Japan Books

NOTE: This review, along with the other reviews of the books devoted to katas in this series, are identical in nature as the subject matter for each book only differs in the actual kata or katas being demonstrated. The layout and format are identical and that is what these reviews are based upon.

This book, along with the rest of the books in the series, is an outstanding source of information on the correct execution of the Shotokan Karate katas in which this particular volume demonstrates. Now if you don't know anything about karate and purchase this book, it will do you about as much good as a screen door in a submarine. However, if you are already a practicing Shotokan Karate student, then this book is a must have for your continued advancement in the martial arts.

Every book in this series that deal with the various katas, utilizes the same format throughout each book in order to show you the correct execution of each kata demonstrated. Admittedly there aren't a whole lot of words describing the various moves in the katas, but there are an abundance of photographs taken from various angles that pretty much show you exactly how your body should be positioned not only for each individual move, but also how your body should be positioned as you move from one position to another.

At the end of each book is a special section devoted to particular points of interest in each kata that you should pay particular attention to. A nice addition to this already wonderful book.

If you are a student of Shotokan Karate, or a student of another style that utilizes the same katas, I would highly recommend that you purchase these books in order to advance your knowledge of whatever particular kata or katas that you are currently working on. You won't be disappointed!

Shawn Kovacich
Martial artist/Author of the Achieving Kicking Excellence series.

This whole series by Master Nakayama is superior to everything else out there in my humble opinion. All levels can benefit tremendously from every book. The kata described in these books are presented with outstanding camera work and superior foot work diagrams. The tempo of each kata is also demonstrated (usually at the front of the book) so that proper timing and speed can be taught. After each kata is a small (couple of pages) demonstration of a couple moves in the kata describing a particular use and common mistakes.

Brilliant!!!

It has been over twenty years since I was first introduced to this series of books and they remain timeless classics for anyone interested in Karate. After so many years, so many moves, so many changes, I had lost track of my Best Karate books. This year my son started training and I was thrilled to discover that Amazon.com has this book available.

This book, and the entire "Best Karate" series, have the typical JKA (former JKA that is), high production values and painstaking attention to detail. With the exception of the first few kata books of this series, novice rank students may find it difficult to understand many of the nuances of the techniques presented, but in fact, the entire series is a virtual warehouse of infomation for the more advanced student, and is perfect as a reference source. The late Mr. Nakayama has always produced publications of high quality, and this series is no exception, even for students not aligned with the JKA or even Shotokan, for that matter.

An engaging adventure enfolds when Bushi escapes a gang of school yard bullies by fleeing into a karate studio. He falls, losing consciousness and dreams (another interpretation from the book jacket is that he travels back in time) he meets the master who founded the school and has an adventure, in which he learns to escape a larger adversary by jumping aside during an attack. When he reawakens, he uses this technique to land the bully in a fountain and escapes again to attend karate class. Includes small glossary of Japanese words used in the story and vivid illustrations.

Once again Mat Faulkner have brought another great book into american liture this book is the best i love his illistrations and te story line is great i hope his next book maybe a sexquil? Will be just as good.

An engaging adventure enfolds when Bushi escapes a gang of school yard bullies by fleeing into a karate studio. He falls, losing consciousness and dreams he meets the master who founded the school and has an adventure, in which he learns to escape a larger adversary by jumping aside during an attack. When he reawakens, he uses this technique to land the bully in a fountain and escapes again to attend Karate class. Includes small glossary of Japanese words used in the story.

Once again Matt Faulkner demonstrates his outstanding abilities in the literary as well as artistic realm. "Black Belt" rises to the top among his other works such as: "Amazing Voyage of Jackie Grace," and"Jack and the Beanstalk." His illustration is so beautiful you almost need no words to read the story of Bushi and his nemesis Yag yu. What child has not lived through Bushi's experience and dreamed that he would be the victor. The story has everything that makes a book exciting for a child: Magical illustrations, a real life problem, a possible solution, and a surprise ending that leaves you wishing for more. What more could you ask for?

BRILLIANT! SHUJI NAKAMURA AND THE REVOLUTION IN LIGHTING TECHNOLOGY tells of the evolution of LED technology and how it was stalled over making an LED that would emit the bright blue light needed to make useful white light LEDs - until researcher Shuji Nakamura's key invention which single-handedly created the industry of solid-state lighting. Author Bob Johnstone is the first Western journalist to meet and interview Nakamura, and here provides a powerful blend of science and biography to show how the inventor made his ground-breaking discovery and how LEDs are revolutionizing the world. Any science library strong in invention history needs BRILLIANT!

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Shuji Nakamura worked virtually alone at a small Japanese company in 1992 when he developed the bright blue light-emitting diode, or LED, that may supplant the electric light bulb in home and commercial applications. He was employed by Nichia Chemical Industries in Anan on Japan's southern island of Shikoku. Nichia invested over $1 million in Nakamura's research on indium-gallium-nitride, a compound-semiconductor alloy most other researchers had dismissed as useless for LED manufacturing because of its many defects.

Nakamura modified standard chemical vapor-deposition equipment to achieve the uniform, nanometers-thin layers needed to emit copious blue light. As Johnstone writes: "100 times brighter than commercial silicon-carbide blue LEDs, bright enough to be seen in broad daylight." (Thus, Brilliant!)

Nakamura became a celebrity in Japan. Cree Research, Durham, N.C., the market leader in silicon-carbide blue LEDs, tried to make an alliance with Nichia. When it was rebuffed by Nichia, it tried to hire Nakamura. Nakamura remained loyal to Nichia, and turned out ever brighter and more versatile diodes. By increasing the indium content, for example, he achieved bright green LEDs, and in 1996 he announced the first blue-violet laser diode.

The blue emitting diode is essential to generate bright white light. Red and green light combined in the proper proportions with blue light yields white light. The red and green can come either from other LEDs or from the blue LED itself, using phosphors to convert part of its output to lower-frequency light. LEDs have surpassed incandescent and halogen bulbs in lumens per watt, and reached the levels that only the best fluorescent tubes can attain. Their lifetimes run from 50,000 to 100,000 hours. In widespread use, they could achieve enormous cost savings. A shift to solid-state lighting would also enormously reduce production of greenhouse gases.

Johnstone describes some of the key players in a solid-state lighting industry that grosses $4 billion a year, and promises to grow quickly. Nichia, Cree, Color Kinetics of Boston, Permlight Products of Tustin, Calif., and Carmanah Technologies Corp., in Victoria, B.C., Canada, may be significant players. Johnstone doesn't discuss Royal Philips Electronics, in Amsterdam, which has great researchers, and enormous marketing and manufacturing capabilities.

Johnstone closes the book with Nakamura in 1999 when Nakamura accepts a tenured position as the Cree Professor of Solid State Lighting and Display at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Before he can start his reseraches, Nichia sued him for leaking trade secrets to Cree. Nakamura counter-sued for profits; the case was heard at Japan's highest court amid wide-spread publicity; and it was settled in the early 2005.

Nakamura won the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize and Johnstone suggests that Nakamura may ultimately win a Nobel Prize for his work. Johnstone is a true believer; he thinks that solid state lighting is the most important advance in lighting since Edison. "Nakamura changed the world," claims Johnstone. Writing in "Scientific American", Glenn Zorpette agrees: "Nakamura put together a string of achievements that for genius and sheer improbability is as impressive as any other accomplishment in the history of semiconductor research."

As a general reader, I found this a fascinating, albeit sometimes difficult and confusing, account of that advance.

I heartily recommend this book for people who are interested in innovation, business, science, technology, etc. The book tells the fascinating story of Nakamura and the impact LEDs are having on the lighting industry.

Part One of the book tells the story of how Nakamura invented the first commercially successful GaN LED. Part Three explains how Nakamura became unwanted at Nichia and how he decided to move to UCSB. Parts Two and Four talk about some of the companies that are using LEDs to make exciting new products. I'll be a nit picker and say the book should be titled "Shuji Nakamura and the *Coming* revolution in Lighting Technology" because the revolution is just starting.

Although LEDs have been around for about four decades and everyone already owns products that incororate them, very few people understand the potential of LEDs and the impact that they will have on lighting over the next few years. The conversion to white LEDs for general lighting is underway. People will want to understand more about this phenomenon as they recognize the impact that LEDs are having on the lighting industry and energy consumption. The good news is that this book will serve as a tutorial for people who want to learn about LEDs.

Brilliant!!! Refreshing!!! Bob Johnstone is correct in espousing Shuji Nakamura as the leader of the LED revolution. Shuji's list of patents and accomplishments in his field far outshine all of his peers put together. Definitely a Nobel Prize in the works for Mr. Nakamura and hopefully a Pulitzer for Mr. Johnstone for his ability to explain this complex subject to the average reader in a true tale of high intrigue! The LED scientific community is still rather small. The competition for the holy grail (replacing the everyday lightbulb) is phenomenal. Bob and Shuji have this unusual, provocative combination that tells the story of this new high tech race. Bob spends quite a few chapters explaining the unusual and life changing ramifications of LED development worlwide. A must read for any investor or those with eco-green concerns!!!

It's a very good book, good analysis of Nikkei life in Japan.

I read this book and I found that it was more than a simple academic book with statistics, and numbers...It's a realy good view of what is a migrant life in Japan .

Here is a short, simple book examining the role and place of the ever-growing Japanese-Brazilian population in Japan. Overall, it is a well written piece of work that I found helpful in my reseach. Although it is not the most comprehensive book on Japan's new ethnic minoritiy population,the Brazilians, Roth's work is worthwhile nonetheless.

The topic of Japanese Brazilian migrants in Japan is one that very few people outside of Japan or Brazil know about. I'm glad to see that there was a book written about this issue, especially since it involves the complexity of race vs. ethnicity and issues dealing with feelings of isolation, sense of belonging and cultural acceptance, something which we all strive for. Mr. Hotaka Roth did an excellent job of researching the experiences of these migrant workers and presented them in a very honest way. You could tell that he dove into this project fullheartedly by the fact that he made an effort to not only learn Japanese and about Japanese culture, but that he also learned Portuguese and the different nuances of Brazilian culture. Unlike a lot of research books, this book was not dry and did not drag on forever. It was quick paced and easy to read and understand. It keeps the reader interested and each chapter presents itself with new themes.

In Japan, a country that is thought to be "ethnically pure", the new phenomenon of return migration poses an interesting problem. Nikkei (those who are of Japanese ancestry outside of Japan) Brazilian nationals began migrating to Japan for economic reasons in the 1990s (the government made it particularly easy for them to enter the country, assuming they would adapt to Japanese culture better than those with no ties to the country), and many decided to stay, creating minority enclaves with a culture distinctly their own and NOT Japanese. Joshua Hotaka Roth provides an analysis of Nikkei life in Japan.

Although I read this book as part of a research project, I found that it was much, much more than a dry academic book with lots of statistics (although there certainly were plenty of statistics for anyone looking for solid numerical data). Roth didn't just write about this subject; he experienced it: he worked in a factory side by side with Nikkei Brazilians, lived and associated with Nikkei, and truly participated in his subjects' way of life in Japan. The result is an intimate view of the "return" migrant's experience, including sections on the actual factory work, injury and health insurance issues, and some ways in which Brazilian Nikkei in Japan maintain Brazilian identities while adapting to Japan.

This book is great for anyone who wants to know more about Japan in this time of internationalization, anyone who is interested in international migration, issues of national identity, or anyone who just wants an interesting non-fiction read.

This is the best collection of essays on the "uses" of history and construction of national "memories" that I have read. This should be required reading in every high school social studies/history teacher certification program, and should be read by all who want to enter the debate on standardized testing and prescriptive curriculum content. I have used selections of it in my college level Japanese history course, my college level world history courses, and recommend it to my colleagues and also to the many high school teachers with whom I work. It shares valuable lessons on the manipulation of history for nationalistic and/or militaristic purposes. It should also be read by educational, defense, and foreign policy-makers as well as journalists who often seem too quick to pass on widely held myths as truths. Alas, I am afraid that many in these positions are more comfortable with the myths.

Censoring History: Citizenship And Memory In Japan, Germany, And The United States is a fascinating, challenging, well written and highly informative anthology of essays about how history is almost inevitably distorted and revised by subsequent generations to meet their social, political and cultural needs and myths -- and how such unwarranted revisions must be countered with an coherent understanding of the politics of education, from the writing and publication of textbooks to curriculum development and classroom instruction practices. Censoring History is critically important reading for anyone seeking to understand how and why the needs of nationalism would and do distort the recording and transmission of history, and the peril future generations are put to as those who do not know their history are so often doomed to repeat it in an age where nuclear war could end civilization and even the human race.

In Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany, and the United States Laura Hein and Mark Selden provide a critical investigation of how Japan, Germany, and even the United States recognize, think about, and then articulate their role during times of war. Hein and Seldon place their work within a larger viewpoint and try to concentrate on two main issues: [1] the connection between citizens and the state, and [2] a nation's actions in wartime and its implications vis-à-vis other countries. Censoring History is "really" about what has been left out of the public space in the development or reification a national narrative. The focal point of Censoring History is the many manifestations of such censorship and how it seeps into particular national spaces of memory. Vis-à-vis the Japanese, Germany has made tremendous strides in terms of how it deals with its past. Reading Hein and Seldon one gets the impression that on a "self-reflexivity" scale of 1 to 10 Germany is perhaps an 8 while the Japanese gaze thorough a less critical lens situating themselves in about a 5 position and the United States perhaps at and about the 3 positions. Different angles of war and internal conflict not only create problems within a nation-state, but also increasingly affect the state of affairs between them.

Germany not only looks at issues such as textbooks but they also perceive themselves as part of a developing European Community, as per Hein and Seldon a key distinction from how Japan deals with is history, hence its "place" in the region. Compared with Japan, German textbooks contain large segments analyzing controversial issues and creatively augment those entries with projects and field trips. Perhaps unfairly judged and there is movement in this area but vis-à-vis their Japanese counterparts, German textbooks have more of a propensity to motivate students to investigate and explore historical and juxtapose those sites and sounds against present-day similarities and contrasts. Not only that, a student is made to poke and prod and reflect on people's prejudices and such.

Kathleen Woods Masalski, an American high school teacher, communicates exchanges between American and Japanese teachers. In a lot of ways, most master narratives can be pegged to a sense of nationalism. Nationalist master narratives are created to make people feel good about being part of that national community. However, historians introduce self-criticism by problematizing histories makes history 'messy' (258). Masalski writes in Teaching Democracy, Teaching War: American and Japanese Educators Teach the Pacific War (258): "National narrative, master narrative, textbook narrative, counternarrative, multiple narratives - the language, though not the ideas behind it, was new to me and to most if not all the high school and college teachers in the audience when our keynote speaker at a National Endowment for the Humanities summer institute in 1994 challenged us to "problematize the national, the master, the textbook narrative ... to make history messy!"" (258). Masalski further writes: "The speaker was Jonathan Lipman (a historian at Mount Holyoke College), one of many scholars in the Five College area in western Massachusetts who has collaborated with social studies teachers throughout New England (and across the country) to bring serious historical thought and controversy into precollege classrooms" (258).

Not known to many in the United Stated but to a few interested scholars and teacher is the epic struggle of Ienaga Saburo. In Censoring History such notables as Nozaki Yoshiko and Inokuchio Hiromitsu offer a more sympathetic description of the decade-long effort by historian and educator Ienaga Saburo who challenged the state authority in censoring and sanitizing textbook content in Japan. Understandably in problematizing the hegemony we can expose the limitations contained within the narratives, much to the chagrin of most comfortable unreflective folk. At this point I wish to bring in Edward Linenthal who penned Anatomy of a Controversy in History Wars: The Enola Gay and other Battles for the American Past - who also focuses on issues of pedagogy - when he quotes Michael Kammen, president of the Organization of American Historians and a member of the Smithsonian Council during the Enola Gay controversy, "Historians become controversial when they do not perpetuate myth, when they do not transmit the received and conventional wisdom, when they challenge the comforting presence of a stabilized past. Members of a society, and its politicians in particular, prefer that historians be quietly irenic rather than polemical, conservators rather than innovators" (Linenthal 60). Such is the struggle of Ienaga Saburo. For those interested in pedagogy, Gregory Wegner's article on the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in educating youth is very informative.

Turning to a topic of a very different sort, Hein and Seldon present the argument that unlike the two "defeated" countries, the US has somehow managed to escape outside scrutiny and accountability over is "narratives" of its discredited war - Vietnam. The one thing that Censoring History does is drag the U.S. into this circle of examination. Hein and Seldon's research shows how the resulting clashes, wars, etc. have been sanitized, at times even deliberately ignored, when textbooks circulate this part of American history to its young. Taken together, these essays reveal that Japan is far from the only country caught in an ongoing conflict over its past. Masalski's essay reveals some instances of differences among American teachers over an American historians interpretation of World War II. Potential teachers like myself wish to view the work do Laura Hein and Mark Selden (and including, but not limited to, the works of Edward Linenthal and Tom Engelhardt) as unfinished projects. Pedagogical development is something that should be constantly and vigorously attended to, lest we forget.

Miguel Llora

The premise of this book is that "schools and textbooks are important vehicles through which contemporary societies transmit ideas of citizenship and both the idealized past and the promised future". The 10 chapters look at how World War II and the Vietnam War are represented in school history textbooks in the 3 countries. Almost 50 years after the end of the war, controversy over Japanese text books continues to rage, and this book is useful to put that into some sort of perspective. Of the 10 chapters, 6 deal with Japan, including a chapter with all the details of Saburo Ienaga's famous textbook lawsuits against the Japanese government, and a couple of chapters on joint history projects between Japan and Korea, and Japan and the U.S. The common conception is that Japan has not yet faced up to its wartime past, and while I agree, after reading this book my view has been somewhat softened. Compared with the U.S.A., Japan has done more to teach its young about the negative side of its wars. If you enjoyed reading Ian Buruma's Wages of Guilt, then you will enjoy this book.

Reviewed by Sandra MacLean for Reader Views (3/06)

The minute you even think of doing business in China, Japan or Korea, do yourself a favour and run out to pick up this book. Author Mia Doucet avoids dry, jargon filled pages as she delivers practical tips you can use to approach these markets, giving your company a greater chance for success. She conveys the excitement of discovering a new culture while remaining tightly focused on what this understanding means for doing business.

Doucet makes getting to know your market a breeze with her easy to understand and easy to use advice. This book is full of intriguing gems of priceless information. Just this one example should rouse your curiosity: Why should you always wear clean socks without holes? (See page 114 for the answer.)

She does a great job of making the culture come to life so business planners can improve their chance of success just by being better informed than their competitors. How better to show your respect than to go the extra mile to gain an understanding of the new environment in which you intend to do business. Moreover, you will get to know some pitfalls you should avoid that could get in the way as you attempt to establish profitable relationships.

Doucet gives you clear advice on where you need to pay attention. Consider this common decision - Do you need an interpreter or a translator? Should you hire at home or do you think you can get by with hiring someone once you arrive? Well, that depends on if you "know whether to kiss, bow or go on a bender." You'll have to read the book to find out the answer! In the end, you'll understand not just what you need to do but why.

For such a meaty book, it is a surprisingly easy read. I'd be tempted to say, "Read this on your flight to the far east," but you will be very glad that you found this information long before you board the plane. Just be sure to take it with you in case you forget some of the details.

This is a book that could help a much broader audience. It's not only useful for those going overseas to do business but it would also give a tremendous advantage to any North American planning to travel in the Pacific Rim countries whether for business, pleasure or as part of volunteer organizations.

Staff members of companies on this continent who host guests from the Pacific Rim would also benefit from this information. Our western customs are so familiar to us that we may not always realize how foreign they are to visitors from other cultures. Imagine how much this greater sensitivity could enhance the experience you plan for future visits with business colleagues from around the world.

Doucet offers the reader a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of international business. It's a good read even if you have no plans at the moment to move into these markets. When the time does come, you will be very glad you have this resource in your toolbox.

With "China in Motion: 17 Secrets...", Ms Doucet has created a wonderfully useful book for every entrepreneur who is eyeing the Asian markets. With 1.3 billion residents in China alone, EVERY entrepreneur should be setting their sites on the Asian markets. (It is no surprise that this Far Eastern country has earned the moniker, "the new land of opportunity".)

Each and every one of Ms. Doucet's secrets is important. I especially appreciated #4: "Think in terms of a web of relationship". I have found this to be especially important in my dealing with Japanese associates - a very different approach from the typical Western "it's-all-about-me" perspective.

Every business person who wants to do business in China, Japan and/or South Korea owes it to themselves to buy this book. The next time I travel to one of these countries, this book will be my closest traveling companion.

I was just in China on business and upon returning my sister recommended this book. I was astonished as I was reading it because it described exactly what I had experienced. This is an excellent guide for anyone who would like to do business in China and there is nothing like actually being there and experiencing it. I do highly recommend that you read this book as well as learn Mandarin if you intend to do business in China. My hat is off to Mia! Thank you for providing this wonderful guide.

This book has many good quotes and bits of information that will help you understand what it takes and the thinking required to do business in Asia....there are many good hints from the differences in culture to personal habits that may offend the customer....an example "not writing on the back of the business card...and the thinking behind it..." Very well written book.

I'm a college student about to study abroad in the Kansai area and I was looking for a book that would help me to better understand the local dialect. This book is very well laid out and clearly explains the differences between standard Japanese and Kansai dialect and how to use them. There are plenty of examples that help the reader along the way.

Maybe I expected too much from a book that was only ~$10 but it wasn't very clear on several very important topics in the book and too often resorted straight to simple conversations. Although this was a downfall, overall the book was a very enjoyable read, and was fairly informative. I hate the fact that it uses romanization, but since it always had the hiragana/kanji right below it, I will not complain too much :) overall a good book for intermediate Japanese students that want a very basic guide to speaking (and understanding) one of the more colorful dialects of Japan.

This book does a great job of looking at the Kansai area forms of Japanese. As a dialectology fan, I found this book entertaining. Explanations and examples are extremely detailed, and a large amount of different subject material is highlighted.

In addition to people who intend to interact with Kansai area speakers, I suggest this book to those who are interested in the dialects of Japan in general. Language is an ever-changing organism, and much of the original flavor of local dialects is forever being lost in many areas. This book goes beyond being practical in that sense, because even if Kansai-ben has been greatly eroded by Tokyo Japanese in the future, this book will be a surviving record of what used to be.

A good find.

"Colloquial Kansai Japanese" is an updated and expanded edition of Palter and Slotsve's classic "Kinki Japanese*". This book was the key that unlocked the mysteries taking place in everyday conversations during a homestay in Kyoto. It enabled me to answer a very polite cabdriver in Osaka about what I had done while in Osaka. Just the other day, I became friends with a Kyoto native who was really happy to hear my "Kyoto accent", although I spoke not a word of Kansai-ben!

I highly recommend this book to:

* anyone who will spend more than two weeks in the Kansai area, especially homestay students and company workers that will need to converse with homestay family members, colleagues, local merchants, and others.
* anime otaku who watch subs rather than dubs.
* Japanese students interested in dialects.

Since I can't seem to locate my battered copy of "Kinki Japanese" after moving, I'm going to pick up a copy of "Colloquial Kansai Japanese". It's that good.

*Don't laugh, "Kinki" has nothing to do with love hotels or hostess bars. "Kinki" refers to the time when the Kansai area was the political center of Japan, and "kinki" means "the neighborhood of the capital". For many years, Kyoto was the capital of Japan. I suggest you read The Tale of Genji or Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book to capture the flavor of that era's history.

Why the title change? At one time, Tuttle published two books on this subject, the other being Peter Tse's "Kansai Japanese". Tse's book is no longer in print.

This book was fun to read and the author is a great story teller.

Robert Dick has given us a gem. His narrative is interesting, thought provoking, sometimes disturbing and very often humorous.
Kind of a gallows humor. Probably appropriate for the times. He explains the technical aspects of the M-3 Stuart and M-4 Sherman in an easy to understand way. I suspect that some readers will not appreciate the frequent humor but we all cope with our ghosts in different ways. Great read.

got book FAST , READ it FAST ... great story of a " NON " Eddie Murphy type , a Regular G.I.doing the job assigned to him .. not EVERY soldier did Heroic stuff on the battlefield everyday ......But he still suffered thru the cruelty of War .......

Robert Dick has given us a great war memoir from the perspective of a tanker, which is all too rare, especially where the Pacific theater is concerned. This is a good, old-fashioned war story, emphasis on the war, but with just enough of the hijinks that veterans are so good at recalling. Dick offers a rare take on what it was really like to drive a tank in battle, the bond established between the tanker and the infantry he supported, and the odds and ends of a tank battalion's activities, such as firing as artillery. He honestly shares his painful experience nearing the "breaking point" after watching ever more of his buddies die in grueling combat. Buy this book!

This is one of the best WWII books that I have read. It protrays the struggles of the individual soldiers and marines in the battle for Saipan

The importance of the capture of Saipan is two-fold. First, to most Japanese military strategists, Saipan represented the outermost reaches of the defenses of the Japanese Empire itself. Thus, its loss meant that it would only be a question of time before Japan itself was invaded and all was lost. Second, to the Allies, Saipan represented air bases from which the new B-29 planes could reach and bomb Japanese cities, including, and especially, Tokyo.

"D-Day in the Pacific" is an extremely well-written account of the actions and politics leading up to the decision to invade Saipan (and Tinian, adjacent to it), including the clash of wills between Admiral King and Gen. MacArthur, the strategies and tactics of the invasions (e.g., the separate landings by the 2nd and 4th Marine divisions), the major personalities involved on both sides, and the battles on the islands, including the well-known suicidal tactics of the Japanese, as seen not only from the perspective of the commanders but the front line troops as well. Numerous photos are also included.

As I researched the death of my Marine uncle on D-day , June 15, on Saipan Island, it became clear that Professor Goldberg's well-written and documented book would be a valuable source of information to go with all the other books I had read, including the excellent 1946 edition of the 4th Marine Division Association's historical account of the battle. In fact, in Dr. Goldberg's book, I learned of accounts from others in my uncle's company that help confirm what my family had long believed about the circumstances of his death, and a contradiction of statements of mortuary graves registration personnel at the time that were recorded in my uncle's official military personnel record I obtained.

At a recent family reunion, I obtained a copy of the unit commander's letter to my grandfather which corroborated Dr. Goldberg's account and the testimony of a member of my uncle's company contained in the book as to how he almost certainly died (despite efforts to contact this veteran from information supplied graciously by the author, I haven't gotten a response and I fear he may be one of the 1,000 WWII veterans who die each day).

Nonetheless, the book's account and the letter of my uncle's commander, written in September of 1944, match the time he went ashore and circumstances of the hostilities at the time. I was able to almost pinpoint the time of his death from the book, but most illuminating, I learned of his unit's activities during the day. His unit was part of a "feint" or diversionary tactic and was not part of the initial landing that faced murderous fire, because his unit was compensated for being part of the first wave in the assault at Namur, a previous battle. (It was traditional for combat troops seeing first combat or bearing the brunt to be made part of a reserve or backup force in the next battle)

During the reunion, I was able to give a factual account of this hero to 50 family members & descendants as we stood at his gravesite to commemorate his sacrifice at age 22.

My one lament regarding the book: I gave it away this week to my first cousin named for my uncle. Now, I have to buy another - which will make the author happy, too.

This book is a great overview on one of the lesser known battles of ww2. there is a lot of background information on the saipan and the events leading up to the invasion. recommended reading for anyone who would like to know more about saipan

We purchased this book after eating at Sansei in Maui and Oahu our first time to Hawaii and love the book. If you have never eaten at Sansei you are really missing out. Chef DK has created an amazing menu. Everything is delicious. If you are heading to Maui or Oahu, make sure you put Sansei down as a "to-do" while you are there. On Sunday and Monday night they open at 5PM and everything on the menu is 50% off for one hour. You have to get their by 4PM or so in order to get in, but it is well worth the wait.

Chef Kodama and Bonnie Friedman share all of Chef Kodama's secrets and do a great job illustrating how to create traditional and contemporary Japanese cuisine. They explain how and why each ingredient is used and translate ingredients throughout the book so you don't have to keep looking up terms when trying a new recipe. The book is simple enough for beginners to follow, yet offers some contemporary (and slightly more complex) dishes for the advanced chef.

If you love sushi and want to start making it at home, by this book.

I've been to his restaurant in Maui and the food was fabulous. So good in fact that I bought this book. While I could use more examples of fish to swap for things only a Hawaiian can get I find the recipes so easy a beginner can use them to make some fantastic food. I highly recommend this book.

For beginners, there's a nice introduction to different basic japanese foods and rolling techniques with pictures. There are recipes for sushi, and small and large entrees. I've been to one of the two Sansei restaurants on Maui and the recipes from this book definately cover some of the best things on their menu. The only minor change I could see to make it better is more information about using pre-made grocery store sauces instead of making everything from scratch.

Loved the ease of instruction in making sushi. Not hard to follow, well done. Also like the homespun family history. It is a great guide to not only sushi but everthing else in his style. A lot of fun.