Asia Books

Gary Nila has produced a book that collectors will not want to miss. Unlike most Osprey titles, this one is packed with photos of artifacts and discussions on markings, variants and construction--just the sort of stuff collectors need and want.
Photo quality is wanting, however. Many images are a too dark to see the details that the author describes. Nevertheless, collecting WWII Japanese material is an area in need of quality research, and author Nila has filled an important niche. It is well-worth the price. I would have happily paid more for a hardcover edition with better photographs. I hope Osprey and Nila work out plans for a more comprehensive treatment of this subject.

An interesting little book on a little written about subject. A good acquisistion for those interested in WWII and what went on in the Pacific theater of operations.

Nicely written. Well informative. Well illustrated.

I only wish the book was longer, but few Japanese every voluntarily surrendered in combat so little in the way of first-person accounts is available for the historian to work with. Anyway, this is an excellent introduction to the Imperial Navy's shock troops in WWII.

For such a small volume, it is packed with useful information, and vivid pictures, many of which have never been published before. Not only will this book be a useful reference tool for the historian of the WAr in the Pacific, but also useful for those who create wonderful masterpieces in the scale modeling community. Mr. Nila has placed amazing color picutures of uniforms and equiptment used by Japan's elite Naval Landing Forces. This book is a must have...
Keep up the GOOD Work Mr. Nila

It seems that we hear a lot about the Jewish communities in North American and Europe, but we are less familiar with the Jewish Communities of Africa, the Middle East, Caucusus, Central Asia, India and China. These are some of the oldest Jewish communities in the world so they deserve attention.

Blady has compiled a history and study of these communities. First Blady offers some general information on the country and then focuses on the Jewish community in that country. The communities Blady focuses on are Yemen, Iran, Crimea, Kurdistan, Georgia, Afghanistan, Daghestan, Uzbekistan, India, China, Morocco, LIbya, Tunisia and Ethiopia.

I have bought many, many history books from Amazon.com and this is definitely one of the best and most interesting of them all. There are Jews and there are Jews. I grew up in Malaysia (where there are no Jews) thinking that the modern-day Jewish people is a Semitic Middle Eastern looking people since they all originated from Israel.

Then I thought that Jews were in fact all whites after finding out that many white American celebrities were Jewish. Later on, I discovered that there were actually two Jewish "peoples" : the Eastern European variety (i.e. Ashkenazim) and the Spanish/Mediteranean looking variety (i.e. Sephardim).

But after buying and reading this book, I now know that there is no such thing as a Jewish race (in the anthropological sense of the word). The concept of a "Jewish race" as perpetuated by Hitler and other anti-semities had truly fooled people like myself and others who grew up knowing little about Jews.

As Jews became dispersed by persecution and massacres they brought along Judaism with them to almost every corner of the known world. Not all went to Europe to become the ancestors of the Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Many settled in North Africa, the Middle East and Persia, Africa (i.e. Ethiopia)...and even travelled as far as India and China. In all these places, these Jews accepted proselytes/converts and married local women, who added their genetic material (and customs) into those isolated Jewish communities ......so much so that these Chinese, Indian, Ethiopian, Persian, Afghan, Kurdish, Tat, Yemeni, Beber, Bukharan and Georgian Jews become physically indistinguishable from their Gentile neighbours and had very similar customs. In all these places, as the Gentiles became converts to Judaism, they and their descendants became an integral part of the Jewish people. Similaly, the authors inform that a great many Jews in North Africa, Persia, Afghanistan, Kurdistan and Yemen after the Islamic conquests converted to Islam (sometimes by force). No doubt they become absorbed by and contributed their genes to the aforesaid Muslim communities/peoples.

Also, I thought that were only two Jewish kingdoms in history (i.e. Israel and Judah from the Bible). In fact, when Judaism spread with the Jewish dispersion, a number of peoples and kingdoms embraced Judaism. Jewish kingoms in fact existed at one point in time from Berber North Africa in the West to Kurdistan and Western India in the East; and from Khazaria (modern day Russia/Ukraine) in the North to Yemen and Ethiopia in the South. Most of these kingdoms were small except for the Khazar Empire.

The authors definitely deserve more than 5 stars for their research and the compilation of these facts into this truly intriguing book.

This is an excellent book on the 17 "Oriental" Jewish communities in Asia and Africa, namely those of Kurdistan, Crimea, Georgia, Daghestan, Bukhara, Afghanistan, China, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, Ethiopia as well as the two communities each in India, Yemen and Persia. As this book is confined only to exotic communities, the larger 'mainstream' and better-known Jewish communities such as the Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Greek-speaking Romaniotes and even the Mizrachim are outside the purview of this book. The terms 'Sephardim' and 'Mizrachim' in this book are used in a technical sense and as such refer only to the Ladino-speaking Jews of Spanish origin and the Arabic speaking Jews of Iraq and Egypt respectively.

The author describes in great detail the physical appearance, customs, religious practices, social status, common occupations of the members of each Jewish community as well as the relationship with and the treatment by their gentile neighbours. The Jews of these exotic communities are very similar in physical appearance, cuisine, lifestyle, customs, and even in language (which is normally a variant of the local language mixed with Hebrew words) with the indigenous peoples who they live among, which challenges the concept of Jews as a race. For example, the Jews of Kaifeng, Malabaris and Beta Israel are physically indistinguishable from the Chinese, Indians and Ethiopians respectively. Even the Krimchaks of Crimea are Caucasians with Mongoloid features not unlike their Crimean Tatar neighbours. This shows that intermarriages between Jews and the locals as well as conversions to Judaism must have been substantial at one point.

Eleven of the Seventeen Jewish communities live in a Muslim milieu. Unlike most books written by Western apologists of Islam, this book describes the persecution and decimation of the Jews by their Muslim rulers/conquerors. On the eve of the Muslim conquests, the Jews must have formed a very substantial part of the population in North Africa and West Asia. In Persia for example, they once numbered in the millions. Jewish Berber tribes such as the Jerava Berbers under El Kahina in Morrocco and the Ureshfani under Fanana in Libya played a prominent role in fighting the Muslim invaders. After the conquests, thousands of Jews were killed and even more escaped annihilation by embracing Islam. This book briefly mentions that many of the ancestors of the Muslim Pathans (the main ethnic element of the Taliban), Tats, Kurds (who played a prominent role in the 1895 and 1915 Turkish-orchestrated Armenian massacres), Yemenis (Osama bin Laden and a fair few of the Al-Qaeda members are of Yemeni origin) and the various Berber groups in North Africa (many of them are now supporters of Islamic fundamentalist movements) were of the Jewish faith.

The Jewish remnants who remained in the Islamic lands during the medieval period were subjected to all kinds of indignities, abuses and not to mention institutionalized contempt. Many a times they were on the brink of extinction. Under Islam, Jews were made to do the most humiliating and repugnant tasks in society. A Jew was not allowed to defend himself when attacked by Muslims and almost all Muslims who murdered Jews went unpunished. The Jew was never out in the street with his wife because he could not intervene on her behalf if she was assaulted. During times of religious violence, everything a Jew owns is snatched from him, his children taken away and he himself would be killed or auctioned off. Sometimes, the Jews were lucky. They were given the choice of converting to Islam and many did while secretly practicing Judaism. The numbers of forced converts to Islam must have been considerable, as there were at least 20,000 Meshedi New Muslims [cum]Crypto-Jews (whose ancestors "converted" generations ago) of Iran who openly returned to the Jewish faith in more recent years after fleeing Iran.

Islamic history is revisionist and subjected to propaganda. On one hand Islam institutionalizes the discrimination of Christians and Jews for rejecting Muhamad as a prophet of God but on the other hand claimed that they were never persecuted. It is like the anti-Semitic Neo-Nazis who say "did 6 million Jews really died" whilst working towards the destruction of the Jewish people. I hope that there would be more such books which give a fair and objective account of the history of the Jews living under Islam. More often than not, Western writers while emphasizing the expulsion of the Sephardim from Spain and the massacres perpetrated by the Crusaders in medieval Germany and the Cossacks in Ukraine, give a distorted account of how Jews lived happily under Islam. What is intentionally concealed is the fact that the religion in which the great Spanish-Jewish philosopher, Maimonides, was compelled to convert to was Islam and not Christianity and that Sabbetai Zevi (the "Jewish Messiah"), a Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire was forced to accept Islam on the pain of death and commissioned to evangelize the Jews for Islam.

This book is a must buy for all those who are interested not only in the history of the Jewish diaspora but also if they are interested in exotic cultures in hidden corners of the world.

As a Jew of Maghrebi (North-West African) and Andulusi descent, many aspects of the contents of this book do not come as a surprise. Especially since I have been in Israel and Ethiopia and could myself be classified as an exotic Jew. Ken Blady's book goes into a great amount detail about the various communities, from many different perspectives. This is the type of book that needs to be taught in every Yeshiva because there are many Jews, even from the regions mentioned in the book, who don't know the history of the Jewish communities from North Africa, East Africa, Yemen, Persia, India, China, etc. I have had this book for several years, and it continues to be a good source of information.

What is enlightening about the book is that many of the stories in out about these communities are being lost in the sands of time, because of the changing of dynamics of the Jewish world, now that there is a state of Israel. I would recommend this book to everyone who has an interest in Jewish history. It is especially important because several of the communities in the book i.e. the Persian/Babylonian/Yemeni/Maghrebi Jewish communities are the oldest Jewish communities outside of the land of Israel.

simply highly recommended.

a bit longer than AMONG THE DERVISHES, but these two books are essential.

i reread them about every two years.

almost anything by OCTAGON PRESS is worth the time and effort.

The author was allowed to travel with the contemporary Sufi teacher Idries Shah, and this book recounts his observations of Shah's interactions with people in many parts of the world, as well as many details of Sufi teaching. Idries Shah died on November 23, 1996, and this book is one of only a few available which offers biographical information

The title would perhaps be equally accurate if changed to "Experiences of a Sufi Student" because it is based on the author's travels with Idries Shah during the 1970s. A student's viewpoint is refreshing because certain questions that the reader may have arise more naturally in the context of seeing a fellow seeker encounter new experiences and ask his guide about them. On the other hand, readers may feel they are wading through a lot of hagiographic references to Shah's accomplishments.

The account of the author's visit to a Zavia (dervish monastery) in Yemen includes some truly astonishing events. The subsequent chapter has equally amazing material on Nuristan, but the "wondrous oil" described by the author therein is simple enough to make and test for oneself -- I found it quite beneficial for healing bruises.

"SLM" is an Arabic "radix" which can be developed into either the word "journey" or "book". It can also mean "clear away clouds". I would say that this SLM tears back the curtains and allows the seeker backstage to watch with Bashir M. Dervish the antics of Idries Shah with their Sufic effects on the world. The only other book similar to it would be AMONG THE DERVISHES by O. M. Burke. Since Idries Shah died in 1996, the urgency for familiarity with this book becomes greater all the time.

This book is absolutely amazing. It's like walking through a museum in many ways -- and don't we parents feel great when we take our kids to a museum? We feel like it's worth the admission price to ensure our children know how to appreciate history, art, and beauty.

In the introduction, Allen Say writes, "When I think of my childhood in Japan, I think of kamishibai. It means 'paper theater.' Every afternoon, the kamishibai man came on a bicycle that had a big wooden box mounted on the back seat. The box had drawers full of candies and a stage at the top. We bought candies and listened to the man's stories."

Say was born in Yokohama in 1937, into a very different Japan than what exists now. Back in the days where people didn't have televisions in their homes, children would eagerly anticipate listening to the kamishibai man's stories. "Clack! Clack!" He would beat his wooden blocks together until he'd drawn a crowd of listeners. His stories were cliffhangers, ending with "to be continued." So the children would return the next day to hear what happened next.

In this book, an old man who has retired to the countryside remembers his days of being a kamishibai man. "I've been thinking how much I miss going on my rounds," he says to his elderly wife. So, she makes him some candies, and he rides his bike back into the city, humming along the way (until he reaches the urban metropolis). Much has changed. The trees and quiet parks have been replaced with concrete and buildings. "Who needs to buy so many things and eat so many different foods?" he wonders to himself.

The cover of the book shows you what his theater looks like. (Oh, don't you love that picture?) He takes out his wooden blocks and clacks them together, just like in the old times. In his mind, he's seeing the happy faces of children running to him. Thus begins a story within a story, and Say changes his style of artwork to preserve the style of the kamishibai man's illustrated cards.

He tells the story of what it was like for him when TVs came along and began to replace his job as entertainer. In a poignant scene, a little girl comes to her window and shushes him! You can see her siblings inside, sitting mesmerized in front of a television set. The sadness on the storyteller's face expresses the end of an era.

But as the elderly man finishes his story, he looks up to see that he's surrounded by clapping middle-aged people, who remember him. "We grew up with your stories!" one of them shouts. They applaud him, and he's even filmed by a news station (which is ironic, isn't it?).

The facial expressions in the artwork are stunning; you have to look at each picture carefully to notice all the exquisite details. I've watched my five-year-old stare and stare at these pictures. This would be a great addition to school libraries and classrooms -- teachers will love to read it out loud because it's captivating and full of dialogue.

In the afterword, a Japanese folklore scholar explains more of the significance of Japan's post-war transition to an electric, affluent society. She writes, "The artists who had made their living in kamishibai turned to more lucrative pursuits, notably the creation of manga (comic books) and later anime [cartoons], but they never forgot their roots in kamishibai."

-- Reviewed by Heather Lynn Ivester for Mom 2 Mom Connection

My wife and I perform kamishibai stories at local schools, libraries, and cultural festivals, and we always take Kamishibai Man along to show audiences. The illustrations are warm yet detailed; you get a good sense of what it must have been like to watch the original kamishibai men, back in the days before TV. And the story's mix of nostalgia and hope is touching. Highly recommended.

This story, set in old Japan, is that of a story teller (Kamishibai). Jichan,or grandfather in Japanese, and his wife had no children. So, he enjoyed telling his stories to the young children and selling his candies. But all that changed when television came around. The children stopped coming to listen to his stories and he was even shushed by a child when calling for them to come. Though it saddened him, Jichan stopped coming around and being the Kamishibai Man. That is until one day many years later when he decided to give it one last shot. Find out what happens when Jichan returns to the city. See the surprises that are in-store for him.

Like all Allen Say's work, this book is splendidly illustrated. I love the story. It brings me back to my childhood in Hong Kong, where we kids sat outdoor and enjoyed bowls of sweetened soybean gelatin dessert bought from the door-to-door vendor while lapping up our mothers' gossip and real-life tales. The affordability of refrigerator in each home pretty much replaced the vendor. I remember as a little girl, I too had gone by my window one day and shushed the old man for clacking his clappers and yelling to sell his goods. Children and adults will both enjoy the stunning drawings, reading the words aloud, and appreciate the "once upon a time" story.

Whether you have children or not, this book will help you plan your Israel travel. It lists many attractions, tourist sites, museums, national parks, etc., including hours of operation, phone and fax numbers, and whether there is a fee. As a professional travel planner specializing in Israel travel, I highly recommend this book to all my clients, even those traveling without children!

We used this book every day of our 2 week trip to Israel with 3 children aged 1-8. Our friends then borrowed the book for a 3 week trip with 5 children aged 6-16. The sections of the book are broken down by geography, with handy maps to assist you in setting up your schedule, whether your hotel is in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Tiberias or Eilat. The greatest benefits of the book include the phone numbers of the tourist sites as well as the hours which each location is open. The author even recommends ideal hotels and activities based on your children's ages.

This book is does an OK job describing activities for kids, but it is VERY outdated. Israel is changing rapidly and this book is in need of a new revised edition. It lists places like the Dolphinarium as a place to take kids. The Dolphinarium was turned in to a disco years ago.

You can use this book for some ideas, but double check everything before you go, the activity may no longer be there.

Barbara Sofer is one of the most knowledgable writers on everyday life in the land of Israel. In this outstanding guide she pays special attention to the attractions which will be especially appealing to families.
Israel is a small country extremely crowded with interesting sights and people.
This is an outstanding guidebook to a remarkable land.

As a collector of 100% natural dyed Turkish Kilims, my wife and I have now replaced this particular book over many within our library for information, data and usefulness in understanding and relating to the carpets (kilims) in and around the regions of Turkey... many of the regions and carpets, we are quite familiar with as we have are fortunate to have a 2nd home in Antalya.

Simply stated, this book is a must for anyone that desires to learn or begin the quest and addiction for kilims. We have actually discovered that one of the notable kilim dealers in Antalya uses this book as well and highly recommends it. One of the important keys to knowing and understanding kilims lies with "KNOWING THE COLORS".

Exceptional !!

This book is very informative. I wanted to become knowledgable about Kilims and this book has really helped me to become so. The photographes are very beautiful. I hope to become an advid collector and with the information from this book I am a confident buyer.

This is my favorite book on Flatweaves. It covers more than just kilims and is very comprehensive. If you are interested in any Flatweaves you should have this book. I use this book when I am trying to identify flatweaves and I find it a simple, user friendly, but comprehensive resource.

Gorgeous rugs. Gorgeous photographs. Lots of them. For people who love oriental rugs, especially funky tribal rugs, and for people who are demanding about the pleasure they expect from rug books--this book is a great find.

As a proud member of the U.S. Marines, I can't help to be a fan of the colorfull and violent history that is the legacy of my Marine Corps. This book is a fine example of the amazing feats that American Marines (with a few Army guys) have made the trademark of the Marine Way. I whole-heartedly recomend this book as is is very fast-paced and leaves you with a constant feeling of amazement and respect for all the men that were at that fatefull battle.Having traveled to Okinawa this summer, I had a chance to take an amazing tour of the historic battle sites on Okinawa island. After reading this, I'm begging to go back.

Amid the VE-Day euphoria of 1945, Okinawa was captured at a cost (including civilians) of over 200,000 lives. Mr. Hallas persuasive argues (with others) that had Marine General Lemuel Shepherd's end-run plan been adopted, many of those lives might have been spared. The narrative particularly focuses on the key to Japanese defenses, Sugar Loaf Hill, where the 6th Marine Division lost over 6,000 men in a brutal slugging match unsurpassed in the annals of American courage. Meticulously researched and based on interviews with nearly 100 susvivors, this is a fitting tribute to the struggle, largely unknown to most Americans.

James H. Hallas's book `Killing Ground on Okinawa' is one of those books that should be in any decent military history library. Having previously read his account of the fighting on Peleliu, `The Devil's Anvil' I couldn't wait to read this account of the battle for Sugar Loaf Hill. I am happy to say that I was not disappointed in this book.

The author allows the Marines who took part in the fighting tell the story and its incredible to read what these blokes went through for what looks like a very small piece of Pacific Island real estate. The accounts of the fighting men are detailed and to the point and you are forced to sit back and think of how these men endured this hell, it is almost beyond the comprehension of today's generation.

The narrative is full of details but the real guts of the book is the first-hand accounts by the men involved in the assaults against the well constructed Japanese defensive positions. Not only were the Japanese well dug in and protected but they used their firepower and weapons to great advantage. They wrought destruction upon the advancing marines. Men and machines were continually being knocked out with no gain being made against the determined Japanese defence.

Finally after a heroic night attack the marines secured a toehold on Sugar Loaf but then had to hold against Japanese counter attacks and massive counter fire from artillery, mortars, machine guns and snipers. The casualty list for the marine units were massively high causing some questioning of the strategy and tactics used by the Army High Command. In over seven days of fighting the 6th Marine Division suffered over 2,000 casualties fighting for this pimple of a hill which secured the Japanese Shuri Line.

The only fault that I could find with this book was the standard of the maps and photographs. I am sure that they could have been of a higher calibre. Overall this is a great story of combat, dedication, bravery and Espirt de Corp. I think it is one of the better combat accounts of the Pacific Theatre that I have read in some years and I am certain that anyone interested in the Pacific War would be fascinated by this account.

This book is another amazing account of a ferocious battle engaged by the US Marines at the close of WWII at terrible personal sacrifice. It ranks among the best narratives I have read. If you want to take a trip into the trenches of Okinawa with the men who bled their, this book is a must read. The story is fast paced, action packed, gripping and heart rending. I cannot imagine what the outcome of the Pacific war against the Japanese would have been without the sacrifice these brave young men made on behalf of freedom.

This is essential for understanding North Korea and how it relates to the world of today. To undestand North Korea you must understand it's founder Kim Il Sung. The book goes on to show how he created a Stalinist State and huge army to insure it's survival. It talks about the many attempts on the lives of south korean presidents and his unpredictable nature that he passed on to his son and successor. Understandin Kin Il Sung will help the reader understand why Noth Korea is today run more like a cult than a country and why it is the most secretive country in the world today and a failed society.

In 2001 I visited North Korea and found this book very helpful because our guides would only give us the official version of their history. The book is packed full of information and the only one I have found that explains how Kim Il Sung gained and kept power. Dae-Sook Sue has put a great deal of reseach into the book and let's hope he writes another book on North Korea covering Kim Jong Il present reign and the future of the country. There is no other county like North Korea so I recommend reading the book then visiting the country.

This book is advanced but very good. It is complicated at times but in the long run it is good for reports or projects. It is very interesting. Kim Il Sungs career is much more interesting than Lenin's or Stalins. Very Good!

Ever wonder why North Korea is such a ... arrogant little country? This book will tell you exactly why. Guerrilla leaders scarred by years of eating rats, living in the hills, and butchering Japanese invaders do not necessarily possess the skills needed to run a country! This book is a must for anybody interested in the current standoff between America and Pyongyang, which North Korea seems to believe will end with the Korean peninsula being devoured by a sea of fire. Kim Il Sung's early days as a revolutionary and guerrilla fighter are given much attention, as are the purges he carried out in order to become the supreme leader. If you're looking for a play-by-play account of the Korean War, look elsewhere though- this book sweeps quickly through that period. The author focuses primarily on Kim's tight-rope act between the Soviet Union (which gave him the job in the first place), China (which saved his butt from the American-led U.N. forces), and the U.S. (which has refrained from crushing lil' Kim's summer camp of starvation in the name of East Asian harmony). Other topics addressed by the author include: Kim's frustration at not being acknowledged as the Emperor of the Third World, Kim's frustration at not being able to feed his population while spending 99.99% of his country's slight earnings on military hardware, Kim's frustration that the rest of the world didn't care much about the Korean problem (until now, of course), and Kim's frustration at not receiving a THIRD honorary degree from some university in Africa or Southeast Asia (naw, just kidding...but you get the point). The only complaint I have is this: the avalanche of names and details that sometimes disrupts the narrative. Perhaps a little too scholarly for anybody not specifically interested in the history of the North Korean Communist Party from 1946-1980's. Still, if you can get past this, the book is rewarding, and one will walk away knowing who Kim Il Sung was, how his son maneuvered into power, and why North Korea is a country with a Napoleonic complex.

Grinker's book is one of the deepest and well-researched contributions to the broad issue of Korean Unification. From an anthropological perspective he transcends the purely International Relations dimension of analysis and goes deeper into questions of the adaptation of North Korean refugees and their problems that they confront in the South. He illuminates how the division of the peninsula is not only a purely political division but also, by its long "durée" and severe institutions like the National Security Law (NLS), is severly implanted in the Korean citizens' mind. It impacts the Korean identity (Koreanness - What does it mean to be Korean?)) and penetrates the way how Korean people understand themselves and the respective 'other' in case there is such an otherness.
I think everybody who a genuine interest in the Korean unification beyond the political and economic sphere of figures and datas, i.e. in the social and cultural realm of the individual level, should read this monograph.

In this exceptional book, Roy Richard Grinker argues that South Korean discourses on division and unification actually work against reconciliation between the two Koreas and stand as a barrier to future unification. He claims that South Korean discourses on division and unification presume that the nation's division in 1945 unnaturally split a historically homogeneous people (minjung) and that unification would mean the recovery of this temporarily lost Korean homogeneity. Where Grinker finds fault with these assumptions is that South Korean discourses on division and unification do not consider the "constructed" nature of modern notions of Korean homogeneity and that there is also no consideration of how North Koreans may have become significantly different culturally, socially and linguistically since division. Grinker's aim is not to prove the fact that North and South Koreans are different, but that the avoidance of even considering heterogeneity in Korea could lead to great disappointment and social upheaval when unification finally occurs.

Based on these main ideas, Grinker explores the construction and presentation of south Korean discourses on division and unification by focusing on such topic areas as the state/people dichotomy, South Korean thoughts on north Koreans, han and the "inability to mourn" division and loss of homogeneity, depiction of north Korea in school textbooks, the "ritual" of student demonstrations, the stories of south Korean idealists who illegally traveled to north Korea, and the problems of north Korean defectors in adjusting to life in South Korea. By exploring these various aspects of the division/unification discourse in south Korea, Grinker paints a portrait of a South Korean state that has defined its national identity solely in contrast and opposition to North Korea - and could thus lose this national identity if unification actually happened. Additionally, viewed from this perspective, Korean division was and remains the responsibility of Kim Il Sung and external powers - not of South Korea or the Korean minjok - and unification means nothing less than the absorption and assimilation of the North Korean people into the South Korean state. Grinker criticizes this perspective as being the main factor aborting any notion of a practical and realistic unification policy that recognizes and respects the actual heterogeneity of the North and South Korean people.

Grinker's approach to the issue of national division and unification discourses in South Korea is a refreshing break from the volumes of studies on the political and economic discourses on this issue available in the field of Korean Studies. As a solution to the issue he highlights, Grinker advocates a mourning process for the Korean nation and people whereby the heterogeneity of the Korean people is accepted as an immutable reality. With this idea in mind, then, one could deduce from Grinker's argument that a mutually-respectful, but permanently divided Korean peninsula could just as well be a result of the mourning process as a unified, but socially diverse, Korea. Although Grinker does not state this, it would appear that even a permanently divided (but non-hostile) peninsula would be preferable to a Korea unified by the South under the principle of assumed and uniform ethnic homogeneity.

While I feel that Grinker makes a strong case for his argument, his study is not without question or fault. For instance, if Grinker is so strongly striving for readers to view the Korean peninsula as a "heterogenous" grouping of people, then why did he chose to use the narrative convention of naming the two Koreas "south Korea" and "north Korea" in his book using small letters? This only seems to underscore that there is really only "one" Korea that is, in fact, one homogenous nation.

Another weakness, that Grinker himself admits, is his use of psychanalytical concepts such as "the inability to mourn" and han (resentment) to describe South Korean societal issues. The problem is whether concepts more useful for describing an individual's personal mental problems are really appropriate to describe to issues of a collective society. Granted, these concepts can be enlightening as analogies - but risk being to essentialistic or simplistic when applied as descriptions for an entire society of people.

All in all, though, this book is a worthy addition to the field of Korean Studies and deserves the careful reading of anyone with a serious interest in Korea. Even though I wonder how differently Grinker would have presented his argument if this book were written after the July 2000 summit meeting between Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-Il, Grinker does illuminate a topic of discussion generally ignored by the political and economic writers on Korean division and unification issues. With that said, I believe that Grinker succeeds in convincingly showing how South Korean discourses on national division and unification have actually served to block serious contemplation on how to effectively achieve national unification. I highly recommend Korea and Its Futures and can only hope that South Korean policy makers give Grinker's argument serious consideration when formulating their unification policy.

You don't necessarily need to have an anthropology degree to read this "psychocultural analysis" of Korea--the author is an excellent writer and I found his approach, style and analysis to be very intriguing, provocative and powerful. At any rate, a work like this is precisely (desparately) what is needed. There is such a dearth of material that examines how north and south Korea think about each other as similar/different in terms of unification. Most people just assume it is a given without looking at it more closely. I found it fascinating and informative to catch a glimpse of how post-war south Korea problematically depicted the north through school books, student demonstrations, and museum exhibits. And yes, I agree with the other reviewer: The chapter on the thoughts of north Korean defectors was something I was hungry to learn about it and it didn't let me down.

It is so hard to think about the two Koreas--they are placed in such a reductionist, bi-polar context that any nuanced or multifacted view or outlook is hard to discuss. The author demonstrates how complicated, contradictory and ultimately unprepared Koreans are for this "sacred goal" of unification. I was struck by how limited and "stuck" Koreans have been in their assumptions about national identity, defining themselves in opposition to each other all the while pushing for unification. A great virtue of this book is that it avoids the typical approach of other scholars, pundits and news commentators who take a dry, "political science" approach to north Korea, limiting their analysis to geopolitics, regional power dynamics, diplomatic strategies, nuclear prolliferation issues, blah blah blah. The author uses museums displays, children's textbooks and TV shows, as well as real life interviews with defectors. Quite a good book with excellent analysis that will leave you feeling that you learned to realize something oh-so-human and fascinating about a deadlocked political situation in an illuminating way.

I'm not aware that there is an comparable book on Korea. Some may find it too "academic" (I don't) but the prose is still lucid and it is a unique book. Anyone interested in north-south Korea relations should read this. The material on defectors is especially good.

Jae-eui Lee, Kwangju Diary: Beyond Death, Beyond the Darkness of the Age (UCLA, 1999)

How much do you know about modern Korean history? Unless you studied it in school, probably not a great deal. Especially if you're younger than I am; I was alive and old enough to be politically aware during the Kwangju uprising. I don't remember hearing about it on the news at all. Not once. In other words, don't blame yourself for your ignorance. You live in America; your lazy, apathetic media will not educate you. You must do it yourself.

When you do, however, always remember to take everything with a grain of salt. It should be relatively obvious to the average reader of Kwangju Diary that you're not dealing with a fair, objective account of the uprising. (Asking such of the author--who was actually involved in the proceedings, unlike the disinterested-reporter news media--would be far too much.) But still, hearing anything about an event of this magnitude that went all but unreported during its time period (and has been followed up on only sketchily afterwards; the afterword is penned by a journalist who covered the incident, and notes that the New York Times, who gave the incident a great deal [relatively] of coverage as it was happening, has completely ignored follow-ups that strongly implicate the American government in the proceedings). Besides, even allowing for a bit of hyperbole and the emotional state of the author when writing, this is a devastating indictment of the Korean government's actions in Kwangju in May 1980 (and, by implication, an indictment of the American government in May 1980 who allowed it to happen--if only, as the afterword seems to imply, as a sin of omission).

In any case, for those unaware of the incident itself: Kwangju, a city in southwestern Korea, was under martial law, and the citizens didn't like it. It started with student rallies, peaceful demonstrations calling for the end of martial law; it escalated when paratroopers were called in to aid the police in quelling what the government considered riots. Who exactly committed the atrocities is uncertain (though Lee lays the blame for most, if not all, of them at the feet of the paratroopers, which is probably accurate), and the overall death toll is not clear, but it's reasonable to say hundreds of Korean civilians were killed, a number of those tortured beforehand. It's probably not too unreasonable to increase that to "thousands." At one point before the final crackdown, Lee tells of a committee overseeing the tallying of the dead, and the number two thousand is mentioned. The death toll itself, though, is not the true indicator of the depths of depravity here; Lee speaks of shallow graves, some unfilled when the military retreated before it had time to bury the bodies. He speaks of bodies left in basements and alleyways, of bodies too destroyed for there to be any identification (in one particularly ugly scene, Lee relates a story, later backed up by other witnesses, of paratroopers attacking a school bus full of activists, killing all but one high school girl).

All that said, Kwangju Diary is not just a list of atrocities; the other, and more important, part is the days of liberation between the day the rebel militia ousted the paratroopers, police, and government and the final paratrooper crackdown that brought the city to heel. Once again, one has to make allowances for the emotional state of the author at the time, which make the waxing poetic on the utopia brought on by communism (though anarchy, being post-state communism, would be a better description) somewhat excusable. The middle section of the book is a paean to the triumph of the risen oppressed over their oppressors, but in no way does it ever seem to veer off into fantasyland; there are still skirmishes at the borders, impromptu leaders who need to rise and figure out how to ration scarce items like auto fuel, and much planning to be done to try and keep the liberated city from falling back into the hands of a despotic government. There is infighting, there is intrigue, there may even be foreign spies. (Lee discounts the idea that North Korean infiltrators were in the city, but let's face it, government agents did infiltrate the city, and wouldn't the North Koreans have been likely to use civil unrest as a basis for infiltration? Whether the idea that North Korean infiltrators would have been a bad thing or not, from Lee's perspective, is a topic which will remain unaddressed in this review.) A spontaneously-generated communist state born of strife and revolution, Lee wants us to know, has its share of difficulties as well.

Perhaps even more important is Lee's quick, and seemingly unconscious, treatise on how media spin can make even the most sanguine outlook an entirely different beast. Lee repeatedly reports that the media, both Korean and international, refer to the spontaneous demonstrations and victorious uprising as the actions of a mob minority (one wonders how many people actually live in the city, given that the numbers of demonstrators on some days swelled as high as an estimated one hundred fifty thousand). He also stresses that, during the period of liberation, crime in Kwangju was at an all-time low, hardly an indication of mob mentality. Even allowing for the heat of the moment from some of the international journalists, referring to the citizens of Kwangju as a mob is a move calculated to bring the rest of the world's opinions on the citizens of Kwangju to the lowest state possible. Disinterested observers indeed.

This is important stuff. If you don't know about it, you should. *** ½

This detailed, almost moment-by-moment account of the Kwangju rebellion is a fascinating read. A student protest leads to a vicious government crackdown so extreme - using elite paratroop forces against simple protesters - that the people of the city give up their lives and eventually take up arms to take their city back. The introduction provides a capsule history of South Korea, and the afterward an account of the American government's cowardly behavior before, during and after the rebellion. It's a fast read but will leave a lasting impression.

This book leaves the reader forever changed. It tells the story of the Kwangju uprising--one of the most important events in the history of the struggle for freedom in the latter part of the 20th century. Beyond a history of Korea, this book and its story is of utmost importance to all human beings.

This is an important book for anyone interested in Korea, human rights, or political movements. An excellent introduction by Bruce Cumings establishes the context; an equally excellent afterward by Tim Shorrock addresses the incident from the viewpoint of US foreign policy. But it is the diary itself that is truly unforgettable.