JAPAN AT WAR, 1931-1945

Japan's Pacific War: Personal Accounts of the Emperor's Warriors is by far the best of war-memory collections I have read from the Japanese side. It also has a significant flaw. Both derive, I think, from the interviews that Peter Williams conducted over the years: because the interviews were all done by the same man, they have a verve and a common logic that's missing from memoirs previously published in the veterans' own language -- but because Mr Williams is an Australian, they treat a very skewed sample of the men who fought on the losing side. You'd never know from this book that American, British, and Chinese soldiers, sailors, and airmen contributed anything significant to the Pacific War. Japanese are famously polite, and they obviously play to Mr Williams' sensibilities, dismissing the Americans they met as cowards compared to the brave Australians, whose only fault appears to be they were so well equipped, fed, and armed compared to the Japanese. I've posted an excerpt on the Annals of the Brewster Buffalo.

What's really scary about this book is how cold-blooded the vets are, when they speak of killing prisoners, expecting their wounded to make a graceful exit with a grenade, and eating one another to survive. One even assures Mr Williams that, if a prisoner did survive, he would be well cared for at notorious hellholes like Rabaul, where Allied soldiers and civilians were routinely murdered, beaten, and starved. Blue skies! — Daniel Ford

Japan's long war:

The Hiroshima files:

The Japanese Army Air Force files:

Why's a Zero?

Kamikaze, cannibals, & other mysteries:

Books & stuff:

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Question? Comment? Newsletter? Send me an email. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford