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Title: War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War by John W. Dower ISBN: 0-394-75172-8 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 12 February, 1987 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.81 (26 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Fascinating and informative, but overstated
Comment: Overall, this book presents a side of the Second World War with which most Americans are unfamiliar and may find shocking. It does a valuable service in exposing many of the prejudices of the time and especially in showing how those prejudices were at least partly responsible for the string of debacles endured by U.S. and other allied forces in the war's opening stages. It also does a very good job of giving the reader a glimpse of the kind of thinking that was prevalent in Japanese society prior to and during the war. In this sense it is an extremely important work and is highly recommended to anyone with a serious interest in the Pacific Theater. However, having said that, I will also say that the author overplays his hand and puts far too much emphasis on the role of racism, portraying it as the primary cause of the war and of the evils that transpired during its execution. As a result, it has a tendency to explain away a good many complex issues that deserve a fuller treatment. It also falls prey to one of the great pitfalls of almost all modern analyses of relations between Japan and America, namely the idea that in order to be balanced one must give equal weight to both sides in any argument. As a result, one might come away from reading this book with the idea that Japan and the United States were essentially of equivalent culpability and that their respective leaders were of a moral kind. This is an absolutely absurd notion, and one that seems to have taken root in more and more of the academic work that is being published recently. Nowhere is Dower's judgment with regard to the impacts of racism more questionable than in his conclusion, where he tries to explain away contemporary (1980's) trade frictions as the result of race hatreds. This pathetic and obvious red herring does little more than to serve as an apologia for a Japanese elite that has been doing anything its it power to prevent its very real and well documented (see Karel Van Wolferen's "The Enigma of Japanese Power," Clyde Prestowitz's "Trading Places," and Pat Choate's "Agents of Influence" for more) outrages with regard to its bilateral trade relationship with the United States from coming to light. Nonetheless, as I wrote earlier, I do recommend it for anyone with an interest in the Pacific Theater of the Second World War, but with the caveats that it should under no circumstances be treated as a comprehensive work and that its aforementioned shortcomings be kept in mind as one reads it. When Dower sticks to the subject of his book, without engaging in too much reckless speculation, he suceeds admirably in creating a readable and sometimes shocking history, boldly exposing in a way that few other books have even attempted, the dark side of "The Good War."
Rating: 4
Summary: Xenophobia induced attitudes
Comment: This book details the history that led up to the allied war with Japan, both the actions that the allies (US) and the Japanese took that led to the Day of Infamy. This book provides insite to racism on both sides of the Pacific and offers apologies to no one! Both cultures projected their darkest fears and stereotypes on the other and utilized every propaganda tool at their disposal to incite nation wide mobilization.
The illustrations and propaganda pieces are very informative and interesting. It is gripping to read about the dehumanizing actions that took place on both sides (mailing enemy heads home to girlfriends, etc). How the "no surrender, no prisoners" attitudes were intertwined with government policy, cultural identity and the peculiarities of fighting on small islands where retreat may not have been an option.
As an American, I have to admit, my attitudes toward the Imperial Japanese government are not very forgiving. But I think this book should be read in schools on both sides of the Pacific incase we all forget what was done. Neither side comes out as completely just, but I have to admit, the Japanese actions in Manila, Nanking to mention but two make me wonder why they haven't gotten the critical attention that formations of the Nazi SS have had. Surely the war in China was no less a war against Untermensh than Barbarossa!
My only criticism about this book is that it reads a little dryly. It took some dedication to finish, but was well worth it.
Rating: 2
Summary: Rubbish pure and simple
Comment: This book claims that America was involved in a racist war during the last year of the pacific conflict. This premise is wrong, pure and simple and the book does not rpove its won thesis. The book uses examples of American wartime propaganda to show how 'racist' the Americans were. But what about the Japanese? The Japanese committed genocide in Nanking China, they forced millions of Koreans into slavery, including massive sexual slavery. The Japanese tortured and cut the heads off and performed Nazi-like experiments on the POWS in their custody. The Japanese committed atrocities against every people they controlled from the Phillipinos to the Vietnamese. But these racist doctrines are ignored in this book because the book is totally one sided in its 'hate America' claim that everything America did in the Pacific was wrong. Apparently the 15 nations that America helped liberate didn't feel the same racism that this book claims existed because from Haiphong harbor in the west to Manila the peoples of Asia celebrated the coming of the Americans and English and other free peoples who pushed the Japanese back to the Island they had launched the war from 20 years earlier. History and facts show this book to be pure anti-American polemics rather then the 'groundbreaking' ideas that it claims to represent. The only ground that is broken is the ground of truth and honesty.
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Title: Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W. Dower ISBN: 0393320278 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: June, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Japan at War: An Oral History by Haruko Taya Cook, Theodore F. Cook ISBN: 1565840399 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: October, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Pacific War, 1931-1945 by Saburo Ienaga ISBN: 0394734963 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 12 July, 1979 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Empire and Aftermath: Yoshida Shigeru and the Japanese Experience, 1878-1954 (Harvard East Asian Monographs, No 84) by John W. Dower ISBN: 0674251261 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: October, 1988 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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Title: Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning ISBN: 0060995068 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 17 March, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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