Japanese American Books

There have been several prominent books and journal articles on Japan's postwar economic success (my personal favorite is The Misunderstood Miracle: Industrial Development and Political Change in Japan (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)). However, understanding the true nature of this flourishing is a somewhat different matter. While Friedman addresses the ECONOMIC aspects, Fosberg ably addresses the political and diplomatic aspects.

Prior to the War, Japan had been a major industrial power, and while a stupendous amount of plant and materiel had been physically destroyed by Allied bombing, it was clear that Japan possessed the trained personnel and deepened industrial institutions to recover. What was not clear, however, was if the US political establishment had the will or vision to help out.

Political establishments are heterogenous things, with complicated networks of competing and colluding interests; and while this is something so obvious it ought to be vapid, it's a point usually overlooked by ideologically zealous historians. For those interested in a serious, well-documented treatment of how the network of myriad US interests coalesced towards a strategy of helping Japan develop, and then integrate into the US economic sphere, this is a good beginning.

Students of economics will possibly be perturbed because Forsberg does not strictly adhere to neoliberal economic orthodoxy. This book tends towards neutrality on controversial issues in development economics, and rather, deals with what actors expected to happen as a result of the policies they pursued. So, for example, for much of the period covered the US Congress wavered between accommodating Japanese home markets protection (for the purpose of defeating Communism in the region) and demanding that the Japanese authorities open their market to US goods. An orthodox economist might object that protecting domestic markets was a stupid "payout" for either Japanese or US constituencies generally, but the point is that in 1950 very few political actors anywhere thought such things.

In general, the account tends to be fairly favorable to the US polity in terms of "generosity" (in this case, willingness to sacrifice short-term regional preferences for long-term success in the project of Japanese development), and emphasizes the success of Japanese industry interests in protecting specific markets. At the same time, the difficulty of getting the US polity to support Japanese economic recovery is not ignored. The terms of the bilateral agreements with Japan were sometimes one-sided, allowing the USA bases without commitments to actually defend Japan. Partly this was an ugly byproduct of the fact that Japan had become a US client by virtue of defeat in a war; but it also reflected internal divsions in the Japanese polity over the relationship with the USA.

In any respects, the book is an outstanding companion to the above-mentioned Friedman book on the economics of Japan's development. While Friedman emphasizes the overlooked entreprenuerial aspect, Forsberg explains the institutional and diplomatic aspect that actually prevailed. Readers of varing ideological or economic dogmas may draw their own conclusions based on what actually followed.

in my world history class i was doing a project on the japanese economic miracle after world war ii. this was the main source of information i used. i thought that this book was full of information involving the japanese and their sturggle to gain economic success. this book also taught me a lot about how the americans felt about the japanese. although in war they were enemies, after the war, since the US occupied Japan, due to their help, the japanese were able to get the success they wanted. if you are working on a project or just want to know about the japanese economic miracle, then i strongly suggest this book.

This book was written by a Japanese man who lived and studied in the United states just after 1900. He stayed in various places around the country such as the state of Washington, Kalamazoo, and New York, among others. His writing was some of the first in its time to shed light on actual American life to Japanese readers, who tended to idealize America as a perfect country (the Meiji period was an era of learning from other cultures in Japan). Kafu's writing shows the darkness of early modern American racism, prostitution, and poverty, and places it in beautifully eerie settings. It is sometimes made to offend and outrage readers. I found it to be extremely interesting to see America from an immigrant's point of view in a time when so many people were flooding into the States.

I generally find Nagai Kafu's fiction pretty interesting despite my usual tastes in literature. His lifelong fascination with the seedier side of life would turn me off if he were a lesser writer, but somehow he invests all of this with a melancholy lyricism while all the same not whitewashing or trivializing his subject matter. And with this excellent series of semi-autobiographical short stories Nagai, a fledging writer no less, has already got the knack for this balancing act, only here he's not roaming Asakusa or the Tokyo brothels but rather the back allies of New York or the immigrant slums of Seattle. It is fascinating both to see Nagai treat his familiar themes in an unfamiliar setting and to see turn-of-the-(last)-century America through his keen, attentive gaze...down to the nitty-gritty details even the newer kinds of social history can't quite reconstruct. That said, he's not a one-trick pony--one story deals with a wholesome relationship between the narrator's friend and the latter's fiance and comes complete with a scathing critique of rigid Confucian social mores, while another really nice story tells the tale of a beautiful but short-lived summer romance between the narrator and a strong-willed, intelligent young lady. And many of the stories address the complexities of racial relations, the ambiguity of modernity, the significance of the arts, and other such issues from interesting and thoughtful perspectives and in a manner that seldom seems strained. Whether your interest is in modern Japanese literature or modern American cultural history, you will find this book quite worth your while. And if you just want to read some good stories by a fine writer at the start of his promising career, well, you won't go wrong with this one either.

"And Then a Rainbow" is an intimate journey with a Japanese family as they made new trails from Japan through California, and then back to Japan and back to California.
The recollections of Ms. Shimonishi-Lamb are like the kitchen conversations that many third and fourth generation Japanese Americans yearn for with their own grandparents or parents. Personal family stories about internment and other wartime events are few and far between, which makes this book a treasure in Japanese American history.
The Kubota family came from Yamanashi Prefecture to San Francisco. They first settled in the Sacramento area building a successful rice company. Later, they traveled south to the hills of Palos Verdes and farmed near the Pacific Ocean. The children attended school in San Pedro, the Los Angeles Harbor District.
Mili married Toshio Shimonishi, from Hiroshima, and they lived in the Los Angeles area for a short time until the war broke out. They were interned in Cody, Wyoming, at Heart Mountain Relocation Camp. There, they grappled with issues of citizenship, loyalty, and family values. They were repatriated to Japan after the war and the author gives a unique account of an American rebuilding her family life in post-war Hiroshima.
Many years passed and her desire to return to America became a reality. And once again, she was rebuilding her life but this time, it was in Long Beach, California. Mili finally got her rainbow.
Of all the books I've read on Japanese American history, this is one of the most interesting and is one of my favorites.

It is a true story of my life during that time. It is a history that cannot be repeated. I wanted my children and friends to hear about it from me. Readers have commented that they laughed and cried while reading my book.

As a former internee in Los Banos Camp when we were rescued by the "Angels," I highly recommend this book. It told me a lot that I never knew at the time - the background of the raid. It is well-written and comprehensive, told from the point of view of the paratroopers. We were only with them a few hours after the raid, so didn't have much chance to hear their stories. My family and I are alive because of the paratroops, the guerrillas and the Army Recon platoon.

This well-written book is a "must-read" for anyone who is interested in U.S. military actions in the Pacific during WWII. Angels at Dawn tells the little-known story of the February 1945 rescue by 11th Airborne Division paratroopers and Filipino guerillas of American civilians and other nationalities who were being held by the Japanese in a prison camp at Los Banos on the Philippine Island of Luzon. This book does a better job than many dealing with the Pacific war in explainining why prisoners of the Japanese were at much risk. In part this was due to the threat of starvation and disease, but also because during the latter stages of the war in 1945, Japanese murders of prisoners increased as Allied troops advanced. Against this backdrop the author, who was a member of the 11th Airborne Division during the 1945 fighting in the Philippines, recounts how General MacArthur called on the "Angels" as the division was nicknamed, to mount a hazardous parachute and ground assault behind enemy lines to rescue the prisoners at Los Banos before starvation or Japanese violence could take their lives. As a former soldier who served in Korea, this book reminded me once again of how important the actions of U.S. military forces were during the 20th Century. We live in a better world because of what they did. Angels at Dawn tells the story of one of those actions, which resulted not so much in the destruction of the enemy, but in the preservation of the lives of American civilians, and other foreign nationals.

I Used This Book On History Project. It Was Great.

Of all the current history books on the Asian American experience, Roger Daniels' book "Asian America" still stands out as the most scholarly, the best thought-out and the most clearly presented. While this is not to deny the achievements of Asian American historians such as Ron Takaki (whose "Strangers From a Different Shore", and "Iron Cages" remain classics), Daniels' book presents a more systematic account of the social and historical context for the Chinese and Japanese experience in the US. He has an undoubted talent for presenting historical data with rigor, sensitivity, and skill.

I recommend this volume to all my students who are doing papers on Chinese or Japanese American topics, but it is also useful for anyone who wants to understand the development of the particular version of US race ideology during the late 19th and early-mid 20th centuries.

Highly highly recommended

Hands down, this is my FAVORITE Japanese cookbook. Elizabeth Andoh, an American married to a Japanese, is not only a fine cook, cooking teacher, and journalist in her own right, but is in the unique position of being an American consultant to the Japanese food industry. This is her first cookbook, published in 1980 (it was followed by "An American Taste of Japan" in 1985). It's a primer of "pure" Japanese home cooking -- like Mama used to make, if your mama happened to be Japanese. I learned to cook in the kitchens of Japanese friends, and the flavors of Ms. Andoh's recipes make me swooningly "natsukashii" (nostalgic) for Japan.

The book's 130 recipes are organized in the classic order of Japanese cuisine: soups, rice, noodles, braised and simmered foods, grilled foods, deep-fried foods, steamed foods, mixed and sauced foods, pickles, and sweet things and beverages. No photographs, but crystal clear recipes are complemented by beautiful line drawings that illustrate ingredients and techniques. A section in the front details Japanese cooking techniques and equipment, while a glossary at the back not only translates the names of unusual ingredients, but explains how to choose and store them. In all, it's a wonderful book that I can't recommend highly enough.

I loved this cookbook so much I photocopied the entire (out of print) copy my library had several years ago, which cost me at least three times what I would've paid if I could've bought it new. I'm thrilled to find it used, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Everything I have made from this book over the last 10 or 12 years has been delicious (with the exception of a failed rice bran pickle experiment I forgot about when I went on vacation...whoops). Elizabeth Andoh is to Japanese cooking what Barbara Tropp was to Chinese; passionate, knowledgeable, down to earth, the kind of cook you wish was your neighbor.

This is a beautifully written account of a young man's survival of the sinking of the USS HOUSTON during WW2. After spending 17 hours in the water, he was "rescued" to begin a three and a half year imprisonment in Japanese work camps which included the infamous River Kwai bridge. It is a true account of degradation, suffering, pain and fear laced with humor and faith. I sincerely doubt if anyone can read this book and not be a little bit humbled by what our courageous young men endured for our country. GOD BLESS AMERICA; AND GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES.

The author of Attention, Fool! was my father. William J. Weissinger, Jr. survived the sinking of the USS Houston CA-30 only to spend the ensuing 42 months in Japanese death camps. As I read his book it was as if I was sitting there with him, listening to him tell of his experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war. And I think to myself, "Man, this is vintage Daddy, if ever there was." I don't recall him telling me anything more than "what" happened. I think he knew that if you weren't there, you could never know how bad it really was, no matter how he described the conditions. But in his telling, I did understand that it was bad. His story is one of human survival under the most adverse conditions, and I'm sure the men who shared these experiences will be able to read much into this book than the average reader ever could.

The Barrier and the Javelin proves to be well written and well researched book which centered around Japanese and Allied strategies that led up the stalement battle at Coral Sea and total American victory at Midway.

The book revealed that Japanese naval forces, despite of all its abilities, superior ships and planes and its highly trained crew, could not defeat its outnumbered enemies due to poor strategy. It was clear that the Japanese have badly over extended themselves and try to be too clever with their strategies which backfired on them.

I agreed with the previous reviewer that the author, H.P. Willmott was bit too judgmental on the wrong sides at times. A good example would be those Japanese raids into the Indian Ocean which was a terrible waste of men and material, especially since the British navy in that area served as no threat and primary duty of the Imperial Navy was to chased down the American carriers. But on the other hand, I thought Willmott's condemnation of Admiral Yamamoto was right on the mark. Too long have this Japanese admiral been overrated by many historians based on one successful attack on Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto fumbled terribly at Midway. (Personally, I thought he fumbled badly at Pearl Harbor too.) The author also cites superior American military intelligence as well as a lot of luck to win a battle of Midway that the Japanese should have won hands down.

Anyone with any interest in this subject should be reading this very insightful book. Its not really for casual reader so I would recommended folks who already have a good background on the Pacific War to tackled this book. A good companion book to Willmot's earlier book, Empires in the Balance, both books, in my humble opinion, belong to any library of a military historian who got an interest in this field.

This book is about Japanese and American planning and strategy in the naval battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. At the Coral Sea in May 1942, the Americans scored their first semi-victory of World War II. At Midway in June 1942 the Americans stunned the over-confident Japanese by sinking four of their aircraft carriers at the loss of one of their own.

Willmott's theme is that Japan should have won both battles against an out-numbered and inexperienced American navy, but did not because of woolly strategy and poor planning. At Midway Japan had two objectives: conquer the island and destroy the American fleet. These objectives should have been reversed in priority. Moreover, Japan split its superior naval forces into three isolated groups and thus permitted the Americans to meet and fight one of these groups on equal terms. The Japanese also assumed that the Americans would always do exactly what Japan wanted them to do and were unprepared for surprises.

The Americans, on their part, had superior intelligence (based on breaking Japanese codes), more durable ships and planes, and good luck. Willmott illustrates luck in his minute-by-minute examination of the mishaps of the Japanese in locating the American fleet at Midway. First, mechanical problems delayed the dispatch of a scout plane for half an hour and, next, the pilot inexplicably lingered near the American fleet for an hour before he reported the presence of carriers, an oversight that paralyzed the Japanese when they should have been attacking. As a result, American bombers scored first -- and decisive -- strikes against the Japanese carriers. But, Midway was a very near thing! 41 American torpedo bombers attacked in the first wave -- and only five came home again.

Willmott, a Brit, is opinionated and in the course of 500 pages, he makes some judgments I found questionable. For example, he seems to think it would have been a good idea for the Japanese navy to invade the Indian ocean and expel the British. That seems like a very bad idea. In my opinion, after the fall of Singapore in February 1942, Japan's overwhelming priority should have been to destroy the American aircraft carriers in the Pacific- but Japan dithered with raids on Ceylon and Australia and invasions of New Guinea. The delay proved to be fatal.

This is a good book for those whose interests go toward detailed examination of the thought processes of military planners and the battlefield decisions of leaders in charge of ships, planes, and men. Willmott probes deeply and provocatively into the calculations and miscalculations of men at war.

to be followed by a careful reading of Friar Leonardo Boff's Praying With Jesus And Mary: Our Father, Hail Mary.

Eloquently, ephemerally, eternally embracingly reminiscent of the fine work by Father Merton examining this same rich field of deep soil and open heart, such as Mystics and Zen Masters and Zen and the Birds of Appetite., yet here we may hear the interplay across the centuries of two contemplative souls in conversation, one Catholic, the other Buddhist, seeking peace in compassion and the end of suffering. As Ryokan writes: "Oh, that my monk's robe were wide enough to embrace the suffering of the world." Herein lies the essence of Christian monasticism and Passion of the Christ, who cries, "Jerusalem, how long have I longed to gather you beneath my wings like a hen her chicks." Here we may learn to access the depths of our own Catholic contemplative heart, spirit and soul. While the men of the hour angrily battle over individual words and purposeful misunderstandings, these holy and contemplative women like Sister Mary Lou and Sister Joan in silent prayer, call us back to the one eternal and universal God whom we worship. Like the Martha and Mary dichotomy, they have chosen the "better part" and lead us gently, quietly back home.

At first, the magic of this book will be seen in the idea of building a relationship between a Zen monk of 19th century Japan, and a contemporary Benedictine (USA) nun through the 'exchange' of poems. They are the alternating voices in this unusual dialogue, one that needs to be read at a measured pace.

In the introduction of "Between Two Souls" Joan Chittister, herself of the Benedictine order, says this book calls all of us . . "out of our daily selves and into the monastery of the heart." The book's author, Mary Lou Kownacki, explains that she used the poems of RYOKAN as her "lectio" - - a holy reading used daily for meditation (see also isbn #0835808068//Norvene Vest's "Gathered in the Word") in the hope of 'catching' the extravagant heart of the man who wrote: "Oh, that my monk's robe were wide enough to embrace the suffering of the world."

In some poems the readers may question undercurrents of passion, yet it can be argued that you cannot have life without passion. Arresting calligraphy is provided by Eri Takase's strong brushstrokes. All of this needs to be savored as a Feast, including this brief 'exchange' of Haiku:

Ryokan: Left behind by the thief
the moon
in the window.

Kownacki: Some mistake -
This old lady's skin I wash
Pretends it is mine.

The key to the deepest enjoyment, the richest extraction of guidance, is to meditate on each poem or phrase, and find your own path to approaching Life in a non-violent way.

Ryokan said "..... if you don't write of things deep inside your own heart, What's the use of churning out so many words?" is answered by Kownacki: "My poems are simple, ..... But like stone soup/The broth is clear/And there is a center."

Later she says: "It is a time of great poverty and violence in the land, Yet day after day we write verses and raise a toast....." Can I do less than raise a toast to these two voices? And urge everyone to read their words and discover which poems enter your hearts to do their work. "Cheers" says Reviewer mcHaiku.

I loved the way this book explored the differences between being Japanese and Japanese American. It really captures the feeling of isolation that a Japanese American can feel living in Japan. The illustrations are gorgeous examples of contemporary Japanese kiri-e art and provide a beautiful and striking balance to the two children's view of life in Japan. The book provides a wonderful introduction to Japanese life and culture that will strike a responsive chord with anyone who has ever visited Japan. A wonderful gift book!

As a teacher, I am always looking for good books to supplement what I am covering in class. My sixth-graders loved this book. They really enjoyed discussing the notion of moving to the country their own ancestors came from and about what life in Japan was like for Americans. One of my students told me later that based on this book, when she grows up, Japan is the first country that she plans to visit. Gorgeous pictures, too.