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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Talented pop history writers derailed by current events,
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This review is from: Sheathing the Sword: The Demilitarization of Japan (Hardcover)
In short, Harries and Harries do an excellent job of writing works of popular history, but at the time this book was written (the 1980s) the world was concerned about a possible emerging expansionist Japan. Of course, after the '90s, no one was so concerned, and in the '00s it looks like everyone should have been worried about China all along. But that's hindsight. Why does this matter? Chapters for the book are:
1. Militarized Japan 2. Planning the Occupation 3. First Encounters 4. Spiking the Guns 5. The Purge 6. Military and Magnates 7. The Re-Education of Japan 8. Making Shinto Safe 9. Humanizing the Emperor 10. Rewriting the Constitution 11 - 19. on the war crimes trials 20 - 24. on the making of the contemporary military 25 - 27. on the current state of militarization As one can see, only the first third of the book is really about demilitarizing Japan after WWII. However, this first third is well worth the effort of getting the book out of the library or the cost of ordering a cheap used copy through Amazon. Harries and Harries provide a very good overview introduction of the interactions of the Allied occupation and the Japanese government in the immediate post-war period. It is probably excellent for undergrad students and the lay reader who does not know much about the topic. For the scholar it is less useful. In fact, the Harries take a moral, pro-western and pro-British tone that would probably not sit well with the modern academic. No worries for me, though. The book is written well with a nice balance of character detail, narrative flow, and dry fact. Usable index. Source citations are difficult to use as there is no normal reference list.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Readable Treasure of Modern History,
By
This review is from: Sheathing the Sword: The Demilitarization of Japan (Hardcover)
This has great many untold aspects of history.For example: "[General Douglas] MacArthur, however, believed the Tanaka Memorial to be a reality (as did Hollywood, in Blood of the Sun, James Cagney was sent to Japan to retrieve it). When Joseph Ballantine visited Tokyo in May 1946 he found the staff of the IPS feverishly ransacking the Japanese Foreign Office and General Staff archieves for the original of the infamous document. Their desperation was no doubt fuelled by the fact that by then the Indictment had already been lodged in court, served on the accused, and broadcast to the world. Soon after Ballantine's visit, however, it seems to have dawned on the IPS that vital piece of evidence might be a chimera. The New York Times of May 5, 1946 [Just after the open of the Court of Tokyo Trial!!] reported Ichiro Hatoyama as challenging MacArthur's view of Japan's past and explaining that the Memorial was a Chinese forgery. This was supported by Ballantine, who told the IPS quite simply that the Memorial was a hoax and had never existed. According to him, the lawyers then stopped looking." This fact is known by a few scholars even in Japan. Please think what does it mean.
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