingly remarkable diplomat's career who married into a highest and noblest family she never really belonged to.We also think that she should be deprived of her title and dismissed from the Imperial Family as soon as possible--not because she is a "modernized" woman who is alien to our society,but simply because she is not doing her duty at all.In fact,also unbeknownst to overseas media,she keeps on betraying the people's expectation for her to live up to her title by refusing to attend almost all the public functions out of faked sickness,seeking only fun,squandering the taxpayers'money without a reflection.
In other words,all she ever does is to pretend that she's so "mentally ill" that she needs "a long rest" and to "shop till she drops" on the people's back as she goes on needless vacations.(For example,she immensely enjoyed her visit to Tokyo Disneyland with her husband and daughter by riding various attractions this March,and shortly after it was reported in the media,there appeared many weblog entries denouncing her act.)
As you know,a real patient of depression or of any other mental illness is never able to go out not only to work,but also to play however hard he or she wants to.Even though there is yet no clear evidence that her illness is false,there is a revealing fact that the Princess has never undergone a thorough mental health check by a third-party doctor,nor has her doctor in charge officially held a press conference to announce the proper diagnosis to this day.With all the inappropriate behaviour of the Princess above in mind,we have come to a conclusion that she is an utterly ineligible Crown Princess,a Marie Antoinette-like tax-spender,a sheer disgrace to our nation and to "the Chrysanthemum Throne" in the true sense of the term.
So the point here is as follows:She is no "prisoner" to be "liberated" at all;all we have here is one delinquent who would universally be dismissed should she be a princess of some Western country,and that Japanese traditions or "the way of the Kunaicho(the Imperial Household Agency)" has nothing to do with the so-called "unfairness" of the way she has been treated.We only think of her as we naturally do,and the Imperial Household Agency has been only doing its job.
Suppose an agency of Royal or Imperial affairs did not try to admonish a troublemaker in the Family,or it did not try to defend their lord in the face of a malicious slander,then of what use would it be?Naturally,if it takes the above actions when needed, that would be NO "violation of human rights" or "violation of freedom of speech" as the author Ben Hills alleged regarding the treatment of Princess Masako and the Kunaicho's protest against his book.
Therefore,all the author's accusations against the Kunaicho and the other members of the Imperial Family are groundless,because those accusations are made on an unsound premise that they should be blamed for their own unique "inhumanity" and "feudalism" that never really exist in this particular case.Needless to say,a tradition should never be judged from an insufficient research or a subjective,narrow-minded viewpoint like the author's,especially when the allegations are untrue.
Finally,please DO NOT ever be deceived by this bogus story of some Imperial oppression of a well-intended,"liberated" individual which never took place,not only for our sake,but also for your own sake,because this is apparently a book of propaganda full of intentional errors designed to undermine Japan's and the Imperial Family's reputation.With Japan being a former Axis and a defeated nation of WWII,it is not uncommon for the rest of the world to demonize the Emperor or the Imperial system of Japan by deliberately depicting it as a thoroughly inhumane existence despite its now-pacifistic nature.So,all wise and conscientious readers out there, stay open-minded,for an ignorant,unsuspecting "good intention" misled by malice could lead to true unfairness such as racism and destruction of a culture that is different from your own.
Heartbreaking........2007-07-27
For a young woman who could have conquered the world to be buried under ridiculous, unreasonable tradition which has no place in this modern world.
Princess Masako.......2007-06-01
Part of the book is interesting, but mostly disappointing me.
Not only many parts are coming from gossip news papers, but also author is influenced by his wife, Mayu Kanamori, notorious anti-Japanese Korean left-wing journalist. She always against the Royal family and the contents of the book seems following her idea.
Sob Sister Stuff.......2007-05-31
I realize Hills didn't have a whole lot of authenicated material for this book, but some of the inaccuracies - well, really! Kids dressing in gangsta clothes in the 70s?!? That's what Hills maintains when Masako first started school in the US.
I was constantly puzzled by the author's efforts to appear unbiased. 'Poor Masako,' was one message. 'Her family background is somewhat suspect, and her father is a social climber. tee hee,' was another (and snide) message. The different in height between the Crown Prince and Crown Princess was also noted. To what end? Hills see-saws back and forth between trying to appear a legitimate, serious author and a gossip columnist.
I wish Hills had spent some time explaining, for us gai-jins, the role and upbringing of the woman in Japanese society. Until very recently, all Japanese female names ended in 'ko,' which means 'child' - Keiko, Masako, Aiko, etc. While this may sound minor, it is indicative of how women are perceived in Japan. (My former husband, who spent a lot of time in Japan, was once chided by a Japanese man for being too polite to women.) It would, I think, help to explain Masako's difficulty in her, IMHO, schizophrenic life.
All in all, if such a book had to be written, I should prefer to have Kitty Kelley tackle the subject. She, at least, is a zippy writer, and this book definitely lacks zip.
Average customer rating:
- Pssst....hey you! Want to market a few gold bullion?
- This Book Is Really Bad
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Old Soldiers Sometimes Lie
Richard Hoyt
Manufacturer: Forge Books
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ASIN: 0765303310 |
Book Description
On November 14, 1947, two years after the war, General Douglas MacArthur met in private with Emperor Hirohito. They spoke for ninety minutes. To this day, there is no official record of what was discussed.Over five decades ago, MacArthur permitted General Tomayuki Yamashita to be executed for alleged war crimes. Now, Yamashitas granddaughter is determined to clear his name, even if it means unravelling a web of deceit and corruption that may stretch back to the Emperor himselfand a secret pact between Hirohito and MacArthur. Old Soldiers Sometimes Lie raises disturbing questions about what truly went on in the Pacific in the shadowy years following World War II. A former counterintelligence agent, as well as an award-winning author of espionage thrillers, Richard Hoyt pulls together disparate threads of historical fact and rumor to weave a gripping novel of intrigue and conspiracy in high places.
Customer Reviews:
Pssst....hey you! Want to market a few gold bullion?.......2004-01-05
I noticed this book while food shopping at a local market. The cover was sufficiently intriguing that I dropped the book in my basket. Later, when I started reading the book, I found the subject utterly fascinating. Knowing relatively nothing of Hirohito's gold, the mass burying of stolen WWII gold throughout the Philippines, the M Fund, and other facets related to this subject and time period, I was confused as to where the melding of fiction and fact began and ended. But this confusion did not detract from the book-it only served to whet my curiosity and to urge me to continue onward, page after page.
To readers who need constant action in order to keep reading a book, this novel may not be for them, as there are long (but captivating) narrations on the history of Hirohito's gold. But to those who enjoy a blending of historical fact with a snappy plot line, this book will give them a good read. Much of the action, both historical and in the present, is in the Philippines. Having been to the Philippines, I have to admire Mr. Hoyt's descriptions of the country and the people...I was soon sweating from his descriptions of the high heat and thick humidity (even while it was snowing here in Alaska), enjoying again the views of the verdant mountains and turquoise blue ocean waters, and reliving my own wonderful times with the truly unique and joyful Filipino people. In fact, I am now craving a San Miguel beer, and may have to just go back to the Philippines to get one.
As an interesting aside, when I was last in the Philippines (about 4 years ago), I was approached by a supposedly religious organization with a most unusual request: could I help them market an enormous load of gold bars found on a coconut farm in Mindanao? They had pictures of countless gold bars in some sort of bunker that they gave to me. I declined the offer. After reading Mr. Hoyt's account of the lost Japanese golden loot, the difficulties (to put it mildly) encountered by anyone, even former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, in attempting to market stolen gold, I was relieved and gratified at my decision to have nothing to do with the purported unearthing of Japanese gold.
The three principal characters in the book-a former, disillusioned CIA operative, a history professor and a Filipino farmer-are well rounded and the types of folks that I (and probably you) would like to socialize with (preferably in an open air bar in the Philippines overlooking the sea). You care about them, their quest, and you hope that they come out of this dangerous business in one piece.
This is a good book, and you learn a great deal about an alarming historical deception while you are roundly entertained.
This Book Is Really Bad.......2003-11-24
The only reason I actually finished this boring, convoluted, uninteresting book was because I was stuck on an airplane with nothing else to read. I should have just gone to sleep. The plot (if there really is one) centers around the attempt to recover gold stolen by Japanese military leaders and buried in the Philippines during World War II. There is virtually no action or drama in the book--just long, drawn-out explanations of historical activity by the main characters. I completely lost track of why some of the characters were in the book. Most of the activity (not action) is implausible and generally disconnected with the main theme. Don't waste your time or money on this book.
Amazon.com
To many, Emperor Hirohito of Japan is remembered as a helpless figurehead during Japan's wars with China and the U.S. According to the received wisdom, he knew nothing of the plan to bomb Pearl Harbor and had no power to stop atrocities like the Rape of Nanking. The emperor was the mild-mannered little man who traipsed with Mickey Mouse in Disneyland and who brought peace through surrender, certainly not "one of the most disingenuous persons ever to occupy the modern throne." Herbert Bix's charged political biography, however, argues that such accepted beliefs are myths and misrepresentations spun by both Japanese and Americans to protect the emperor from indictment. Since Hirohito's death in 1989, hundreds of documents, diaries, and scholarly studies have been published (and subsequently ignored) in Japan. Historian Bix used these sources to develop this shocking and nuanced portrait of a man far more shrewd, activist, and energetic than previously thought. Caught up in the fever of territorial expansion, Hirohito was the force that animated the war system, who, acting fully as a military leader and head of state, encouraged the belligerency of his people and pursued the war to its disastrous conclusion. To the very end, Hirohito refused to acknowledge any responsibility for his role in the death of millions as well as the brutalities inflicted by his forces in China, Korea, and the Philippines. In fact, he worked with none other than General MacArthur to select his fall guys and fix testimony at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials--the emperor trying to protect the throne at all cost, the U.S. acting to ensure control of the Japanese population and the military by retaining Hirohito as a figurehead.
Not surprisingly, this hefty work of scholarship is making waves, as Americans and Japanese reconsider their roles in WWII and its aftermath. By placing Hirohito back in the center of the picture and puncturing the myths that surround him, Bix has effectively asked the Japanese to come out of their half-century repression of the past and face their wartime responsibility. Without doing so, he implies, the monarchy will forever impede the development of democracy. For those interested in Japan's wartime past and its influence on the present, this is fascinating, if lengthy, reading. --Lesley Reed
Book Description
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
In this groundbreaking biography of the Japanese emperor Hirohito, Herbert P. Bix offers the first complete, unvarnished look at the enigmatic leader whose sixty-three-year reign ushered Japan into the modern world. Never before has the full life of this controversial figure been revealed with such clarity and vividness. Bix shows what it was like to be trained from birth for a lone position at the apex of the nation's political hierarchy and as a revered symbol of divine status. Influenced by an unusual combination of the Japanese imperial tradition and a modern scientific worldview, the young emperor gradually evolves into his preeminent role, aligning himself with the growing ultranationalist movement, perpetuating a cult of religious emperor worship, resisting attempts to curb his power, and all the while burnishing his image as a reluctant, passive monarch. Here we see Hirohito as he truly was: a man of strong will and real authority.
Supported by a vast array of previously untapped primary documents, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan is perhaps most illuminating in lifting the veil on the mythology surrounding the emperor's impact on the world stage. Focusing closely on Hirohito's interactions with his advisers and successive Japanese governments, Bix sheds new light on the causes of the China War in 1937 and the start of the Asia-Pacific War in 1941. And while conventional wisdom has had it that the nation's increasing foreign aggression was driven and maintained not by the emperor but by an elite group of Japanese militarists, the reality, as witnessed here, is quite different. Bix documents in detail the strong, decisive role Hirohito played in wartime operations, from the takeover of Manchuria in 1931 through the attack on Pearl Harbor and ultimately the fateful decision in 1945 to accede to an unconditional surrender. In fact, the emperor stubbornly prolonged the war effort and then used the horrifying bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, together with the Soviet entrance into the war, as his exit strategy from a no-win situation. From the moment of capitulation, we see how American and Japanese leaders moved to justify the retention of Hirohito as emperor by whitewashing his wartime role and reshaping the historical consciousness of the Japanese people. The key to this strategy was Hirohito's alliance with General MacArthur, who helped him maintain his stature and shed his militaristic image, while MacArthur used the emperor as a figurehead to assist him in converting Japan into a peaceful nation. Their partnership ensured that the emperor's image would loom large over the postwar years and later decades, as Japan began to make its way in the modern age and struggled -- as it still does -- to come to terms with its past.
Until the very end of a career that embodied the conflicting aims of Japan's development as a nation, Hirohito remained preoccupied with politics and with his place in history. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan provides the definitive account of his rich life and legacy. Meticulously researched and utterly engaging, this book is proof that the history of twentieth-century Japan cannot be understood apart from the life of its most remarkable and enduring leader.
Customer Reviews:
Biased perspective - "History" by Objective.......2007-02-21
I've read this book twice, and came to the same conclusions as Mr. O'Neil (before reading his review). Bix seems to almost bend over backwards to paint leftist and communists in idealized light, akin to the current vogue iconization of Che' as a liberating hero. Never understood why most intellectuals can't see communism/socialism as the same thing as facism - move far enough to the left and you meet the far right.
Anyhow, to provide an Abstract for the books thesis: Factions in the US governement - lead by left-hating McArthur - used Hirohito after the war as a tool to suppress communism in Japan and help Chaing-Kai-Shek fight against Mao. This was accomplished by white-washing the evils of Hirohito, who was a key architect of not only WWII, but also of brutal suppression of communist liberators seeking only democracy for Japan.
And don't forget to throw in unreferenced purgoratives that support your thesis ... my favorite is this one: a government minister said "Hirohito wept when he heard the judgement against Tojo." No reference is given, no name, no context or location. Its just a cheap shot akin to Michael Moore journalism. And there are NUMEROUS such examples of this in the book.
A better title of the book would be .. "Too bad Mao's revolution couldn't have spread successfully into Japan: Darn that Hirohito and his right-wing enabler McArthur."
Overrated.......2006-07-29
Perhaps I had too many expectations of this book, because it won a Pulitzer Prize and other awards. I enjoyed the wording and style employed by the author; the sentences and paragraphs were both very fluid and readable. My main complaint with this book is that I do not feel that I learned much by reading it, i.e., I do not believe the factual information to words ratio (facts/words) was high enough for me to recommend it to someone else. In some parts of the book, it seems that the author attempts to employ a written form of filibusters. Usually after reading a few pages or chapters of a non-fiction book, I have to sit back to take in all the information. This book never necessitated such a pause in my reading. In short, I believe this book may be interesting to those few people extremely interested in Hirohito's role during and after World War II. But, I believe most people will agree that the best one-word summary of this book would be as follows: Overrated.
An Enjoyable Bio on an Interesting Figure.......2006-07-16
I actually found this one in a bookstore while I was in Japan, then bought it over here in the states. Hirohito is probably not read about much here, but he should be because his life impacts Asian thought and politics to this day.
While everyone knows that Hitler was responsible for the death of probably 12 million during the holocaust, few people realize that Hirohito was responsible for the death of 20 million people. Therefore, Korea, and China still harbor feelings due to WWII.
Bix explains how Hirohito escaped war crimes trials. This is what makes the book somewhat controversial. Bix maintains that Hirohito played an active role in the Asian agression by Japan before and during WWII, rather than just being a mere figurehead. He also spends quite a bit of time covering the contributions that McArthur made in rebuilding Japan after WWII.
Bix's writing style is pleasant. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan seems very well researched. This book is the place to start if you want to understand U.S. - Japanese relations.
Hirohito's Life Revealed.......2005-10-06
This book explicitly tells of Hirohito's life from a newborn Crown Prince to an Emperor on his deathbed. It shows how his upbringing had a serious impact on his decisions in the war and how he dealt with the consequences of those decisions after the war. As a child, he was given the best education according to Japanese custom. He spent most of his life away from his father and grandfather, since they were both busy men. He witnessed the glorious aftermath of the Russo-Japanese war and believed that this was the standard that should happen for the War of Greater East Asia.
In the war, most people perceived him as a puppet being operated by a group of military advisors. This is blatantly wrong. He played an active role in what happened and didn't happen in the war. He knew about the treatment of POW's and Chinese civilians but did little to stop this. The delay of the surrender was also his fault, as he sought a way out that would leave him and his regime intact.
After the war was concluded, The Japanese people felt as though they had to protect their emperor's innocence even after all that he had done. As the blame was placed on General Tojo, who accepted his death as willing as anyone else in history, and his cabinet, Hirohito escaped with no blame placed on him. The emperor then began to rebuild and recreate Japan as a peaceful nation with economic power to rival the western countries. This book is an excellent account of Hirohito's life and what influenced him to do what he did. I recommend this book to history or Japan fans so they can learn the emperor's story.
stating the obvious: that Hirohito was in the loop.......2005-10-01
Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine houses the souls of 2.4 million Japanese soldiers, most of whom fell in the Pacific War in the service of the late Emperor Hirohito, the subject of this rather acrid biography by Herbert P. Bix, who was a history professor at Tokyo's Hitotsubashi University when he published this tome.
The book has a simple thesis. The late emperor Hirohito was centrally involved in planning and prosecuting the Pacific war and should be held accountable even now for it. As part of this process, Bix would also like Yasukuni Shrine, one of Japan's three most important Shinto shrines, stripped of whatever militaristic and nationalistic symbolism it possesses. Bix is undoubtedly a good historian. But is he right? And is he fair? Probably not.
When 360 Japanese planes sank 90% of America's Pacific fleet moored in Pearl Harbour on Sunday, 7 December 1941, the Japanese bit off more than they could ever chew. The attack, which was modeled on the British attack on the Italian fleet a few months earlier, sank five battleships, two cruisers, three destroyers and two other naval vessels moored at Pearl Harbour. A further one hundred and seventy five planes were destroyed on Hickman Airfield. Only 28 Japanese planes were lost. Unfortunately for the Japanese, the Pacific Fleet's three aircraft carriers had not been in port and were not hunted down afterwards. These three aircraft carriers, joined by two others, eventually spearheaded the American counter attack. Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto's string of early successes ended only six months later at the Battle of Midway.
Even though Japan's navy was in the ascendant for only six months, the picture, even in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbour, was bleak. An early attack on Ceylon was repulsed by the wily cat and mouse tactics of the largely obsolete British Far Eastern fleet under Admiral Sir James Somerville; he engaged in hit and run tactics against a superior Japanese flotilla. As a consequence, Britain only had to defend India in Burma. Japan, in other words, was already getting boxed in. They would have to fight the war on ground chosen by their enemies. The war, even then, was unwinnable.
Unlike the Allies, Japan did not have a viable strategy. Despite Bix's attempts to paint Hirohito out as Nippon's supreme commander, he was no Eisenhower or MacArthur. He was the Emperor of a nation run by a bunch of feuding fools, who rushed headlong into a war they could never hope to win.
The Japanese of that generation paid a terrible price for their leaders' folly. Over 100,000 Tokyo citizens were incinerated from March 9-10 1945, when the United States Air Force carpeted the city with incendiary bombs. Even as Truman announced Japan's unconditional surrender, Tokyo was flattened by a further 1,000 planes, just, one supposed, to let the world know who was boss - unsurprisingly enough, given the scale of Japan's devastation, all 1,000 planes returned safely to base to celebrate VJ Day. By then, a third of Hirohito's surviving subjects were homeless, 65% of all Tokyo residences were destroyed - 89% of Nagoya was in ruins. Over 500,000 Japanese troops had been dragooned into Siberian slave camps. Some 2 million others had also died - Yasukuni houses a goodly number of those sad souls, whose lives were cut short by the madness that then gripped Japan's leaders. But at least the madness of that war ended.
Hirohito's surrender was a cruel awakening for himself as well as for all his subjects and only a fool would say that the trauma is over for the relatives of all the fallen. The protests by Japan's wartime victims, which rocked Britain on Emperor Akihito's recent visit, is evidence enough of that. Korea, China and the Philippines provide plenty more.
Bix is not a fool. He is a Harvard-trained historian, who includes almost 100 pages of largely superfluous footnotes in this massive tome. Yet the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal report was much bigger. And, unlike Bix, most historians and lawyers agree that it was a travesty of justice. Bix produces plenty of well-worn evidence against Hirohito, as well as some new findings as befitting his scholarly calling. But does it matter? Probably not, unless you are a professional historian. And if you are, you should probably give Stalin's judge a more prominent role than Bix does. You should also extend to the independent stance adopted by Radhabinod Pal, India's representative, more respect than Bix does. You should also give the British - and the Poles - more credit than Bix does for Hitler's defeat. They, not FDR, were Hitler's most implacable enemies; they were the only two nations which engaged in the fight without stint from start to finish. One only has to recall Churchill's most famous speeches to agree that no one was more implacably opposed to Hitler than he was.
Perhaps that is a mere quibble to be expected from reading a book as vast as this one. However, there are several more. Although, for example, Bix presents a strong case against Hirohito, the author's most striking snippet of evidence favours the defense, not the prosecution. His first picture of the former emperor shows Hirohito as a brave and bonny babe waving the Rising Sun flag on his first birthday. That flag was to haunt the little boy ever since. It was to be almost his only companion.
He had few others. When he was only three months' old, he was taken away from his seventeen-year-old mother. He had no childhood games or friends. He was not allowed access even to his own brothers. His only companion was General Nogi Maresuke, the hero of Japan's formative 1905 Russian war, who committed hara kiri when the little boy was only seven. Aside from his wife, the Empress Nagako, his only social outlet was reviewing his assault troops from his pedigree white charger. Because the little boy grew up to have a strange, long, lonely and somehow unfulfilled life, perhaps he should be allowed, like those in Yasukuni, to sleep in peace. He'll be doing somersaults if Bix has his way.
Although Bix has done a good stitch-up, it is akin to another book on Diana or the Queen Mother. There is nothing major here that John Dower or other historians have not already told us. Although the book does shed valuable light on the past, throwing stones, however deservedly, at a revered emperor does not lead to parity of esteem. The challenge is to rise above the partisan venalities of history and to put an end not only to all wars but to their causes as well.
The Japanese, Hirohito's direct descendants included, have a key role to play in that process. Japan's challenge is to make amends for the grave mistakes of the past. Japan's politicians must chart the future. And to do that, they must learn the lessons and dynamics of history so that Japan and her neighbours never have the nightmare of war revisit them. This big book will be a very small but very important help in that regard.
Following Bix' award, this book was widely available in Japan. Whi says the Japanese do not have a sense of humor?
Book Description
When the Emperor Hirohito died in 1989, Japanese newspapers had to use a special, exalted word to refer to his death, and had to depict his life uncritically, as one beginning in turbulence but ending in magnificent accomplishment. To do otherwise would have exposed them to terrorism from the vigilant right wing. Yet this insightful book by a Japanese-American scholar who grew up in both cultures reveals the hidden fault lines in the realm of the dying emperor by telling the stories of three unlikely dissenters: a supermarket owner who burned the national flag; an aging widow who challenged the state's "deification" of fallen soldiers; and the mayor of Nagasaki, who risked his career and his life by suggesting that Hirohito bore some responsibility for World War II.
Customer Reviews:
Who is this about?.......2006-06-10
I bought and read this book for a class and found it very difficult to take much away from. The accounts are potentially very enlightening, but the author's writing style obfuscates their values. Her interjection of her own personal stories into the work was sloppy and often left me unsure of who I was reading about. While I don't know of any other book which tells these stories, there are many other books that contain similar accounts which are far more effective.
Okinawa cave.......2004-10-19
I was in Okinawa as a govt airforce civilan in the 1960's.
I went on an Island tour with a local tour bus.
Our first visit was this cave named something like The 20 maidens, where we were told that 20 (not sure of the exact number), committed suicide for fear of molestation by the American military during the battle for Okinawa.
Wew also walked the cliff edges from which many Japanese women and children jumped to their deaths, with each site memorialized.
My main point is the name of that cave in the 1960's when I was there.
Modern classic.......2004-04-21
This book continues to resonate. It was published in the early 1990s and sort of predicted the malaise that Japan went through for the past decade. Even with Japan's economy picking up now, these issues--the lack of dealing with the legacy of World War II--are still problems for Japan as it tries to find a place in the modern world. The writing is sparse and beautiful. Highly recommended.
Still worth reading if you want to understand the 'Japanese'.......2003-12-12
The book contains three episodes, a man who has lived in Okinawa and fired the (de facto at that time) national flag, a woman who has rejected the burial by the state of her hasband having been a member of the Self-Defense Force and the ex-mayor of Nagasaki City who has referred to the war responsibility of the Emperor, as well as a report on the very curious atomosphere prevailing in Japan on the death of the Showa Emperor. A reader could understand the true but hidden mentality of the Japanese from the contents explicitly and implicitly. The authour of course could have written the original in Japanese, but the fact that the work had to be translated itself has had a significance. I strongly recommend to read the work if you want to understand the Japanese who are now at the crossroad.
An Ok Read If You Set Aside The Writers Whine.......2002-03-13
The tiny vinettes that make up the book are truly worth the read, but to get past the authors continued psychological issues is extreamly difficult.
When she finds out who she is - let me know, she will have something worth reading.
Book Description
In the years and months leading up to Pearl Harbor, Japan was becoming the most industrialized state in Asia, as well as the repository of a martial heritage that fueled imperial ambitions of conquest and hegemony. Across the Pacific, the United States was emerging from the depression and again growing into its role as a global power. TodayÂ's partnership between modern Japan and the United States was forged by the confrontation, and finally the reconciliation, of these two competing agendas and cultures in World War II, a drama that was defined by two men: General Douglas MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito. Under celebrated historian Robert Harvey's scrutiny, these two iconographic figures are brought into full relief, producing a nuanced narrative as well as a revealing portrait of these extraordinary figures. American Shogun delivers a remarkable account of the vast divide that led to war, and to the unforeseen commonality that helped develop a lasting peace.
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Pearl Harbor and the American Spirit: The World War II Generation Remembers the Tragic Event That Transformed a Nation
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corporation
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ASIN: 1413434037 |
Book Description
SYNOPSIS Pearl Harbor and the American Spirit is filled with unforgettable interviews that describe the shock, anger, confusion, dislocation, and unwavering American resilience that followed Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The book is perhaps the first to document the broad human experience of December 7, 1941. In this groundbreaking publication, more than 175 people from all across America recall how their lives were suddenly changed forever by Japan's "dastardly attack" in Hawaii.
These fascinating stories take the reader back in time to vintage diners, filling stations, railroad depots, drug stores, family farms, stadiums, churches, barracks, and other places where the alarming news of the ambush was announced to a stunned nation.
Many narrators discuss significant personal, national, and world events from the time of the Depression through WWII, thus making this book a fine introduction to the momentous Roosevelt era. The stories show how the children of the Depression overcame hardship-and acquired the strong character that enabled them to emerge as liberators of the world.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING Your book had great meaning for me. It is a remarkable collection of personal narratives that bring history to life! — Art Linkletter
Books:
- Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd: The inventories of the Wardrobe of Robes prepared in July 1600, edited from Stowe MS 557 in the British Library, MS LR 2/121 in the Public Record Office, London, and MS V.b.72 in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC
- Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd: The inventories of the Wardrobe of Robes prepared in July 1600, edited from Stowe MS 557 in the British Library, MS LR 2/121 in the Public Record Office, London, and MS V.b.72 in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC
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