Japanese Books

I was moved to reread this fine book by Richard Frank by the allegation by Presidential candidate Senator Barak Obama's former preacher and confidant Jeremiah Wright's that one of America's supposed "sins" that he was cursing it for was the use of the Atomic Bombs on Japan at the end of the Second World War. I was in High School during the Vietnam War period and I recall my teachers telling us that that use of the Bomb was unnecessary and was carried out merely to scare the Communist Soviets and didn't matter anyway since the Japanese were supposedly viewed as "racially inferior". We were taught that the United State government is inherently dishonest, so any such decision to use the bomb must have had "tainted" motiviations. Such cynicism is potentially destructive, as Frank shows in his book.
Attitudes like these have unfortunately become common in the United States over the years, and as Frank points out, are based on ignorance and self-righteousness. President Truman's aide, Admiral Leahy claimed after the war that the use of the bomb was "unnecessary" (Frank points out that there is no record of his opposition at the time the decision was made). This is, of course, true. The Japanese would have eventually surrendered even without the use of the bomb. The question, though, remains "at what cost"? There are two possible scenarios, (1) American and Allied forces invade the Japanes Home Islands in order to force a decision, or (2) no invasion is mounted, but a tight blockade and heavy air bombing keep up the pressure.
Frank shows that although a two-phase invasion was planned, Operation Olympic in Kyushu, followed by Operation Coronet on Honshu near Tokyo, as time passed, American interception and decryption of Japanese messages showed that powerful forces were being brought up to the planned invasion zones along with thousands of aircraft designed for Kamikaze attacks. The civilian population was also being trained to carry out suicide attacks (the government's slogan was "100 Million Die Together"). As a result, American enthusiasm for the invasion scheme waned and, instead, a plan to destroy Japan's railroad system to prevent the distribution of food was developed, which, along with the naval blockade, would bring starvation to the population, forcing the Japanese government to eventually capitulate. The question remained "how long would it take to reach this situation"? Frank points out that over 100,000 Chinese were dying every month during the war, in addition to large numbers of Allied prisoners and forced Asian laborers in southeast Asia. If the war dragged on longer, hundreds of thousands of these people would have died. Had the blockade "succeeded" in bring famine in addition to plague and civil disorder to Japan, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Japanese would have died.
Frank also points out that something like 350,000 Japanese died in the Soviet campaign to conquer Manchuria, many of them civilians. In addition there were still large Japanese forces in China , the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia) and southeast Asia. Without the shock of a surrender brought about by the use of the Atomic bombs it is conceivable that these forces would have continued to fight on (the Japanese Army in China had a history of subordination). There was also a Soviet plan to invade the Japanese home island of Hokkaido. One can only specularte on how many deaths would this have caused, in addition to the possibility that the USSR would have set up a "Japanese Peoples' Republic" in their zone, just like they did in Korea, for which the world is still paying to this day. It is odd that those who show "compassion" for the Japanese people in saying that the bomb shouldn't have been used, seem to lack the same compassion for the oppressed thousands who were dying every day in the Japanese-occupied territories.
Frank also shows that the popular "deus-ex-machina" scenario that supposedly the Japanese government had really made a decision to surrender and were in contact with the USSR government is false. It is true that there were contacts with the Soviets, but they were on a low diplomatic level, and no decision to surrender had been made before the first use of the bomb. In addition, no contacts were made during the three days that passed before the use of the second bomb. It turns out that some Japanese leaders thought the bomb was merely a one-shot affair which the Americans couldn't repeat. Frank shows clearly that America's leaders had no choice but to make the decision they did and that this decision saved untold number of lives, both Allied and Japanese. Anybody who saw the horrific casualties at places like Iwo Jima and Okinawa in addition to the mass suicides of Japanese civilians at Saipana and Okinawa would reach the same conclusion.
Richard Frank is performing an invaluable service in destroying the "politically correct" myths demagogues like Wright are propagating and showing that a clear, open mind leads one to the truth.

Frank has done an excellent job of dispassionately presenting the facts about the endgame of the Pacific War. I appreciate that Frank laid out the evidence and left it to the reader to judge where it pointed.

What is clear from the evidence is that neither the Japanese nor American leadership had adequate information to judge the other's intentions during 1945. In fact, there is some evidence that the Japaneese High Command was being mislead by underlings regarding the state of American morale. Thus the War Council believed that they were just one decisive battle away from being able to negotiate with the Americans for softer terms than Unconditional Surrender. On the other hand, American intelligence community were not adept enough to draw out from the vast array of intercepted cable traffic a clear picture. Thus they did not provide Truman information that was 'actionable'.

As for the bomb, the preponderance of evidence amassed by Frank points to the conclusion that once the decision to build the atomic bomb was made, the Manhattan project took on its own momentum and thus made the bombs use inevitable.

All-in-all a terrific book. Since I finished it on September 30th, it makes it onto my Summer Reading Favorites of 2007 :-)

Richard Frank conclusively shatters a number of myths about the end of the Pacific side of World War II.

First, Japan was NOT ready to accept unconditional surrender, even with the caveat of the preservation of the Japanese throne, until after both bombs were dropped. Frank uses extensive declassified transcripts of Ultra (military) and Magic (diplomatic) U.S. codebreaking to get members of the Japanese war cabinet's own words, or lack thereof, on this issue. Within that is the fact that Japan's attempt to use Russia as an intermediary-ally in negotiations was totally out of tune with reality, so much out of tune that Tokyo actually expected Moscow to honor the full one year's "down time" after abrogating the two countries' neutrality agreement.

Second, the Japanese Army was ramping UP the plans for Keisu-Go, the all-out defense of the Japanese homeland, after the spring firebombings of Tokyo and elsewhere. Top Army brass considered that the U.S. might well try blockade, and thought it had enough kamikazes, midget submarines, etc., to make the U.S pay enough a price for even the blockade that it would settle for a negotiated peace. Again, Frank looks in-depth at Magic and Ultra transcripts to show how much support there was for this.

Third, Frank demonstrates that U.S. casualty fears of an invasion of Kyushu were well-warranted and may even have been understated in some cases.

The determination of the Japanese Empire to resist was well-known by American troops in the Pacific who had seen the Japanese, on average, take 97 percent casualties in many of their defensive actions. A militaristic government was ready to exploit this to the death.

The atomic bomb was therefore used for reasons of the highest seriousness. It was NOT dropped on Hiroshima as a demonstration for Stalin. And, speaking of demonstrations, the fact that it took two atomic bombs on Japan to get it to surrender puts the lie to the idea that a "demonstration" bomb would have been enough to get the Japanese to a non-negotiated surrender with them attempting to hold on to territory.

I was so fascinated by this book that I read all the previous reviews. I only want to add my unlimited praise and to add a few thoughts and stories...
I was as unaware as anybody of the details of the end of the Pacific war until I met a fellow (Bill Lear, son of "the" Bill Lear) who was on a troop ship to Olympic. He said the officers told them that they all were going to die. After that the book was a natural, and I couldn`t have chosen better.
In my present line, I am in Japan a lot. If there is any one thing that makes Frank`s book fascinating, it is the detailed look at the inner workings of that eastern mind in the government and military leaders, and the resulting confusion for their hapless diplomats. In some cases it is not so radical - we Americans still get huffy about Pearl Harbor, when the Japanese were following a pretty basic tenet of war. Frank didn`t really go to a lot of trouble to remind us that the "unfathonable" Asian way of seeing things is normal to them. Perhaps it isn`t necessary. Any Japanese soldier who sees dying for his emperor/country as his highest honor will tend to see anyone who surrenders or is beaten before he can sacrifice himself, as the lowest sort of worm, not worthy of bayonet practice let alone a bowl of rice. Just an example, but with a point. Frank managed to state facts, back them up with numbers and intel documents and let it go at that. The case builds easily in the reader`s mind that this was a terrible war and that the allies/Americans were in a real conundrum about how to end it. Which brings up the sadly fascinating fact that the very thing that the allies demanded, as a way of keeping "these fascist and militarist governments from starting a world war every few years", was unconditional surrender, the very thing the Japanese couldn`t accept.
One thing which makes a really great book is that it opens discussion on the topic rather than, say, on the writer`s vocabulary. By that measure, this is one of the best. Please indulge me...
I have been to the peace museum in Hiroshima. It is very moving and also very evenhanded. It shows the little uniforms of the school kids killed - they were in town that day to help build firebreaks. It also has the army order on the wall which commanded that when the invasion came, all subjects were to show up on the beaches with pitchforks, sticks or any other weapon that came to hand. Hiroshima, by the way (to answer a previous comment) was the headquarters of the 5th Japanese Army, in charge of Japan and Korea (where they'd been since 1920, only getting to Manchuria in 1931, re another comment)It was also a recruit center, and a navy shipyard, in other words not exactly non-military.
My Dad flew in B-29s. He was a tough old farm boy, but once he met an army buddy who had also `been there` That`s the only time I saw him cry. I don`t think it`s wrong to lament the terrible things humans are capable of doing to each other and to make them stop; a basic about war, by the way. The fact that millions of innocents had died and were likely to keep dying in this war would make any way of stopping it look pretty good, ie, "moral". I personally would say, you can`t argue with success. The Japanese had been fighting since at least 1920. Days after the bomb, it was over. I`m in the camp of "the Russians had nothing to do with it." I want to thank Mr. Frank for explaning readably and in detail, how that came about.
Finally a note from my Mom... The war council was correct in believing that Americans were sick of the war (Incorrect in their eastern way in seeing Potsdam as weakness). They were beaten but wouldn`t quit. If you had a family member in the service, you put a red star in your window, and if they were killed, you changed it to a gold star. There were plenty of houses with two gold stars in the window. People in 1945 wanted the war to end and wanted the boys home. Imagine you are Truman, and a wife/mother says to you, "You mean to tell me you had the means to end this war the day before my boy was killed, and you didn`t do it?"
Read this book.

It is easy today, with so much information out there about the horrors of atomic warfare, and so little remembrance of the actual history of the final stages of WWII, to be critical of the U.S. decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan.

Sadly, as a result, most Japanese are taught today that they were merely the victims of overwhelming American might, rather than the aggressors and instigators of war, and even more sadly, we are confronted with the shameful specter of anti-nuke, anti-war, anti-history Americans pathetically apologizing to the Japanese, misquoting history, and blindly ignoring the real facts behind the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan.

In this book, Richard Franks sets about methodically re-creating the historical context of the end stages of WWII. He addresses virtually every controversial claim, every possible scenario, in the decision process that led to the atomic bombing. Other reviewers have mentioned several points already, and so I present only a summary of the major controversies dealt with in this book:

1. Why was it necessary to drop two atomic bombs or to use them on civilians? - The U.S. was afraid that Japan would think that its supply of atomic bombs was limited (and in fact, production was limited, but was steadily growing), and wanted to demonstrate to Japan that it had the ability and willpower to completely annihilate Japan with a series of atomic bombs. As it turns out, the U.S. calculations were correct. After Hiroshima was bombed, Franks points out that there was a faction in the Japanese military that had enough knowledge of the difficulty of uranium separation to deny the possibility that the U.S. could have developed such a bomb or claimed that the U.S. would not be able to keep up the atomic bombing, and used these arguments to continue to hold out against surrender. Other Japanese military leaders hoped that world opinion would bar the U.S. from further use of the atomic bombs on civilians. That the Japanese military doubted the willpower of the U.S. to use atomic bombs against civilians is proof that a mere demonstration on some unpopulated target would have been useless. Dropping two atomic bombs thus served to vaporize all of the final delusions of these fanatic military leaders.

2. Wasn't Japan close to surrender already because of the massive firebombing of its cities? The U.S. had destroyed over 60 Japanese cities already, killing over 100,000 in one raid on Tokyo alone. However, while this caused enormous suffering for Japanese civilians, the military elite ruling Japan couldn't care less, and continued to hold out for a final land battle, intending to inflict enormous casualties on any U.S. invasion. Their calculation was that the U.S., a democracy with freedom of the press and freedom of speech that even then was extremely sensitive to casualties, could be forced to offer a negotiated surrender with better terms (see no. 5 below for more on this) instead of unconditional surrender. One thing that Franks does not emphasize enough is that subsequent firebombings after Tokyo killed far fewer people per raid, as the Japanese learned how to deal with the firebombing better. A significant factor in the success of the firebombing was the nature of the highly flammable wooden cities of Japan. However, neither firebombing nor the inaccurate conventional bombing of that era would have had much impact on the dispersed and hidden armed forces of the Ketsu-Go operation (the Japanese plan for a massive suicidal countering of an American invasion on the island of Kyushu). Ketsu-Go versus the atomic bomb would have been a completely different story. The general in charge of Ketsu-Go happened to have his headquarters in Hiroshima, and after surviving the atomic bombing and seeing its effects, he bluntly told Hirohito that he could not be sure anymore that his forces would be able to fend off an invasion. IMHO, it was this realization by the military that Ketsu-Go would fail in the face of the atomic bomb that was the key in forcing the military to accept defeat without an invasion. And it was this realization by Hirohito that the military would accept his "command" to accept unconditional surrender that encouraged this timid personality to finally step in and "command" surrender (Franks gives some more convoluted reasons that I think are less convincing. He does not emphasize enough that Hirohito had no legal authority at the time to force the military to do anything - Hirohito's power was entirely based on tradition, respect, and superstitious symbolism - and in fact the military fanatics had a history of assassinating advisors to Hirohito whenever it seemed that he was favoring a course of action that they did not like).

3. Weren't the estimated potential U.S. casualties in an invasion grossly inflated? Perhaps they were, but first of all, if you are an American and think that ANY number of dead American soldiers in an invasion of Japan would have been worth trading in return for not using the atomic bomb, then you need to have your citizenship revoked. And if you are Japanese, and believe that a U.S. invasion would have been preferable to atomic bombing, then you really don't understand the fanaticism of the military elite that was in control at the end of the war. At Saipan and Okinawa, the local Japanese citizenry had been recruited into the battles and had suffered enormous casualties. Even worse was being planned for an invasion of the Japanese homeland, with the entire civilian population given bamboo sticks and suicide bombs which they were expected to use against U.S. soldiers. Franks calculates that the civilian casualties in an invasion of Japan would have far exceeded what was suffered at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In addition, U.S. intelligence eventually revealed that preparations for Ketsu-Go were so extensive that chances for a successful invasion were becoming increasingly uncertain. American casualties would have almost certainly been enormous. While General MacArthur blithely swept all of that intelligence under the rug, and continued to insist on the original invasion plans, Admiral Nimitz was on the verge of going on the record opposing the invasion when the atomic bombs were dropped. This book makes clear that a U.S. invasion of Kyushu, led by the over-confident MacArthur, could have well been a complete disaster.

4. Wouldn't a blockade and continued bombing of Japan have forced a surrender? - Yes, but it would have taken a much longer period of time, at a minimum of several more months, and resulted in enormously greater loss of life to others besides U.S. soldiers. Franks points out that by attacking Japan's railway systems and vital coastal shipping, the U.S. could have easily shut down all food distribution in the country. However, again, because the Japanese warlords did not care about the suffering of the civilian population, it is likely in such a scenario that they would have held out for so long that Japanese deaths from starvation would have easily exceeded the deaths from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Plus there were also the vastly greater numbers of deaths that would have occurred in the countries that had been invaded by Japan, people who would have continued to die under a brutal occupation. There would also have been much greater numbers of deaths amongst Allied POWs. The numbers calculated by Franks are truly staggering, and make clear that atomic bombing to force a surrender was by far the least of all evils in terms of total numbers of dead people. Franks also recounts the massive atrocities committed by the Japanese in WWII. Yep, after you read these sections (the atrocities mentioned included dissecting and drilling holes into the brains of captured, living American airmen, among other niceties), you might also look more favorably upon atomic bombing Japan. Let's face it, this was a war without mercy, and the Japanese, who were merciless in their treatment of their enemies, had no right to expect any. Nevertheless, after the surrender, Japan did receive mercy, in the form of massive shipments of food from America to their starving civilians.

5. Wouldn't a negotiated surrender, as demanded by the military warlords, have been preferable to atomic bombing? No, first and foremost, up until the atomic bombings, the Japanese militarist faction simply refused to consider surrender under any conditions. They wanted an invasion and a chance at redemption of national honor with their Ketsu-Go operation. The peace faction's best efforts consisted of delusional hopes that Russia could somehow broker a negotiated settlement. Even AFTER both atomic bombs had been dropped, and Russia had declared war on Japan, the militarist faction continued to hold out briefly for a negotiated surrender with three additional terms besides maintenance of the emperor (which the peace faction also wanted): a short occupation by a minimal force, demobilization of Japanese troops by Japanese officers, and trying of war criminals by Japanese courts (Franks does not mention these details in his book - they are contained in another book "The Day Man Lost Hiroshima"). Acceptance of such conditions would have resulted in only a temporary cease-fire, much like the treaty of Versailles had been for WWI. It would not have removed the basic root causes that led Japan to attack East Asia and America - the institutions and ideology of an intensely nationalistic and fanatic military elite that put national honor and pride above everything else, including common sense. This bitter lesson from WWI, that the military elites and institutions of Germany and Japan needed to be completely eradicated in order to ensure lasting peace with those nations, was what caused Roosevelt to demand unconditional surrender. Roosevelt did not want the sacrifice of the lives of so many soldiers to be in vain, as it had been for WWI.

In summary, people critical of the atomic bombing of Japan simply fail to grasp just how difficult it was at that time for the U.S. and the peace faction in Japan to force an increasingly delusional military elite that was fanatically committed to national honor and pride to give up all of their institutions of power without first completely immolating their country. Read this book, read it carefully, and you WILL understand.

I purchased this for my daughter for Christmas. I took some time to browse through the book and found it full of interesting information in addition to recipes and directions on how to prepare ingredients. I was very impressed, as was my daughter.

I wanted a book with a lot of information and recipes. Too many cook books are filled with pictures, and empty of information. This book is the opposite. Don't expect many photos, do expect lots of information. The author gives you information about the food, about the preparation, and about the ingredients. It even gives you a little Japanese history as related to the food.
This is a must buy for anyone serious about cooking Japanese food.

My wife and I bought this cookbook in Japan 25 years ago and have used it often since then. It is the best I've found on describing ingredients and how to do certain techniques especially making sushi rice.

A beautiful book, clearly written, but the simple of the title is misleading. These are difficult, exacting recipes calling for both ingredients and kitchenware that require a search in specialty Japanese markets.

This is the only Japanese cookbook you will ever need. As other reviewers have already mentioned, it is indeed "the Bible of Japanese cooking."
A little bit about me, I first feel in love with Japanese cooking at the age of 8, when for my birthday, my parents took me to Joto's Japanese restaurant and I tried Sukiyaki. The sauce was to die for. The sauce won me over more than the ingredients inside the pot.
I just had to know how to cook it so luckily for me there was a Japanese market nearby. I went inside a bought Japanese Cuisine for Everyone by Yukiko Moriyama. It was ok for the time. It does contain actual photographs of all the sauce bottles and packages of dried foods that you need to find. It can be hard to locate items at the market and the pictures helped in the beginning. Then, years later, I bought Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat by Naomi Moriyama. It does have some traditional recipes mixed in with fusion cooking. Recently I bought Japanese Homestyle Cooking by Tokiko Suzuki and Harumi's Japanese Cooking by Harumi Kurihaara. Someone let me borrow an old book from Time Life books in the Foods of the World series called The Cooking of Japan. I have looked through the Nobu cookbook and it is filled with wonderful pictures but the recipes are hard for the average cook. That said, Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art towers above all others in content, detailed descriptions, cutting techniques, meal planning, and how to put together lunches and dinners based on the seasons. Other books have the aboved mentioned information but not on the level of Tsuji. Its like comparing the novels of Jane Austen to those of Danielle Steel. Both are romantic writers but only one is a genuis whose works stand the test of time.
Now in its 25th Anniversary, not much revising was needed, according to the author's son, you can see real Japanese cooking without all the added fusion cooking of today.
I do agree with Tsuji in his introduction where he writes, "With a Japanese recipe, however, unless you have been to this country and eaten the food, you will probably have little idea of what you will be aiming at." Despite the fact that sushi bars are everywhere and numerous Japanese restaurants are popping up, I feel dissatisfied everytime I go to a Japanese restuarant in the Tampa Bay area. Ok the sushi is good for the most part, if you avoid the California and cucumber rolls, but the main dishes are usually sub par. Each time I look at the menu and see Teriyaki Chicken or Steak I cringe. Its just not what I'm looking for. I'm sure America does have real Japanese resturants like Rangetsu in Orlando that cater to Japanese tourists or in other places like LA or NYC. I'm baised because I'm spoiled. I lived in Osaka, Japan for three years and Osaka has to be one of the great food cities, along with Kyoto, in all of Japan. Tokyo does have excellent food and the giant crab in Hokkaido is great but there's something about the food in Kansai that is extraordinary.
I lived with a Japanese host family for 1-year. Often on Saturdays, if I had no other plans, we would go to the supermarket to pick out things for the whole family. I got first hand experience on how to pick what kind of fish and why and how to buy various ingredients.
Then she would cook and I would sneak around the corner and watch. Sometimes I didn't think she wanted me to see how to cook so I was always quiet. Then I would slip back to my room and write it all down.
Also, you could wander around Osaka and just happen to find little soba and udon stands, kaiten 100-yen sushi, ramen restaurants, sukiyaki shops, shabu-shabu, Yakiniku grills, and my own personal favorite, Okonomiyaki (seafood pancake) where your table is a grill and you make and cook Okonomiyaki yourself. Staying 3-years in Osaka, I never had bad food even at the occasional trips to Wendy's or MacDonalds. Ok with that in mind, Japanese Cooking shows most of the stuff I learned from my host mother, plus the Osaka-style of Sukiyaki that I ate at many different restaurants in Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe, and all the foods that I tried in the Kansai area. It goes far beyond all my experiences with my host mother, reading various cookbooks, and learning how to cook simple dishes from different Japanese girlfriends.(When I would visit a Japanese girl at her apartment, I would cook for the most part.) I wish I would have read this book before going to Osaka because all kinds of doors would have opened up that I didn't even see at the time.
Overall the single best Japanese cookbook out there.

This book is great for people who want to learn by themselves our with a teacher. It has real life situations and easy to learn. I recommend buying the textbook for more practice and the CD.

This book is very good, but there are not many to choose from. This was 3 quraters of classes.

Overall a good book!

I learned Japanese as a second language from the Genki books, and now I use them to teach students of my own. This is by far the best Introductory Japanese book out there!

I am teaching myself Japanese and I really like this text. This book has a good collection of vocabulary and is very easy to follow. I recommend this book to everyone. It is excellent! My Japanese friend is very impressed with what I was able to teach myself. I feel very confident in what I have learned. The student CD that accompanies is a little lacking, though. It only covers dialogue and vocab for the book (and workbook), when I really wish the CD included more from the textbook. I also recommend getting the workbook for more practice. You should know that you need the student CD to use the workbook. Genki 1 has to be the best text out there for learning Japanese!

This book may be good for young students who anticipate homestays (and I'm skeptical even about that, for reasons below), but if you're an adult you may find this book excruciating. I recently moved to Japan, and finally determined to take some private lessons to get a more systematic grasp on the language than I have had hitherto. My school uses this text. I can't compare it with other college-style textbooks, which may mostly suffer from the same problems, but among the issues I have with it are:

@ The framing scenario is of foreign students living in homestays and interacting with their homestay families and with each other; there is also a lot of school-related vocabluary. This is largely irrelevant for an adult's experience. It is useless for business, BTW (though in my own case, I was looking more for daily life vocabulary and situations than business).

@ Even within this scenario, the book doesn't teach you how to really have conversation -- all classmates address each other with polite "-masu" form verbs. In real life, this would be distant or even rude with your pals. (Moreover, on the accompanying tapes female gaijin characters like "Mary" and "Sue" address their classmates and homestay parents in that saccharine, squeaky little-girl voice that is normally used by shop staff and female announcers on infomercials, not people talking to friends or family.)

@ In Japan, it is very rare for people to mirror back to you what you say, or for it to be appropriate for you to mirror back to them. This is especially true if your main interactions are with people in shops, where they will use a lot of "keigo" (honorific speech) or other specialized formulas. Simple example: A waitress will bring stuff to your table and ask "Yoroshii desu ka?" (Is that OK?), you don't answer back "Hai, yoroshii desu." Even saying goodbye is highly context dependent; e.g. when someone says "Sorry I'm being so rude as to leave before you," even if you can catch the Japanese phrase you will look like an idiot if you reply symmetrically (been there, done that). This book doesn't give you a clue about dealing with such situations, nor help you to unravel what Japanese people are saying to you when they respond to your questions or remarks. All dialogues and exercises are based on the mirroring principle (as well as indiscriminate use of "wa", the topic particle). So it's pretty useless for practical purposes -- unless you plan to use Japanese in class only.

@ While it's a plus that reading & writing practice are integrated into the text, the reading selections in early chapters are devoid of imagination. After several chapters of reading stuff like "Are you OK? I am fine. It's cold here in Japan. I took some pictures, studied Japanese and took a bath. My father is nice, but very busy," and so on, you just want to scream.

@ Although the publication date is 1999, at which time a dot-com boom was beginning even in Japan, this book is snail-mail all the way: you spend time learning about stamps and postcards, but there isn't anything about email, the Internet or texting. (Forget also about DVDs -- people watch videos.)

@ Japanese verb conjugation has a wonderful regularity, in that almost every verb has a set of stems that are based variously on -A-, -I-, -U-, -E- and -O- (e.g., negative, polite, dictionary, causative and "let's" forms, respectively). This tracks the order of Japanese vowels in the kana writing systems, so it's easy to remember. However, "Genki"'s presentation of verbs obliterates this useful pattern (see, e.g. conjugation chart @ 344 of Vol. I).

@ The book lacks any review chapters, appendices, exercises or quizzes to help you consolidate what you've learned in a chunk of preceding chapters. Schools don't necessarily take the initiative to review the material every now and then, so you may need to request special quizzes to force yourself to review stuff you studied weeks earlier. My teachers were amenable when asked, though my lessons are one-on-one, and this might be more difficult to do if the book is used in a class situation (you might ask about that before you sign up). If you're using the book to study on your own, you're on your own with this too.

Like most students of Japanese, I've stocked up on a shelfload of other books of varying usefulness. (Two of the best, Rita Lampkin's "Japanese: Verbs and Essentials of Grammar" and Jay Rubin's "Making Sense of Japanese", unfortunately are exclusively in Roman characters, or nearly so.) You will definitely need to to the same (or at least half a shelfload) if you use this book. But not getting bored by the boook will be a bigger challenge if you're older than 22. One possible tip might be to look for a book that has at least one gaijin co-author. This one is written entirely by Japanese authors; it could have benefitted from the perspective of a formerly-puzzled foreigner.

As a lover of military history, and WWII in particular, I was eager to read another great sea story, so highly rated. The title, Ship of Ghosts, was most intriguing, suggesting the story of a warship that kept up a fight while out of all communications. Unfortunately, the title turned out to be misleading. The USS Houston was sunk rather quickly, in its second battle of the war, so the bulk of the book describes how the American POWs survived a brutal Japanese imprisonment. An interesting read in itself, but not what it represents to be. I note that out of 420 pages, only 80 are about the sea battles. Hornfischer is a fabulous writer (maybe too good - once in a while the prose seems to get in the way of the storyline)and the story moves along, so "Ship of Ghosts" is worth reading, but readers should expect a story of survival, less so of battle and tactics.

very realistic book about what really happened. my uncle was on this ship and was captured by the japanese and spent the rest of the war in prison camps. he had told me quite a lot about what happened and the book backed up what he said.

At 69, I have never shed so much tear as I did reading "Ship of Ghosts"! I walked away from reading only to wipe or hide my tears.

In a way, I took "comfort" that my father was spared of the ordeal and that "comfort" helps fill somewhat the hole in my heart of my life-long yearning for the father I never knew. The survivors survived, not only to tell the story of the Houston saga, but also to spare the agony of their family members who otherwise would be like me.

Other good books such as Winslow's offered much information about USS Houston and her crew where I first saw my father's name. This "Ship of Ghosts" offers added views from non-Houston survivors.

And lastly, it is well written.

Eric Lien

This was one of those "why not?" choices of reading.

I knew of the heavy cruiser Houston but this book filled in the story. James Hornfischer did a wonderful job accumulating stories to present a good picture of what happened to the men of the Houston in the early days of the war and what happened to them during the war.

The Houston and along with a "rag-tag" collection of ships were given the all but suicide mission to defend Java from the Imperial Navy and the approaching invasion force. Suicide in the fact they were going to a fight severely over gunned and with no air cover.

They tried but were beaten and eventually only the Houstan the and Australian Cruiser HMAS Perth remained. Trying to make a run to Australia, they stumble on the invasion forces even though they thought it was only the navy. The Perth is mortally wounded and the Houston learns she has stumbled on the invasion fleet and rushes in. Four Japanese ships are sunk by the Japanese trying to get the Houston. Eventually she is sunk.

The story reads like an adventure which are greatly added by the personal stories of the survivors. The ship cats of the Perth and Houston. The cat from the Houston runs into the jungle just before the final voyage when the ships stop to refuel. The cat from the Perth is caught 3 times and ordered to be clapped into irons(ie a fuel can with four holes). Poor kitty knew what was coming. The grizzled old marine Sargent who stays at his post firing his 50 calibers while the ship tower sinks into the water(he could not swim). The chaplin who gave up his life in the life boats so the younger men would have a better chance.

The men of both ships try to figure out what to do. Some are picked up but surprisingly many are left by the Japanese. Some unruly Australians cuss out Japanese that try to rescue them. It was commented that in a disaster it's best to be with Australians as they have the penchant to look at everything as an opportunity. One group for instance, made it to shore, made a ragtag ship and sail and were going to make a run for Australia. They were captured.

Next came the stories of the camps. The brutality and the diseases of life in the jungle as a P.O.W. You get to hear the about the amazing doctor who had knowledge of Jungle medicine and probably saved countless men. One thing was surprising was to read these men were involved with the bridge and train system that was told by the move "The Bridge on the River Kawi" I knew Hollywood tends to glamorize things but you will see the full story from this book. One of my favorite characters from this cast is the supreme scavenger named Mccone. The Japanese were scared of him because they thought he was crazy. He assembled a crew which he called the 40 thieves. One story that made me laugh was the arrival of a delivery truck. The thieves stripped it down to the frame in minutes and the tossed the frame next to the junk pile. The driver came back and was subsequently beaten by the guards for loosing the truck. The guards were beaten by the NCOs for the truck being lost and the NCOs were beaten by the commander for the guards loosing the truck. The prisoners had to work from laughing and dreaded what would have happened if the commander had put his hand on the still hot radiator as he looked through the junk pile.

An interesting aspect was the mix of brutality and the rare instances of compassion shown by the Japanese. Beatings were a constant thing but then there were moments of were they would do things. When it came to the Korean guards it was down right brutal.

One interesting side note was the fact the river Kwai was not the original name. It was later renamed after the movie came out.

All in all this is a good book for the historian and the general fan of the area. Numerous sources are listed for further research if so desired. There is also a website listed that keeps track of the survivers and men who died on that day.

The story of the loss of the heavy cruiser USS Houston off the coast of Indonesia on 1 March 1942 is a story which strikes right to the heart of naval traditions which go back beyond the creation of the United State of America itself. It is a story of danger and brave deeds, of gallant actions and bloody combat. Most of all it is a story of ship that went down fighting against insurmountable odds - a ship which never struck her colours and was still fighting when the sea finally claimed her.

Famous for being President F. D. Roosevelt's favourite ship, the Houston was trapped in the Far East immediately after the events of Pearl Harbour and the loss of the British Force Z (Battleships HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse) just a few days later. In company with HMAS Perth, the ships fought off, avoided and evaded overwhelming enemy forces until, low on ammunition, they colluded in the most courageous action now known as the Battle of Sunda Strait where both ships were finally lost.

This, however, is where Mr Hornfischer starts his story about this legendary "Ship of Ghosts."

It is because the Japanese were so very ruthless in their bid to conquer all before them, that prisoners were treated with utter contempt. Consequently, those who survived the sinking of the Houston began a journey that became the stuff of legend and it would be a full 3 years before anyone beyond those Japanese forces would learn what had happened to the ship and that some survivors were still alive - though, by now, far fewer in number.

There is no happy ending to such a story as this because there never can be. War is brutal and warships on both sides get sunk. What actually happened to the survivors of the USS Houston has taken this author right through and beyond the ordinary realms of research into an area of personal accounts, life in captivity and life in the jungle at the hands of a regime far more cruel than anything seen since the dark days of WW2.

And yet, he produces an account of personal achievement for those who possessed that indefinable quality that always meant they were going to survive.

I congratulate Mr Hornfischer on an excellent book, an excellent job of research and a most complete account. Most of all, I congratulate him on making it all so very readable.

NM

This book leaves you with an excellent impression of how brutal the conditions and treatment of our soldiers by the Japanese.
Our soldiers went through hell and many did not come home. A must read for WWII buffs. I can now totally understand why WWII vets do not buy Japanese merchandise, cars, etc and have a dislike for the Japanese as a whole. I am not passing judgment but in my view--they have every right to feel the way they do.
I will definitely read this book a second time.

Extremely well written and comprehensive overview of the POW experience in Indonesia. A very good balance of human stories, information, statistics, and background. Strongly recommended.

"Prisoners of the Japanese: POWS of World War II in the Pacific"by Gavan Daws is an extremely graphic book. The experiences of Allied Prisoners of War (POWS) in the care of Japanese forces are nothing like the experiences portrayed in "Hogan's Heroes" or even "Stalag 17". At least Nazi Germany went through the motions of following the Geneva Convention. Imperial Japan treated captured soldiers and naval personnel in a fashion similar to the way Germany treated Jewish civilians in their death camps. All they needed were furnaces and Zyklon B......

When confronted with the thousands of prisoners captured at Singapore, Wake Island, the Phillipines, etc., the Japanese military had no infrastructure or guidelines for handling prisoners. Under the Code of Bushido, to be captured was a grievous dishonor. A POW was (in Japanese eyes) scum that had no right to life. That meant Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright commander of US forces in the Philippines had to bow before the lowest private Japanese soldier. There was no difference between officer and enlisted. No form of military structure was allowed to exist. The prisoners were robbed, beaten, starved assiduously denied medical care and killed on a whim. They all became slaves to the Japanese war machine.

Based on extensive interviews, Mr. Daws has distilled the experiences of the POWS into the individual stories of a few survivors of the experience. For example, there's Frank Fujita of the Texas National Guard. He was a rarity, a soldier of Japanese ancestry fighting on the side of the Americans in the Pacific. It was years before his captors ever noticed he was Japanese.

Houston "Slug" Wright is a descendant of a proud Texas Ranger family. At his moment of despair he found the best friend a man could have in Dr. Henri Hekking.

Dr. Hekking was a Dutch colonial Army officer and physician who had been thoroughly trained by `root doctor' grandmother in Indonesia before going to medical school in Holland. This is a perfect combination of skills when your Japanese captors refuse the most basic of medical supplies. Dr. Hekking heroic efforts were in the best traditions of medicine.

Then there are two partners, Harry Jeffries and Oklahoma Atkinson were a couple of card sharks who worked as construction workers during the day. Of course they would stay on the job at Wake Island just a little too long....... They would need every bit of their hustling skills in order to survive captivity.

Comparisons have been made between captivity by the Japanese in the Pacific and the US internment of US citizens of Japanese ancestry. There is no comparison. While the US treatment of west coast Japanese was inexcusably a racist insult, a violation of civil liberties, not to forget humiliating, that's it. They were not starved, forbidden water, beaten to death, denied medical care or forced to debase themselves multiple times daily before their captors. Nor were they decapitated in broad daylight in front of witnesses.

This is a well written book. It is well-paced and extremely informative. But it is not light reading.

During the course of WWII, the Japanese Army took more than 140,000 Allied prisoners, and one in four died in captivity. Their story has never been systematically recorded or documented--until now. Australian author Gavan Daws combined ten years of research and hundreds of interviews with surviving POWs to recreate this haunting account of day-to-day heroism and humor amid atrocities. Incredibly complete, profoundly disturbing, yet eminently readable, this book will hold your interest and expand your vision of the human story.

Japan has committed some of the world's worst atrocities in history (nanking massacre, unit 731, batton death march, comfort women, pearl harbor, ect..) and they still refuse to apologize, compensate, or make an accurate history in there textbooks. Why is Japan so cowardly and instead try to make their amends to their victims of the horrible crimes against humanity. No wonder people call Japan a "devil" race.

This is a detailed book. Almost too detailed. As a Professor of International Business in Tokyo's Sophia University the author is in a prime position to detail the woes of the Japanese financial system. And maybe that's where the problem with this book lies. He is a professor and not a writer. His insistence on using the expression "Big Bang" started to become a little annoying.

His main emphasis is to point the finger at the Ministry of Finance, the government department which is supposed monitor the economy, regulate the banks and other duties as well. But the Bank of Japan, Tokyo University, private banks, gangsters, construction companies and everyone else are included where necessary.

But the main problem with the book is that it is fairly technical and dry. As I am not an economics student, I had trouble understanding a lot of the financial terms and expressions used through out the book. There is little in the way of explanations or a glossary or index for the average reader to use.

For the parts that I could follow, it paints a dire picture of the continuing Japanese economic malaise. Even though the book is a few years old now, the indications presented in the book and the remedies are still valid today because reform in Japan is a slow moving beast.

Prof. Hayes is a well-known Tokyo-based commentator and financial expert. He is especially well-known for his straight talkimg, without being beholden to ideology, vested interests or other unseen affiliations that so often cloud the analysis and the work of others in business, finance and economics. He is very effective in dismissing the cultural argument as a reason for Japan's economic misery. That indeed is a fundamental point: financial disasters (though perhaps of smaller proportions) have happened before in other countries, and the causes were not cultural then... The book should be titled slightly differently, as those that expect detailed coverage of the big Bang reforms may be disappointed - but then again, those reforms can be listed up pretty quickly by anyone doing a 15 minute search on the internet. Hayes' value added is in the incisive analysis. That the book is highly readable and indeed very entertaining goes without saying for this author.

When I saw that the Yomiuri had rubbished this book I knew it had to be good. I have previously used their feelance reviewer Scott Gordon as a counter barometer and he has yet to fail me. Gordon accuses Hayes of being a Japan basher (the old refrain on anyone who doesn't use Bridgestone's faulty tyres of Mitsubishi's faulty cars). The fact is that Japan's bust was the biggest in financial history, Japan's financial institutions are primitive and there is nothing magical in anything of that. Pathetic hacks like Gordon who hide behind the cultural argument - Japan's culture is different and therefore we should not use normal international metrics to judge her - have had their day. Japan tries to compete internationally. Hayes shows the myriad of handicaps she labors under - and he did this before the lateest scandals cropped up. Given what he has said in his book, the Mitsubishi and Bridgestone sagas are entirely predictable - as are the tirades of Gordon and other sad souls. A good, inforamtive and well written book.

I agree with the positive reviews of the previous posters. This book is incisive, penatrating, well written and Prof. Hayes has a solid grasp on his topic and has made it accessible to non-bankers and non-finance experts. But it should be pointed out that this book is NOT about the Big Bang. All you'll get about that in this book are phrases like "The Big bang will..." or "The Big Bang should..." or "The Big Bang ought to..." and mostly just in passing . Despite the fact that this book was published in 2000 its information seems to be current as of the third quarter of 1998. What this book does do and does very well is explain just how the Japanese economy got into the mess it is in and he answers the question of just how the world's largest banks and insurance companies managed to lose $700 billion by investing in real estate. And he lays the blame clearly at the feet of the Ministry of Finance's largely incompetant mandarins and the directors of Japan's banks who thought they could dominate global finance using the same tactics Toyota and Sony used to dominate the automobile and consumer electronics industries.

I have to rate it highly. It was a good, well written book looking at the aftermath of the Bubble and the proposed Big Bang reforms. Unlike earlier books written when Japan was outperforming all its competitors, it did not stand in shock, awe and wonder at Japan Inc but instead painted its strengths and many weaknesses. Although controversial, none of the many facts it outlines can be seriously queried.
Because the Japanese game, as Gillian Tett's book, PM Koizumi's reform plans and Carlos Ghosn's epxerience, has, in many ways moved on, this book is probably now most useful as a historical summary of what drove Japan into its current round of reforms.

In the land of Toyoashihara, the forces of the God of Light and the Goddess of Darkness have been at war for generations. Saya, a fifteen-year-old girl who worships the God of Light, is suddenly pulled into the conflict when she discovers that she is the reincarnation of the Water Maiden, the priestess of the people of Darkness. Saya must come to terms with her heritage and choose which side of the war she will support, for she is the priestess of the Dragon Sword, a terrible weapon that can destroy the gods themselves. Can Saya choose between the Light, which she has been raised to love, and the Darkness, which is her true family, or is she doomed to kill herself like every Water Maiden before her?

Dragon Sword and Wind Child has all the makings of epic fantasy: an exciting battle between Light and Darkness, a Chosen One, a fantastic land, and a young protagonist who is pulled straight into the center of the conflict and barely knows what she's getting in to. The problem is that after a wonderful opening hook, the story just limps along for about fifty pages. After lollygagging along, the author suddenly throws in cross-dressing, possible incest, and an extremely exciting scene that gets the reader interested again. So now the reader is saying, "Ooh, ooh, what's going to happen next?" and devouring the following sections...in which a great deal of nothing happens. Even the battle scenes are un-epic. They end in the middle or are omitted altogether in favor of overly flowery descriptions of the surrounding landscape (although the translator may be partially at fault, since Dragon Sword and Wind Child is a Viz publication and they aren't known for their stunningly faithful translations). Even the ending is a letdown because a. I saw it coming about 50 pages in and b. the author suddenly decides that the story isn't strange enough so she throws in time-traveling. Um...what?

I don't know how the translation is, since I haven't read the book in Japanese (and have no intention of doing so, since I didn't enjoy it in English). However, I can tell you that someone decided it would be cool if they didn't translate all the words...and didn't put the non-translated ones in the glossary. Thus, if you don't speak Japanese and are wondering what "sakaki branches" are, you're basically doomed. (For the record, "sakaki" is a type of evergreen.)

The characters are bland and fairly clichéd. For example, there's a couple of characters who you can tell from the moment they're introduced are going to bite it and ninety pages later...oh, surprise! They're dead! Saya is not only fairly dull, she's also blindingly Mary Sue. She has not just one guy fall in love with her, but three, two of which are immortal and oh-so-hot. (The author spends a great deal of time describing just how hot they are, so the reader doesn't assume that non-hot guys are falling in love with Saya.) What are the chances? She's also stunningly beautiful and completely useless. Princess Teruhi and Prince Tsukishiro, the immortal leaders of the army of Light, could have been interesting characters if Ms. Ogiwara had concentrated more on developing their personalities and less on describing their clothes and how smashingly beautiful they are. As is, Teruhi just seems petty and jealous of Saya's incredible beauty (which is apparently even greater than her own), while Tsukishiro is there simply to go gaga over Saya and look pretty.

The narration is extremely uneven, often spending two or three pages describing a building, field, or forest. That's great for the first couple of chapters, but when the battle scenes arrive, the author seems more concerned with describing the landscapes and Saya's clothes than the actual battle. When she finally does realize that she needs to write a battle scene, she just stops it in the middle and everything goes back to normal even though a whole bunch of people were just slaughtered.

While it has a promising premise, the story never delivers. However, it was Ms. Ogiwara's first book, so there is a chance that the later ones are better. That said, I was fairly disappointed and wouldn't recommend the book to anyone except fans of Japanese popular literature who have nothing better to read.

I first read this book when I was a child. I loved it. I checked it out of my schools library so many times they let me just keep it till the end of the school year. The story line and the people themselves are so hard to put down. The mythology in the book made me look into the shinto myths. I would recommend this book to anyone. I am twenty six now and still love this book!!

Dragon Sword and Wind Child is one of my favorite novels. What's to like? Saya is a village girl in Toyoashihara (sort of a mystical/magical Japan), a land split by the war between the Gods that created the land: The God of Light and the Goddess of Darkness (and Death). Saya has been raised to love the Light and is shocked when strange people start proclaiming that she is one of the Goddess of Darkness's people, reborn again and again to wage her battle against the children of the Light. This revelation is complicated when Prince Tsukishiro, one half of the children of the Light, comes to Saya's village, trying to woo her to the side of the Light by enlisting her as a handmaiden in his palace.

You've heard this story before, right? Honestly, I normally hate this sort of plot set up and the reluctant heroine type. However, Saya is unique to me because her reactions are understandable and even relatable; you see how she subtlely changes and how she makes her decisions and her mental conflicts. As for the plot? Not all is as it seems. Once Saya comes to the palace, she doesn't particularly fit in the whole court atmosphere and furthermore warrior Princess Teruhi is determined to catch Saya collaborating with the Darkness. Prince Tsukishiro isn't much of a help, as it seems this situation has all been played out before in Saya's previous lives (that she has no memory of), and he's still in love with Saya's last incarnation, who killed herself in the palace pond. And the Palace of Light has many sinister secrets... (The novel continues for much longer, not only through Saya's revelations, her final choice in alliances, but also to the final conclusion to the war that has engulfed the land for as long as it as existed.)

Another interesting part of this book is that it's not your usual elves, fairies, etc. Noriko Ogiwara, influenced by Western writers, used Japanese mythology to create this world. The implications of this are just obvious by the summary of the book above. This isn't Good vs. Evil, Dark v. Light of your normal fantasy epic. The issues the characters have to deal with in this book are immortality, mortality, reincarnation along with loyalty and empathy. Are we cursed to repeat the same mistakes over and over through our lifetimes? Does immortality create an lack of empathy? What is sacrificed during war, what is gained, and is it worth it?

I had worn out checking out the library copy all the time, so I was thrilled this classic finally has gone back into print. The deft translation by Cathy Hirano is still intact, except that mentions to Saya's stone has been changed to "magatama". I somewhat miss the old cover, but some interesting drawings have been added to the chapter title pages. I have heard that there are two more books in the series (about what I don't know, as the book pretty much covers all the bases and closes all plotlines), and I'm hoping the other two will finally be translated for English audiences. And I lied earlier. This is pretty much my favorite book (Tied with Dark Lord of Derkhom by Diana Wynne Jones). And I cry and laugh every time I read it.

SPOILERS
The insertion of Chihaya completely changes the landscape of the book. And amazingly, it doesn't feel random and unwarranted. Like Chihaya's the other main character, he's just been missing. The romance parts of the book are perhaps its weakest point, but understandable, and really do drive the plot.

Noriko Ogiwara creates riddles which seem unavoidable. And they are. However, like the words of any oracle, they are open to *very* interesting and unexpected interpretations.

Don't debate. Buy this book! Thank yourself later.

I am so happy that the book was brought back in print by Viz. I have been waiting for this book for a really long time. After I saw it on an English book of literature I wanted to have it. But when I learned that it was out of print and that it was on Amazon for more than $3oo dollars I was devastated, and I hoped that some day it would be back in print. I had to settle for the copies that were on my public library. But I really wanted to have my very own copy as well as the sequels of the book. So I remained patient and waited and finally it was brought back. I cannot wait to get my copy and hopefully I will also see the sequels also translated. But in the mean time I will enjoy this book first.

Superb! An excellent story based on reality. You feel like if Dr. Sharma was at your side telling. Thinking....

I was born in Burma (post independence era) of Indian Descendants. I would love to read this book but at the same time I am concern that I might get too sad for it would remind me about the Japanese Occupation era in Burma that costed my grandfather's life (for no good reason). May be I will read it someday when I can handle the pain a little better.

This book caught my attention as one of the very few books written on the traumatic events in India/Burma/Pakistan during the post ww ii era. I did not expect a lot from the faded cover and even the beginning - a somewhat prosaic/english-composition like narrative that moved but was not particularly great language wise. But the characters developed as i went along, and the writer has an amazing knack of weaving together their story, although it goes down stereotyped lanes sometimes. The essence of this book is the basic message of tolerance and simplicity of narrative on a difficult/complex subject. That in itself keeps one absorbed in it until the very last page.

Prem Sharma's story had me mesmerized from the first paragragh. I felt as though I was sitting with him as he told the story of Devi Lal and his family. Prem Sharma is a modern day freedom fighter, using his intellect and the written word instead of the fists and lathis of his youth. The effect of Gandhi's teaching is evident throughout the story. Can't wait for the sequel!

It all started when I was assigned to write a Senior paper on the little known country of Burma. In search of literature, art, history and economics I found Mandalay's Child and Dr. Prem Sharma. This book is an amazing piece which inspired a theme that I worked through my paper: suffering and hope.

In November of 2000, I had to pleasure of meeting Dr. Prem Sharma when he was in my area and visited my class at school. He talked to us about having respect for all people and their personal/religous beliefs and how important it was to realize that fighting does not help situations. Dr. Sharma, who lived in Burma during World War II, was forced to leave with his family because of the Japanense threat to the Burmese people. He moved with his family to India, but here found himself amongst the battle between the Hindus and the Muslims for Pakistan and India.

This book is truly a magnificent piece of work and something that all people, whether interested in Burma or not, should read. It gives insight into the lives of the Burmese people, the struggle for their freedom through war, and things that Dr. Sharma has witnessed in his life since the piece is partially biographical. The story is composed in a way so that the reader truly becomes attached to the family in the story. The power that this novel has over the reader is amazing -- you will shed some tears at least twice!

Dr. Sharma was a wonderful man to meet in person. He appeared very open to comments and questions about his novel and his homeland of Burma. As I correspond with him in Wisconsin through letters, I find that he is one of the most amazing people I have met in my life because of his talent and what he has been through.

As I anxiously await the publication of Dr. Sharma's other parts to the trilogy I urge everyone to pick up this novel and read it for a true experience of Burma and wonderful writing!

I've used a number of books to learn Japanese over the years, and this was not the first or the last, but I immediately recognized it as the most important as a learning tool and as a reference for beginners. It gives the reader a clear and concise tour through the fundamentals. It doesn't teach you "street" Japanese, but that's better learned on the street - not from a book. It would be best coupled with spoken Japanese lessons from a native speaker or Pimsleur audio (get the CD and make MP3s). Also, you don't need to learn how to read/write Japanese kana or kanji to use this book.

What it won't give you is a gentle cumulative approach to vocabulary, instead it just tosses you in the deep end. If you are serious about learning a language, that's OK - you plan to eventually learn all of the words anyway, so what matter the order in which you learn them? It's also NOT a good book for the tourist who wants a crash introductory course.

The best part? You get through this and then you can buy the Intermediate edition and continue toward fluency. Learn one word a day and you'll be fluent before you know it!

This book is great. It is as it says a dictionary of basic Japanese grammar.
This book explains grammar in a way that is very easy to understand. With this book and the "Dictionary of intermediate Japanese grammar", you will be set. I recommend all serious students of Japanese to get these two books. Then find a good Kanji study system, and follow that up with a good workbook, to enforce practice.

It is more than 1 year since the last review for this book was written here, but reading through all the reviews there seems almost only to be positive comments about this book (the few negative comments there are, are rather unimportant things). BUT this book, used wrongly, may very well teach you Japanese that has never been heard from a native speaker's mouth.

The information provided in the book is overwhelming and the explanations are almost too good to be true. However, depending on what you are trying to learn from the book, in may get you in big trouble.
I am currently living in Japan and trying to pick up the language, and one thing I have come to understand is that there is not only one Japanese language ... but several. There is spoken langauge (actually there are 2 spoken languages, formal and informal), there is written language in books etc., there is news paper language, there is subtitle language (this is a fancy one!) and there are probably many more.
This is not a unique feature to the Japanese language, that is not the point I am trying to make, but especially the difference between spoken language and written language in general is so destinctive, that you must be very well aware of it.

Now, what has all this to do with the book that this review is about? A whole lot!
One evening when I sat at the dinner table studying my host brother (I live with a host family) came down from his room, saw me and placed himself on the chair besides me. He asked me what I was doing, and I of course answered `studying Japanese`. I was reading some random entry from "A dictionary of basic Japanese grammar" and when I showed it to him he started laughing and asked me why I was studying weird stuff like that.
Of course I had no idea what he was talking about, so he explained me that what I was studying was not useful at all. He had only read it once in a book but never heard it in a conversation (he is 30 and native Japanese). After consulting my hostdad he agreed as well, the stuff I was reading was useless and waste of time to study.

That little incident made me start asking my Japanese friends about stuff I had learnt from this book, and a lot of the entries they told, they never used in normal conversation.
When purchasing this book and starting to use it as a study aid or grammar reference, you should definitely have some native speaker to ask, whether what you are studying is useful at all, because the authors of this book completely fail to provide any information on where you will find the grammar you are studying. Some of the grammatical expressions in book, you will never hear in a conversation and others are restricted to movie subtitles. So if you use this book without being critical you will end up with an understandable and grammatically correct but extremely odd Japanese.

As I said earlier the Japanese used in subtitles is a category itself. "Subtitle Japanese" is a paradise for people who has used "A dictionary of basic Japanese grammar", but you will never hear it in daily life conversations.
So please be careful to use this great but dangerous book!

There is a bit of a myth about Japanese grammar--that it is too complicated, too alien for the non-native speaker to ever really master. This is a myth that many Japanese perpetuate themselves, seen in unflattering characterizations of non-native speakers, or in the (unhelpful) praise lavished upon anyone who can speak Japanese to any degree, no matter how ungrammatical it may be. This is a myth that is also unfortunately and unintentionally perpetuated by guides like Jorden's "Japanese the Spoken Language" that do the learner a disservice by explaining grammatical points in a language better suited for a linguist than a language learner. For people like you and me, who want to surpass these low expectations and confusing explanations and start on the road to true fluency, "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar" is an essential companion.

Let's face it--from the perspective of a native English speaker, mastering Japanese grammar is difficult. Very difficult. Don't trust anyone who says otherwise! Much is made of the difficult writing system, but mastering grammar is perhaps even more difficult and essential to smooth communication. Sure, learning the difference between "wa" and "ga" is not as sexy as learning how to write "love" or "raccoon dog" in kanji, but it's many times more useful on a daily basis. By providing easy-to-understand explanations as well as examples of both good and bad usage, the student is given a better understanding of basic (but still difficult-to-master) grammatical points. This dictionary does an especially good job of contrasting similar constructs that give beginning-to-intermediate (and even many advanced) students trouble (wa/ga, aida/uchi, ageru/kureru, hazu/beki, ni/de etc.)

Although I don't think it's possible to gain complete comfort and mastery of Japanese without living in Japan, or at the very least, interacting with Japanese people on a regular basis, this book is the perfect guide for explaining the nuances that a beginner might not notice, and an intermediate student might be aware of but not fully understand. This includes the deceptive "similar constructs" I mentioned before, words that are not easy to translate into English (sekkaku, darou come to mind), and other issues such as auxiliary verbs and onomatopoetic "sound words". Whether you're learning Japanese in school, living abroad in Japan, or even just studying on your own, "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar" is an indispensable companion for your studies.

One last comment--there are a few reviews that have comments along the lines of "yes, but the Japanese don't really talk like this" to which I say, "You're missing the point." That's a bit like arguing against learning multiplication tables because in the "real world" there are calculators. Sure it would be nice to go directly from "Please give me that pen" to "Hey man, can ya grab that pen over there for me?" but language learning isn't that easy. If you understand the fundamentals of grammar, you will understand Japanese of all formalities, dialects, and other variations and transmutations. It is much easier to learn the shortcuts once you have a strong foundation because you are in a position to understand the nuances and principles involved. In other words, you know and understand what exactly is being "shortcutted". If you only learn the shortcuts, you will have a hard time generalizing your knowledge for usage out of a narrow, specific context. Worse, you might not even realize that you are even making a grammatical or etiquette mistake by misapplying knowledge from one context to another. The worst thing a language learner can do is to try to take shortcuts to "speed up" his or her progress without taking the time to build up a steady base. This dictionary provides that strong foundation that is needed for the serious Japanese language learner.

Personally, I feel that these two books (basic/intermediate) goes together in order to have a complete reference. If it's separated, it's like splitting elementary school's vocabulary and highschool's vocabulary into two dictionary. Which dictionary should you buy if you want to check for words that seemed to be in between these two levels. For example, words like "honor".

The other reviewers are very informative, so i'll just give you a good example of a grammar from the "Intermediate japanese grammar". (I chose intermediate because it can better express a more complete capacity of how the book work. (I apologize if you're a beginner audience)

"believe it or not" - nanishiro

Three ways to use it

#1. (sentence 1). nanishiro (sentence 2)
#2. (sentence 1). un, nanishiro...
#3. (sentence 1), nanishiro, (sentence 2)

Example for #1 (there are 5 examples for this particular grammar)

Ano hito ha kanemochi desuyo. *NANISHIRO* bentsu wo sandaimo motteirun desu karane. (In Hinagana)
(He is rich, you know. *Believe it or not*, he has three Mercedes Benz) (gives you translation)

Unlike regular dictionaries, I find the joy in flipping thru these grammar dictionaries just because it's easy to read and it's also informative. Other than *Nanishiro* in the previous sentence, didn't you also learn what kanemochi means?

Samurai is Saburo Sakai's own story of his times as a naval aviator for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Mr. Sakai tells us about his past (yes, his ancestors were samurai's), his time spent learning to be a naval aviator, the pre-war (meaning hostilities prior to those with the US), and yes, his time fighting US pilots.

Things that I personally found very interesting in his telling:

What Japanese Naval personnel (aviators and non-aviators) went thru in basic training. Very brutal treatment. Mr. Sakai tells about Petty Officers beating trainees, ordering them to do physical things that bordered on the impossible. Aviation training was better, but only from the perspective of beating not occuring due to minor infractions. However, the standards they were held to... Obviously, the training was not run by kinder, passionette people.

Mistakes in combat. Mr. Sakai remembered his mistakes so well. The simple fact of failing to arm the guns, over shooting a target, or worse yet, failing to properly identify the target (Mr. Sakai mistook a unit of TBM/TBF Avengers for F6F Hellcats).

His respect for his opponent. Most of Mr. Sakai's combat time was spent in New Guinea flying against US units that were flying P-39's and P-40's. Both of these planes were outclassed by the A6M Zero in almost every category except diving (note, since neither the P-39 or P-40 were supercharged at this timeperiod of the war, their performance went from bad below 15,000 feet, to terrible if they went above 15,000, thereby denying them altitude to dive for an extended period). When this is merged with the fact that the Japanese pilots were combat seasoned veterans, while the Americans were green, it makes for a bad time for those flying the P-39's and P-40's. In remembering these engagements, Mr. Sakai spoke very well of how the US pilots tried to engage the Japanese pilots.

Mr. Sakai's writing style if very readable. It's direct, to the point, without great flurishes or breast beating. This does not mean that it's unemotional, but rather that when he uses emotion, it's very memorable. For rating purposes, I have to give this 4 out of 5 stars (Amazon rating system). I don't know how he could have made it better (writing style?) but I can definatly say that it's a very good read!

Samurai! documents the wartime exploits of Saburo Sakai, the greatest Japanese fighter pilot to survive World War 11, in which he was credited with downing 64 enemy aircraft. Sakai, who died in September 2000 of a heart attack became a legend in his own lifetime. This book explains why.
Samurai! takes us from early victories over the Chinese airforce to the later dogfights with the Dutch, the Australians and, finally, the unstoppable Americans. Sakai, in describing his journey from a rookie pilot to the final surrender, also chronicles the rise and fall of the Japanese Imperial Naval Air Force as seen from one of the most spectacular cogs in its vast apparatus.
Saka, who was never decorated for his actions, was a truly amazing fighter who was held in adulation by his mechanics and wingmen. Indeed, of all Japan's aces, Saburo Sakai was the only one who never lost a wingman in combat. This is an astounding record for a man who engaged in over two hundred aerial melees. But then again, Saburo Sakai's story is an astounding one.
His retreat from Guadalcanal is evidence enough of that. Having suffered paralyzing wounds in his left leg and left arm and having being permanently blinded in his left eye and temporarily blinded in his right eye, with jagged pieces of metal in his back and chest and with the heavy fragments of two 5-caliber machinegun bullets imbedded in his skull, he managed to fly his crippled Zero all the way back to New Guinea. That is the stuff of Hollywood legends.
So too is his dogfight against 15 Hellcats over Iwo Jima. Although he only had sight in one eye, Sakai managed to out manouver the Hellcat fighters and land safely back on the besieged island. His escape from Iwo Jima is also the stuff of Hollywood legends.
Hollywood bases its stories on legendary warriors. And Sakai and his comrades quickly became legends as their honed skills and Mitsubishi Zeros allowed them to cut a swathe through their Chinese, Dutch and Australian enemies. Sakai's accounts of those earlier battles are like reading th accounts of Cochise, Crazy Horse or Geronimo. Sakai and the other Japanese warriors of the air went out and did what they felt they had to do. Their Zeros were as precious to them as the finest steeds were to the warriors of old. They were the cream of the crop.
Unfortunately for them, their numbers were whittled down as the war dragged on. Midway accounted for over 300 of Japan's best pilots.The Americans, meanwhile, came relentlessly at them with their Wildcat and Hellcat fighters, which were purposely designed to outpace the Zero. Time and again, Sakai stresses that it was only the Americans' lack of combat experience that saved him.
They didn't save the others. As the war dragged on, the standard of the average Japanese pilot plummeted.
This book is not a glorification If this book glorifies anything, it is the futility and blaspehemy of war. Sakai describes how business went on as usuall in China even in the middle of combat zones. He describes watching Australian pilots being eaten by sharks. His account of how his superior skills saved him at Iwo Jima reflect the skills he noted in the Dutch and Chinese pilots of the earlier chapters. The Japanese, who had been the confident hunters I nthe earlier chapters, were now the prey. Usually, they were sitting ducks, powerless to do anything but volunteer for a kamikaze mission or to train the young novices who made the bult of the kamikazes.
Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, another top air ace who was later shot out of the air in an unarmed transport plane, was one of these. Sakai describes him as bing "unpredictable in the air, a genius, a poet who seemed to make his fighter respond obediently to his gentle, sure touch at the controls." Sakai constantly uses similar imagery to decribe his love for the Zero. This book has been reissued on countless occasions. Read it and find out why.

Sakai gives us insight into the progression of the war from the Japanese perspective, revealing the mindsets of those on the other side, without meandering into the chronological army list minutiae that many others succumb to. Action and emotion, quandaries of conscience and honour are always the subjects discussed.

Very good book. Highly recommended - very pleasureable read.

Also of increased value to those of us who play WWII combat flight simulators (grin).

I read this book while I was in high school. It gripped me from begining to end. Saburo was a proud and disciplined flyer. His combat prowess seems almost super-human, but as he is quick to remind us knowing the aircraft's capabilities and the tendencies of your enemy is half the battle. His description of the unsuccessful surgery to repair his face and eye after shrapnel is really painful to read. Amazingly, despite the lack of vision in one eye he continued to fly for the Empire, though with a severe handicap. This book is excellent. Anyone interested in learning about Japanese WWII aviation needs to read this book, you will not be dissappointed.

This book shows that combat warriors on both sides have the same thoughts and concerns. They worry about their families and complain about their leadership.

I bought the Classics of Naval Literature volume after reading a library copy. That's how much the book impressed me. The top-surviving Zero naval ace of WWII, Sakai had realistic and controversial opinions of Japan's role in the war. He did much to build postwar friendships with the United States, even at risk to his own life.

Little did I realize when I bought the book that I would someday meet him. I visited him in his Tokyo home and hosted his visit to Naval Air Facility Atsugi. My book is now autographed.