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Title: The Rising Sun : The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 by John Toland ISBN: 0-8129-6858-1 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Fascinating narrative of Japanese military expansion .
Comment: This book is a fascinating narrative of the Japanese military expansion and ensuing involvement in the second world war. More than a simple military history, this books takes you into the inner circles of Japanese politics of the time to understand how Japan half stumbled, half lunged into a completely self destructive war with the United states. Important emphasis is given to the lack of understanding between Japan and the West due to ignorance of cultural differences by all parties and how this accelerated the rush to war and delayed the final peace. Toland also had the rare advantage of actually interviewing some of the surviving important Japanese role players. The one possible weakness of the book is that it presents an overtly sympathetic view of the Japanese and glosses over Japanese atrocities of the period.
Rating: 5
Summary: A classic on the history of the Pacific War
Comment: As far as I know this is THE classic on Japan in World War II (at least for those of us who don't read japanese), in the same way that William Shirer's 'The rise and fall of the Third Reich' is on Germany. As such, this book should be the starting point for anyone who wants to read about Japan in World War II, and maybe also for the Pacific War in general. This book deserves more reviews (like William Shirer's book, which anyone can see is a classic based on the number of reviews), but I guess most people who read about World War II are interested in the European theatre. A point of notice to those who are mainly interested in military history: The book has a slow start. The first 200+ pages is dedicated to everything that happened before Pearl Harbor, all the diplomacy etc. Once the war starts however, this is pure military history, and you will see that it was worth getting through those first 200 pages.
Rating: 4
Summary: "Slow start" the best part
Comment: I am intrigued to read in several reviews that the book gets off to a "slow start" in dealing with the period before Pearl Harbor. I have a keen interest in military history and sometimes feel this way about books that take too long to get to the action, but I didn't react that way here. Rather, I found the analysis of internal Japanese politics before Pearl Harbor to be the most engrossing part of the book, in part because I knew so little of this important area coming in, but in larger part due to the author's engrossing presentation.
While the island-hopping and other military portions are extremely well done too, nothing distinguishes this work as surely as its insights to the internal functioning of the Japanese Govt. (and the minds of individual Japanese) as first war, and then the end of war, approached. I can see where the criticism of a "pro-Japanese" bias comes from, but I think it is ultimately unjustified. Toland lets his subjects' voices come through, in an informative and compelling way, and so we hear the voices of many of the key Japanese participants (or of those close to them.) Since that's a perspective we aren't normally exposed to in the U.S., I find it extremely useful and (to put it mildly) see no danger of the pro-Japanese perspective overwhelming the American understanding of the war.
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Title: Adolf Hitler : The Definitive Biography by John Toland ISBN: 0385420536 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 01 December, 1991 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Last 100 Days : The Tumultuous and Controversial Story of the Final Days of World War II inEurope by John Toland ISBN: 081296859X Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Battle: The Story of the Bulge by John Toland, Carlo D'Este ISBN: 0803294379 Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.84 |
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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: Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich by William L. Shirer ISBN: 0671728687 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 15 November, 1990 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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