Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin
From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.books,net.politics
Subject: Book on Japanese history
Message-ID: <380@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 2-Aug-85 10:31:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.380
Posted: Fri Aug  2 10:31:18 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 3-Aug-85 20:48:40 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: USAMC ALMSA, St. Louis, MO
Lines: 20
Xref: linus net.books:1995 net.politics:9573

I'd like to recommend SHOWA, An Inside History of Hirohito's Japan, by
Tessa Morris-Suzuki (1984, Schocken Books, New York, 330 pp, no price
shown in the library copy I read).

This is a review of life in Japan from the late 20's to recent times, as
seen through the lives of three ordinary people -- it follows them
through their schooldays, through their life during WWII, and to their
present careers. I found it a fascinating view, quite unlike the usual
"looking from outside" perspective you normally have in histories. One
thing that it makes clear -- the view of the average Japanese during the
war as a fanatical militarist, determined to conquer or die for the
Emperor, is actually an exception and mostly a fabrication. One of the
males in this book was a draft-dodger; the other was a pilot, slated for
a "kamekazi" (actually a term not used in Japan) mission defending the
home islands, and mightily relieved to live instead, being saved by the
surrender. 

I consider the book to be well worth getting from your local library.

Regards, Will