[net.books] Book on Japanese history

wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (08/02/85)

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

berman@psuvax1.UUCP (Piotr Berman) (08/07/85)

> 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

   Keep in mind that the kamikaze pilot did not want to rebel, he was 
just relieved by the surrender.  If Japan was not a society consisting of
fanatics and militarists, then it was controlled by them.  Several
biographies do not change the fact that militarists got the control
of Japan, imposed the inhuman bu-shido code, and waged a savage war
against China and other Asiatic countries.  
   I remember a Japanese film about demilitarized soldiers who rape
women.  The point of the film was the degradation of humanity caused by
the war.  Because Japanese murdered millions and raped millions of
civilians in China, not in US, we are not sensitive to that.
   Of course, to claim that Japanese were a nation of savages, is stupid.
On the other hand, similarly to Germany, Japan was (and perhaps is)
lacking widespread individualistic human values, which would immunize
them agains following savage, or even suicidal order.  Compare Japanese
and Germans with Italians.  Individualistic Italians were marvelously
inefficient soldiers, which I regard as a virtue in a fascist state.
   To understand the history of Japanese culture, one must notice
coexistence of subtle ikebana, uncanny enterprenourship and unhuman 
bu-shido, preserved from Middle Ages.

Piotr Berman