Customer Reviews

Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes In World War II (Transitions--Asia and Asian America)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book can be rated as good by virtue of the fact that it is a Japanese Historian writing about the excesses his people committed in the name of the Emperor. For most Japanese WWII began and ended with Hiroshima & Nagasaki. Japanese often cite these twin events as the US moral equivolent to the Japanese soldiers chasing down men, women and children and killing them at the point of a bayonet, or watching them starve slowly to death. Most people in Japan (and I have lived there for over 10 years and read their literature on the subject in Japanese)still find it difficult to criticise their country.

Kudos to Tanaka who was brave enough to write about a subject which can still bring around the boys in the blue vans (the ultra-rightists), and a knock on the door, or a bullet through the window in the middle of the night.

Japanese ex-pat professor (he lives in Austrailia) desribes in stomach turning detail the crimes of Imperial Japanese forces in WWII. While I knew some of the things done, I had no idea the extent and depth of the crimes committed.

Tanaka describes in pages NOT FOR THE TIMID READER the Japanese high command's plan for using cannabalism to feed their troops in the southern arc of their conquest plans. It wasn't just enemy troops who were on the menu, but low-ranking Japanese ground-pounders. I will spare the detail, but Tanaka doesn't, so be warned.

I give this book only 4 stars because it has one serious flaw. Tanaka makes the laughable, morally unsustainable claim that the atomic bombings are morally equivalent to Japanese crimes. This will rightly outrage every American, but it doesn't tarnish the overall effort.

Professor Tanaka is to be congratulated for his courage in revealing the worst things committed by his people. Things that many in Japan, especially school textbooks, refuse to admit. I don't think it coincidence that the good professor lives in the Land Down Under.

The most outstanding attribute of this book is its honest depiction of Japan's atrocities. The description of these horrific onslaughts surpasses similar titles in some portions of the book.

But the downside is the author's attempt to explain why the Japanese acted as they did, as if doing so will somehow make us view the Japanese army as something more than the monsters they were. Though Tanaka probaly doesn't mean to, he comes across as making excuses for the Japanese military's barbarism. Nevertheless, when he moves beyond fact description and into analysis, his intentions seem ambiguous at best. But overall, a good read.

This is an important book to read to further an understanding of the magnitude of Japanese war crimes in WWII. The author touches on the fact that these war crimes were part of a pattern of inhumanity; not simply isolated incidents of criminality, but an artifact of Japanese culture which demanded subservience of the individual for the sake of "social harmony". Individual morality or even a desire for morality can play no role in such a regime. Interestingly, even the author provides names of officers , but for the most part treats the enlisted men who carried out the barbarous orders not as men but as mere cogs.

The scary thing is that what was previously demanded is still encouraged as socially desirable -- still for the sake of "social harmony." This means that there is an unwillingness to broach ugly topics like grandpa's inhumanity, thus it is unlikely that books such as this will ever provoke the soul searching that has taken place in other countries that have thrown off fascism or otherwise confronted their past.

The author has dug up many little-known incidents of savagery committed by Japanese soldiers during World War II. From the massacre of defenseless nurses to the crucifixion of an unlucky P.O.W., the brutal underbelly of war hits the reader between the eyes. This should be required reading for those who are squeamish about atomic bombing of Japan.

Yuki Tanaka does a good job of broaching this unpleasant subject. He details many of the war crimes perpetrated by the Japanese military during WWII against their enemies and also against innocent women and children.He postulates what caused the Japanese militery to behave this way. All in all, Hidden Horrors is a good analysis of how low humanity can sink when people become desensitized to human dignity and worth. People sometimes forget that prior to the rise of Japanese militarism in the 1920's that Japan behaved properly towards its adversaries, and I invite people to read Robert B. Edgerton's "Warriors Of The Rising Sun" to gain more insight into Japanese military history.

If the reader from Massachusetts had written what he did about Nazi Germany he'd be mercilessly ridiculed. Why is it so difficult for people to believe that the Japanese also committed heinous atrocities? That is downplayed in our society a great deal... perhaps if we bring attention to it we are perceived as racist. As a Granddaughter of two British POW's held in the Stanley camp, I can only say that apologists in this matter do themselves a great disservice as well, as the truth is required to make certain camps like these never appear again in any future war. Books like this are helpful in that regard.

First of all,I give unstinted praise this book writer.Almost japanese are not accept their crime,Because their textbook and high ranking government officials are to teach lie.Today they say the WW2 is their peaceful demonstration.this is nonsense.many peoples were used as a guinea pig and slaughtered by japanese.

Mr. Tanaka has done a fine job with this most difficult subject. It's always tough to objectively critique and explore your own country and its actions (especially with an event in the recent past), and the presentation was excellent. I think everyone who is a history buff or a student of WWII will expand their horizons greatly by reading this well-researched work.

By looking at possible motives behind Japanese war crimes committed in WWII, Yuki Tanaka clearly separates himself from other authors writing on this disturbing subject.

After detailing selected incidents of war crimes committed by the Japanese, Tanaka postulates various motives (some plausible, some a stretch) for the horrible atrocities that were unleashed upon the unfortunate victims.

This book is as much about trying to determine "why it happened" as it is about "what happened".