Customer Reviews

The Anguish of Surrender: Japanese POWs of World War II

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent book that covers a difficult subject (POW's and surrender) from the Japanense point of view. The author speaks the language, knows the culture, and incorporates statements from unimpeachable first-person sources in the monograph. Highly recommended for student of the Great Pacific War.

The view of the Japanese military mindset prior to and during WWII was first rate. I'd have preferred the individual stories of soldiers and sailors were more in depth but in fairness this book was not intended as a group of soldiers stories. Maybe Mr. Straus would consider writing a second book of such stories. I hope so.

P.S. The author is the father of my friend. This in no way influenced my review.

I had read once many years ago about there being only 5,000 Japanese soldiers prisoners being held in the US during all of WWII. But why? But I could not find any detail on the subject. This book clears up that mystery.

It is well researched, intelligent, and told with sensitivity. It sheds some great light on why there were so few Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner.

One cannot help but draw comparisons between this and current prisoner of war treatments in Iraq and Guantanamo. There are some eerie similarities and I can't help but feel that succesful lessons learned well in the past have been totally dismissed. This book can be a very sad read for what was lost then and what is being lost now.