Asia Books

Louis Allen, who was there, has captured the completeness of the longest war, the three year non-stop struggle for Burma, magnificently. This largely forgotten war, which saved the Indian sub-continent from Japanese dominance, has been well described, mostly in fragments, based on their personal experiences, by several authors but none has undertaken a complete description that encompasses both the Allied and the Japanese perspectives and Allen's work does this brilliantly.
Based on many interviews with both Allied and Japanese personnel this book captures the struggle from the initial defeat through the retreat into India to the final overthrow of the Japanese military in this large, often beautiful, and unfortunately, today mostly closed ,country.
Fought over widely varied terrain and with a savagery akin to that of the German-Russian experience this book is a tribute to the bravery of military personnel from a wide variety of backgrounds. On the Allied side soldiers from Britain, China, America, India, Nepal ( Goorkas), East and West Africa and Burma were motivated by excellent leadership to stop and then defeat the Japanese.
Interestingly it was to prove to be both the proudest moment and the swansong of the world's largest volunteer army---the British Indian Army. In the Burmese campaigns this army, with its mixture of races and religions form today's India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma truly came into its own only to be broken up two year later.
One must not forget the part played by the logistics services. Both the Allied and the Japanese forces were low in priority for equipment and at the end of a long supply chain. Much of the Allied success was due to a superior supply capability, and in particular, the concept of aerial supply was perfected in the ejection of the Japanese army from Burma.
This book is an excellent read for any student of military history if only to ensure that we never forget the Kohima Memorial inscription.

"When you go home,
Tell them of us and say.
For your tomorrow
We gave our today."

This is an outstanding book that must be considered the definitive single-volume account of the campaign in Burma in WWII. The author is a veteran of the campaign in the British Army where he was an intelligence officer. What is especially enjoyable about this book is that it includes many firsthand Japanese accounts in addition to Allied. The author speaks Japanese and drew upon official Japanese histories and personal interviews with participants. I have read several other books about this often forgotten Theater in WWII ( including Viscount Slim's "Defeat Into Victory" ), but this is the first book that includes Japanese sources. The author starts with the Japanese invasion of Burma and discusses the political situation in Burma prior to the invasion and how the Japanese used this to their favor. It includes the retreat of the British into India, their recovery, the British offensive in the Arakan, and Wingate and the birth of the Chindits. The author goes into great detail about Kohima-Imphal and this is where the Japanese perspective is so interesting. It follows with battles of North Burma and Stillwell, Mandalay/Meiktila and the race to Rangoon and the Japanese breakout of the 28th Army and then the surrender of Japanes forces. The book has good maps and it is not to difficult to follow forces on the battlefield. The most daunting task is trying to remember the Burmese and Indian names for places and trying to remember all the names of the Japanese sources and officers. But all this helps to add to the authenticity of the book. This book is a must read for anyone interested in WWII. It is well written, easy to read and very enjoyable. I highly recommend it.

This is an outstanding book that must be considered the definitive single-volume account of the campaign in Burma in WWII. The author is a veteran of the campaign in the British Army where he was an intelligence officer. What is especially enjoyable about this book is that it includes many firsthand Japanese accounts in addition to Allied. The author speaks Japanese and drew upon official Japanese histories and personal interviews with participants. I have read several other books about this often forgotten Theater in WWII ( including Viscount Slim's "Defeat Into Victory" ), but this is the first book that includes Japanese sources. The author starts with the Japanese invasion of Burma and discusses the political situation in Burma prior to the invasion and how the Japanese used this to their favor. It includes the retreat of the British into India, their recovery, the British offensive in the Arakan, and Wingate and the birth of the Chindits. The author goes into great detail about Kohima-Imphal and this is where the Japanese perspective is so interesting. It follows with battles of North Burma and Stillwell, Mandalay/Meiktila and the race to Rangoon and the Japanese breakout of the 28th Army and then the surrender of Japanes forces. The book has good maps and it is not to difficult to follow forces on the battlefield. The most daunting task is trying to remember the Burmese and Indian names for places and trying to remember all the names of the Japanese sources and officers. But all this helps to add to the authenticity of the book. This book is a must read for anyone interested in WWII. It is well written, easy to read and very enjoyable. I highly recommend it.

This excellent book is hard to put down but I am afraid that in going from a hardcover edition to a smaller paperback that the maps have become very hard to read. The letters are so small on some of the maps that they are nearly impossible to read. Hope the editors do something about it but I doubt it will happen. Minor flaw in a great read.

It was clearly written, and rich in anthropological detail. After reading this cook book, I felt as if I could go to Burma and order with confidences from the menus there. I have prepared several recipes from this book, and all were delicious and exotic.

My copy of this book, now dog-eared and food stained, has become one of my standards when I'm looking to prepare 'not just your ordinary' generic Asian style dinner. In terms of successfully replicating these recipes I'd say it's a one spooner (four spoons being the most difficult. This assumes you have an interest in cooking and its process--and typically call cooking more than throwing together 'chicken tonight'. What makes the cuisine of Burma so interesting is how it has taken the influence of its neighbors--Thailanad, India, and China--and created flavors and tastes unique to Burma. This book represents dishes that are both authentic in their scope and fresh in their flavors. Lookin' to go native? Great buy.

One of the few books available concerning burmese cuisine this book is definitly informative, and useful as a key to burmese flavour combinations and palate. I have had this book for over 15 years (I recommend page 103.. labour intensive but a family favourite and the only curry that my mum will clean her coffee grinder to make). True, there are no pictures, but I guess it let's you dream a bit, and it in no way detracts from the book; I mean who wants to try and make something look the way a food stylist has spent three hours on anyway? By and large the recipes are quite good and not too complicated... If there were a negative side to the book it would be that some recipes just arn't suited to western palates (even if they are authentic?), and have to be seen in the context of a multi dish meal with condiments and sauces. All in all, a facinating look at an undeservedly unknown cuisine and another lovely addition to the prolific Mr. Copeland Marks' oeuvre.

......this cookbook is an experience! Burmese cuisine is a marvelous blend of the cuisines of its neighbors: China, Thailand, and India, making for a collection of delicious recipes that are distinct and memorable. The authors even give a brief history of each recipe, describing the origins and modern availability of many. They also open with a history of Burma that really helps round off the experience of this cookbook.

This cookbook contains hundreds of recipes, a glossary of ingredients and a "how to make...." section to help teach those new to the cuisine how to make some of the commonly found prepared items in the recipes. I can highly recommend: Beef in Tamarind Sauce, Roast Pork and Garlic Noodles, Malay Noodle Stir-Fry, Egg Noodles (Chinese Muslim Style), Chicken and Chick Pea Curry, Chili Chicken and the Sesame Rice Dessert. This cookbook has so much more to offer that I know I will be discovering for a long time to come. Chapters include: Appetizers and Fritters, Chutneys and Condiments, Soups, Beef and Lamb, Pork, Poultry and Eggs, Fish and Seafood, Rice and Pancakes, Vegetables and Salads, Sweets, and Menus.

The only drawback I see in choosing this cookbook would be for those cooks who need pictures to prepare recipes. This cookbook does not contain any photos. Also, for those who require very Americanized versions of international cuisine, be forewarned, this cookbook contains authentic Burmese recipes! If you want a genuine experience, than look no further than this cookbook!

Unlike some other reviewers, I found little in Gottesman's book that would inform an understanding of what is presently happening in Iraq or Afghanistan. The UNTAC mandate in Cambodia didn't even qualify as a half-hearted attempt at introducing democracy, and the attempts to analogize the situations are at best strained. In fact, the history Gottesman lays out has precious little to do with nation-building of any kind (my guess is the subtitle may have been some editor's marketing ploy). Rather, I found the book to be the clear, riveting, and ultimately pitiful inside story of a decaying communist regime. For those trumpeting the planned Khmer Rouge Trials as the day-of-reckoning for Cambodia's tormentors, guess again. After reading Gottesman's book, I'll eat my Mao cap if a single suspect is charged who, as Gottesman puts it, repented of the only real crime under communism-political opposition.

Evan Gottesman's three years of field work in Cambodia with the American Bar Association Law and Democracy Project gave him an exceptionally solid base from which he launched this study of the history of the PRK and SOC regimes. His use of documents dug out of the National Archives is, as David Chandler has remarked, "masterful." His interviews with the former holders of power provide fascinating insights into the minds of key personalities seldom reached by Westerners. The epilogue is chock full of understated, reasonable, fair, and on-the-mark assessments of the reality on the ground in Cambodia today -- "Cambodian democracy often seems an abstraction...Although the methods of control have changed, the personnel governing the country remain largely the same ... (they) have accepted a new level of political discourse, but they do so only to the extent that it does not jeopardize their power." Life and work in Cambodia as a lawyer would frustrate all but the most idealistic of men. That Mr. Gottesman came away with such a patient and objective look at Cambodia says much about both his character and his intellect. This book is a must read for our new generation of "nation builders." It will allow them to bring to bear a better sense of time scale regarding their grand plans to democratize the world, clearly a task for multiple generations of good men like Evan Gottesman, not one to be attempted by one or two four-year administrations of ambitious politicians.

Mr. Gottesman paints a vivid picture of Cambodia after 1979 that is particularly relevant in this time of reconstruction and nation building in Iraq. This is on my all time top 10 books right after the Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing.

This is a fascinating telling of the politics of the PRK. The author has adroitly woven a tapestry of the give and take between the ideologically rigid Vietnamese liberators and the ideologically-opportunistic Khmer Rouge. The irony of the title is that there was no "after the Khmer Rouge:" indeed, they are still alive and well and running the PRK's successor state, which could be called the Democratic People's Republic of Royal Camobodia, an amalgam of ex-Pol Potists, Sihounoukists and genuine deomocrats.
Gottesman is to be congratulated on his shrewd observations and the skillful way he merged the ever-morphing political landscape in Phnom Penh with the relatively static, self-serving and corrupt provinical politics that tended to ignore any central dictums that reduced local prerogatives. In sum, pretty much the story of all socialist states; proclaim endless drivel ex cathedra from the capital and pray that somebody out there listens.
This is a must read for anyone interested in a little known asterisk in the cold war and anyone interested in third world politics. Foe all American ideologues eager to proclaim Iraq the next Japan, read, learn and repent!

This is beautiful poetry from ancient India. It is rich and sensual, evocative and erotic, and not always in the overtly sexual way of the Kama Sutra. It engages life, society, and importantly, nature in all its lost beauty in India, the fragrant jasmine vines, the kadamba and ankota tree, the thunderstorm that releases a sudden coolness on a warm summer evening, the white cranes that cross the darkening sky. Then there is the secret rendezvous, the furtive gesture, the passionate love-making, the loss of youth, the immortal desire for fulfillment, the traveller and his betrayals, the gods engaged in their own love-making, Shiva and Parvati as the divine couple. These are timeless themes made more poignant by our desire for them today.

A friend gave me a copy of this book, as I was looking for some poetry to set to music. I was inspired by the Barbara Stoller Miller translation of the Gita Govinda, pub by Columbia Univ., and my friend thought that this book pushed the envelope just a litte bit further.

The forward and introduction are very informative and make this centuries old poetry come alive in a relevant and contemporary way. The poems themselves are very, very old and Schelling's translations make them shimmer with life. If you've ever researched or read other translations of Sanskrit poetry, you will be thrilled with these translations.

As it turns out, I've received permission to use three of the poems in the book to set to music (in their original Sanskrit language).

This book offer a potent and eggshell fragile look at the range of emotions relating to love, romance and romantic longing.

Highly recommended.

This is a wonderful little book of poetry. The poems of love, physical intimacy, desire, melancholy, longing and rejection in this collection date back over a millennia. A thousand years make these poem as poignant as ever. The poems in this collection are fleeting intimate glimpes into who we are as humans.

There has been for several years a readily available book of Tamil erotic poetry The Interior Landscape which made the poetry of Southern India accessible. Now Andrew Schelling has provided a readily available text for Northern India. While the vast majority of these lyric poems are written in strictly metered quartrains, Schelling does a marvelous job of rendering the poems in free form - depending upon the images and sounds rather than the meter to translate the poetry into English (as opposed to the early stiff quatrain translations that encouraged no one to read Sanskrit/Prakrit poetry).

The selection of poetry is not "representative" of the anthologies but represent the translator's personal choice around the theme of eroticism. The translator's affinity for the selected poems shows in the excellent translations - faithful to the original text [yes I have read them in their original form] yet solid as English poetry.

This book is a page turner and brings back lots of memories. I spent six years on a Chinese state farm during the Cultural Revolution myself and can relate to some of what he described and went through as far as hard labor, but I can never describe with such vividness and power the heart-wrenching experiences of the disprivileged, deprived, discriminated, and victimized members of the Chinese society under Mao, indeed a virtual prison in every sense of the world. Professor Yang's book is a voice for the voiceless. Captive Spirits not only serves to preserve the history of the brutal laogai system that still exists in China today, but it is also a scathing indictment of a brutal regime under Mao that destroyed the lives of tens of millions of the best that China has to offer to herself and the rest of the humanity. This book alone is enough to put Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and their cronies to the hall of shame once and for all. Professor Yang is no longer with us. He has joined his prison mates Li Jiulong and Liu Fengxian as well as his dear mother to whom he dedicated this book, but his legacy and spirit will stay with us.

I simply can't put it down once I start reading it. It is a great account of the author's growth, from a naive ultra-leftist to someone with a sophisticated mind, who eventually embraced Milton Friedman. And it is a great history of post-liberation China in the eyes of different individuals from all social spectra. After reading it, I realize how naive my understanding of the "cultural revolution" was.

I also read its Chinese version, but I feel that the English version is much better written. Stongly recommended!

If you're into movies like Good Will Hunting, you'll like this book. The author walks us through the lives of his fellow prisoners while he relats his time spent in the prison. It was Cultural Revolution, many of the prisoners he came across were highly intelligent and well educated. Yang therefore made the best out of the time he had to spend there by learning English, Algebra, and Calculus from his fellow inmates. It's a tragic tale that so many people were jailed because their political views sway a fraction away from that mandated by the government, yet they were exactly the ones who have the knowledge and know-hows to improve the country's economy and living standards. It's also a uplifting tale because you see Yang dug himself out of the troubles he encountered, made it out of the prison, and now became an established economist. He has not let his past kept him hostage like many dissidents Chinese who migrated to the West. A fine tale about humanity and the will to survive that's inside us all. The chinese version of this book is also published by OUP.

One of the most famous Chinese novelist BA Jing was also a "captive spirit" during the "Great Cultural Revolution". He kept reciting Divine Comedy in order to help himself endure the adversity. He always believes, there must be a new Dante some day to write a new Divine Comedy. Now I finally find this new Divine Comedy. Please have a read and get to know what is the Inferno in the communist China. You'll find the reason why the communism has to die.

This activity book has many fun kids activities from simple coloring to making lanterns for bigger kids. It also has dates on when each zodiac sign falls under which makes it fun for adults as well. I used it at my son's school and the kids had fun with the activities and learning about the Chinese New Year

"Celebrating Chinese New Year: An Activity Book" is an engaging tool for introducing a lively yet generally unfamiliar cultural event to children. Clear, child-oriented information about Chinese New Year customs is interspersed with charming hands-on projects, from paper plate pandas to candy containers. Straightforward graphics and text richly convey that a spirit of family closeness and a respect for tradition mark this holiday. Through a range of activities, from simple to sophisticated, a poignant awareness of an earlier time and way of thought is also transmitted. An excellent resource for schools and groups that want to foster cultural understanding!

I found this colorful book to be informative, engaging, and easy-to-use. The author's overview of Chinese New Year provides a good background for her description of significant Lunar New Year traditions. These customs include special food, lucky money, scrolls, candy, lanterns, and dragons. There is a nice presentation of the zodiac animals and chart of corresponding birthdate years. The author provides easy-to-follow instructions and simple templates to carry out the wide selection of craft projects and activities. I would highly recommend this book to elementary school teachers and families with elementary school age kids in helping to understand and celebrate Chinese New Year.

This book offers fun, cute and easy to reproduce crafts to supplement Chinese New Year events for the classroom or any other setting with young children. I especially appreciate the author's narrative on explaining the traditions and rituals associated with this annual holiday that is celebrated world-wide. We couldn't wait for the next Chinese New Year (Year of the Rooster -2005) so, my kids and I tried making the hexagonal candy boxes. The instructions are clearly written making it easy for both a seven y.o. and ten y.o to follow independently. My kids are now using their crafty boxes with lids to hold little items on their desks. "Celebrating Chinese New Year: An Activity Book" is a wonderful addition to any classroom, library, and Asian or multi-cultural book collection. I highly recommend for teachers/educators and parents.

A fascinating and inspirational account of Tsui Chi Hsii's (Charlie Two Shoe's) long-suffering odyssey to come to the United States with his family. It turns out to be a lot more complicated story than you might expect and has the potential for being a Hell of a movie, with lots of opportunities for scenery chewing, but that probably won't happen. In fact there probably won't even be any paperback updating of the still unfinished story at time of publication because one of the coauthors, Michael Peterson, is now a convicted murderer whose other books are long out of print.

Life is truly stranger than fiction.

My boyfriend bought me this book for Christmas, and I was thrilled. Not only am I a social studies teacher and a history buff, but I am priviledged enough to know Charlie Two Shoes. He owns a business in the town where I live and is always there with a smile and a friendly word. He autographed my book with the inscription "May God bless you and yours with health and joy." When I went by today to thank him for the inscription, he told me that there is a lot of history in this book that is not often told. While I have not yet finished the book, I have enjoyed what I have read so far. No matter what crimes have been committed by one of the authors, you should take the time to buy this book and read the interesting true life story of a truly wonderful man.

Charlie Two Shoes is a fascinating story of one man's friendship with a group of US Marines and his incredible perseverence in getting re-united with them. Peterson and Perlmutt tell the story through Charlie's eyes and those of his Marine pals. They give us an intriguing look at life behind the Bamboo Curtain. More amazing than Charlie's budding friendship -- he was around the Marines for about four years as a teenager -- is his enduring perseverance in keeping his dream of a reunion alive. The dream survived decades, including years in a Chinese prison and more under house arrest in his small village. After all that, his eventual reunion in the U.S. had drama of its own. One Marine buddy turned out to be more interested in his own fortunes than Charlie's,and Charlie's efforts to stay got mired as much in domestic politics as international. A good read by gifted writers.

Charlie Two Shoes and the Marines of Love Company is not only an inspiring story about friendships and loyalty, but also an excellent retelling of some little known American history. Set in Northern China starting at the end of World War II and continuing to recent times, the reader will learn about the atrocities visited upon the Chinese peasantry by the Japanese, the communist take over of China and America's futile efforts to stop it, the severe poverty and starvation the Chinese people endured, and the political repression and corruption that continued for years. Into the shadows of these desolate and hopeless conditions, the warmth and charity that the American Marines and missionaries brought with them to China and to a young boy, nick-named Charlie, shine brightly. The reader is invited on a journey through Charlie's life of joys and travails, but is pulled aside by the authors from time to time for some excellent and concise description of the historical context. Thus this true tale of friendship and suffering also enables the reader to also learn the larger story of the historical events which ultimately were its cause.

Kevin Rushby has traveled extensively, and has written about his journeys with insight and tremendous empathy for people he has met. Children of Kali concerns his search for knowledge on the current state of the thug cult (murderous worshippers of the goddess Kali), and for one charismatic and well-known thug in particular. But the book does not read like some sort of true-crime or investigative work; rather, it takes the form of a travelogue, where Rushby learns about the parts of India he travels through, the types of people he meets. As such, although it develops at a slower or more leisurely pace, the work is deep and rich, and the reader feels he has learned not so much about the cult of Kali as gained somewhat of a new perspective on life. It was not exactly the type of book I was expecting, but I came to very much enjoy reading it.

This book deals with some very interesting, yet somewhat disparate topics. Rushby's travelogue/history was apparently inspired by his learning of the British colonial administrator Sleeman, who allegedly eliminated the thuggees from India. He travels across India to investigate the thuggees, but somehow mixes them up with Indian bandits, gangsters, and assorted mischief-makers. His biggest problem is his tendency to write in a stream-of-conscious style that is confusing. He jumps around from different places, to different topics, switches between travelogue, history, and commentary, without effectively transitioning and explaining himself. At times he refers to phenomena, places and people without any explanation of who or what they are. With just a little better writing and editing, this could have earned five stars.

I was expecting a much darker(creepy?) book from what I had read of the excerpt from the synopsis given by the bookstore. It turned out to be a very humorous travel log by Kevin Rushby's search of the Thug Cult. There are many entertaining encounters with the people in India, great descriptions of the food there, atrocious hotel rooms, the hustle and bustle of a very populated country - all a very informative and highly entertaining look of a Brit with a wonderful sense of humor travelling through ancient India. If you enjoy cooking or travel essays, this book's a keeper.

Anybody interested in Modern India, I urge you to read "Children of Kali" by Kevin Rushby from several points of views:

1. How we get what we seek:
Kevin went to India in search of thugs and decoits, while Maddy (a character in the book) went to India in quest of happiness. See what each one got, and how this simple concept of "we get what we seek" revealed to Kevin at Sangam.

2. Real history of modern times:
The history of north and central India during East India company, Raj and after wee hours of independence is not taught to us, Indians in schools as it should be. Read how Kevin unearths it.

3. Travelogue:
How we all have very similar experiences as Kevin had in India, except he logs it in a superb fashion.

4. Objectivity:
If you are from India (a non-resident Indian, like me), see the places you grew up from an objective eye. Not necessarily an English eye, but an eye of a just seeker, Kevin that is!

5. Style:
I absolutely love the modern style of story-telling that is weaved with real facts and ground-level research. Just to examine this aspect, the book is worth reading.

This book is an extraordinary example of what is yet to come as more of Athenasius' works are uncovered and translated. This treatment is extraordinarily lucid and shares intimate glimpses of how this man lived his private life and shared his voracious curiosity with the world.

Charles Van Tuyl's translation of CHINA ILLUSTRATA is a literary piece of art. It provides the Modern reader in English with a powerful document through which to better understand East-West relations. It offers a thoughtful picture of "old China."

At last! Charles Van Tuyl's translation of Athanasius Kircher's "China Illustrated" reveals the finer nuances of a text almost 400 years of its time. This book not only shows how China appeared to the first European missionaries and travelers, but illuminates how the cultures of Europe and Asia influenced each other from the earliest times . . . most modern scholars and researchers are only beginning to understand these relationships.

Here we have the exposition of the life and times of a man who was one of the first to document the travels of westerners to the far east. Also one of the first authors who successfuly wrote about Buddism and Hinduism as actual religions without being burned at the stake for it ! An unpretentious translation of an author every bit the equivalent of Galileo or DaVinci. There are over 200 other titles to bring to print.

China Mailbag: Uncensored, is a wonderful book. It drew me into the story because the book is made up of first person accounts of war, of the movements during WWII in China and India, and of the love an American GI had for his newlywed wife. The book is extremely interesting because it paints a detailed picture of what life was like for troops during WWII and contains a vast amount of entertaining anectodes, telling of funny meetings with chinese locals, and how difficult it was for soldiers to live the lives they were accustomed to in a foreign land. The book made me feel as though I too, had received letters from a GI abroad - the more of the book i read, the more i couldnt wait to turn to the next page. This is a book that any person, from young adults to fellow veterans of war would love to read. An entertaining, educational, overall lovely story is waiting for you! I encourage you to read it!

Lou, a young GI left his newly-wed wife Lottie for battle fields of India and China. He kept her connected and informed through his mailbag of sharp observation in words and talented artistic sketch so vivid that people described almost popped out from the pages. His letter never had a dull moment and was loaded with concise interesting background information so that his wife understood what he observed and felt culturally, politically and historically. He witnessed the reality from a far away modern country to war-torn nations without the arrogant and superior attitude. He saw the good, the bad and the ugly. Readers would easily comprehend the devastated China and the suffering of the innocent and helpless victims assaulted by the invading Japanese.
His smiling helpful attitude won him many friends. After the war, he promoted the friendship between American and Chinese people. Should he work for State Department, Asia history would have a different outcome. I had the fortune of sharing my love and respect to him by email in 2004. He related his 60th Wedding Anniversary honeymoon trip to China with wife Lottie to refresh his memory before he passed away last year.
I treasure his friendship and I feel we became bosom comrades by reading his book with cheering "Gan Bay" drinking party. Lou belongs to the Greatest Generation. My recommendation is that Lou's book should be classified as a must-read literature for the American idol generation to learn and carry on the mission of humanity, freedom and justice.

This book depicts life in China and India in such colorful and humorous ways. For a chinese-American who knows so little about China of the 1940s, it is a godsend. It helps me udnerstand the social, cultural, military, and economic aspects of life in China during that era. I feel very fortunate to have read and be in possession of this incredible book. It is without any doubt a collector's item for any WWII buffs.

China Mailbag Uncensored-- a stunning book full of color, character, and the atmosphere of India, Burma, and China during World War 11. The story is told through the culture-shocked eyes of a young U.S. Army lieutenant as he writes illustrated letters to his bride at home. Punctuated with pictorial cartoons and picturesque art, this page-turning book takes the reader through experiences on a Jim Crow train as it races toward the Pacific to launch its soldiers on an adventure through submarine-infested waters to get to the China-India-Burma theater of war. The drama unfolds in the crowded streets of Calcutta, sweeps you across the Himalayan Mountains, and impresses upon you the scenes of war-torn China. Lou Glist, the artist-author, is there to join the Chinese in their fight against a Japanese foe who has conquered and occupied more than one-half of their country. Lou pictures starving soldiers, coolies carrying impossible loads, farmers working rice fields with oxen, Buddhist temples, hardships, disease, misfortunes, and life situations where there is no clean water, electricity, air conditioning, heating, and all the comforts of home. Imagine yourself in a strange land, living with people who have strange customs, a strange language, strange food, feeling the pain of anxiety, and laughing at yourself and your own reactions. If you do this, you will appreciate what this gifted , young soldier went through to give us a stream of human interest episodes on his odyssey of 18,000 miles. As you are drawn through this steady flow of observations, you will understand why these letters to Lottie are such an enduring treasure. You also will have a new appreciation for the sacrifice American soldiers, sailors, and marines made to give us global peace and prosperity today.