Customer Reviews

East and West

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

 

 

A story of two families, one japanese and the other American, against the backdrop of pre-WW2, WW2 and a short post war period. Without seeming to take sides, the story takes the reader from Japan to the US and the Pacific Theater. We meet the young couple. He is a young Japanese academic and she is the total california blonde. From there, we read as they struggle, love, fight and find redemption...while Mr Green weaves other characters in and out, no less compelling. A good read. NOT history verbatim by any means, but good enough for me to say " and then what happened to them ? "

I bought this book many years ago when it first came out and it was one of the best books I have ever read. It tells the story of families in both Japan and the U.S. being affected by the war. I'll never forget reading the chapters about the detention camps for ALL people of Asian descent, not just Japanese. Many were American born Chinese,Japanese,Korean,etc. The love story of Julie and Kenji survives even when together at the camp. A wonderful book if you can find it!

I am halfway through the subject book (Gerald Green's "East and West"). I have found several historical discrepancies and I'm wondering how many there are that I don't know about. 1. Mr. Green refered to Camp Pendleton, twice in the timeframe of 1941. The US governement did not buy the land for Camp Pendleton until March of 1942. 2. He refers to Japan's Imperial Marines. Japan did not have marines. They had a Special Naval Landing force often called marines by US troops, but that is not what they were. 3. He refers to a Japanese major's rank insignia as "leaves". This one I'll have to look up, but I don't believe Japan used the same type of rank insignia as the US. Has anyone else complained about authors blowing it like this ? I think it casts doubt on the credibility of his work. Can you comment as well ? Thank You, Lee Rash