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American Samurai: Myth and Imagination in the Conduct of Battle in the First Marine Division 1941-1951 Paperback – July 25, 2002

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Craig M. Cameron (Author)
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Craig M. Cameron (Author)
2.6 out of 5 stars 12 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 316 pages
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press (July 25, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0521525926
  • ISBN-13: 978-0521525923
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,756,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsWhat War Makes
By Bryan Gibby VINE VOICE on October 20, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Cameron's analysis of the making of the Marine Corps and its WWII operations (as relating to the 1st Marine Division) is an exceptional reading experience. This book is not for everyone - contrary to an endorsement on the back cover, there is plenty of jargon embedded here and some made-up words. This is probably where the "ivory tower" criticism comes from. But, once the reader gets past the introduction, which establishes the theoretical foundation for the book, the issues that Cameron raises and the methodology he uses to deconstruct the making of fighting men are quite fascinating. War is not a gentle enterprise and it should be expected that nations and military institutions will do whatever they think necessary to train and indoctrinate their young men (and women) to risk their own lives and take those of the enemy. How the USMC did this in the years between WWI and WWII, and sustained their own unique myth and ethos is an important story.

Cameron does give justice to the fighting environment of the Pacific theater and the qualities and tenacity of the Japanese; factors which did and should have conditioned the mentality of the Marines fighting there. Cameron openly discusses tactical blunders (Col. Puller's insistance on frontal assaults as a measure of manliness) and the Marine's general tolerance of high casualties. This is an ethos born from the myth that Marines are "the first to fight," etc. Some will disagree with the conclusions and methods employed (the author freely makes much of and extrapolates freely from literary fiction written by veterans after the war) and the cutting comments about Marine operations and fighting skill are certain to hit a sensitive mark. Nonetheless, American Samurai is a book worth reading and considering for how one American military institution crafted its fighting prowess and sustained it over several years in one of the most hellish envirnoments imaginable and against a formidable and skilled opponent.
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5.0 out of 5 starsThe Truth Hurts
By Stalingrad on October 15, 2002
Format: Hardcover
Organizations must have identities, however manufactured or inbred, and the Marine Corps is not immune to such an eminently human and natural tendency. I've been a Marine for much of my life, and Cameron is right. Further, anyone with the intellectual courage to contact and speak with him will discover that, alas, he enjoyed his service, he loves the Corps, and is still involved with it as a cultural institution. Anyone who has a problem with Cameron also has a problem with the revered Marine General Smedley Butler, two-time Medal of Honor winner. At the end of his career, he wrote a book entitled "War is a Racket", also available here on Amazon. He makes some equally disturbing revelations about the Marine Corps he served, claiming that he had spent his career as an instrument of American imperialism. Chew on that one, devil dogs.
This book, while occasionally going a bit far out in its analysis, does with frightening accuracy portray both the historical and real Marine Corps. It serves as a much needed counterbalance to Thomas Ricks' "Making the Corps". To my mind, the Marines need more thinking men like him to expose some of the sinister dysfunctions of our virtual religion. Call him the Martin Luther of the Corps.
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5.0 out of 5 starsBrilliant.
By Diefenbaker the dog on October 12, 2014
Format: Paperback
I read this book way back, 2 decades ago when it first came out and I was in grad school, and thought it was brilliant. I have read LOTS of military history since then, and still think it is a brilliant piece of scholarship.
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4.0 out of 5 starsToo academic for the average reader
By JMC on May 10, 2009
Format: Paperback
I was a student of Prof Cameron at Old Dominion and it amazes me that people advocate book burning just because they disagree with his ideas. He was decried as a racist on campus and these fools denounce him for sitting in an ivory tower. This book is written as an academic work and should be treated as such. It has to be taken dispassionately, I'm a former Marine and not did not see anything revisionist in his work. If you are too afraid to hold a mirror to yourself don't read this book---stick to Clancy-he uses small word and easy sentences.
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5.0 out of 5 starsIts about time
By Mark on June 12, 2000
Format: Hardcover
Finally someone has the guts to admit what actually occured in the Pacific war in WW@. Both my uncles were Marines involved in the battles of Peleliu, Okinawa and Tarawa, and their experiences are mirrored exactly in this book. It was almost a ritual for the Marines, once after killing Japanese soldiers, to harvest various body parts, including teeth, ears, and even cutting off the heads and boiling the flesh off dead Japanese soldiers and sending them back to families in the states to use as cigarette trays! My uncles were taught from the first day of boot camp that the Japanese weren't even human and deserved such treatment. I congratulate the author for being brave enought to withstand the obvious charges of "revisionism" and "political correctness" that his book would elicit.
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1.0 out of 5 starsAmerican Samurai : Myth and Imagination in the Conduct of Battle in the First Marine Division 1941-1951
By Nick M. on September 5, 2005
Format: Paperback
While the author uses complex and delineated occurances in military history, his opinion openly and incorrectly bears his philosophical presuppositions on war and the nature of fighting war. It is evident that the author is a social commentator on the subject and not an actual participant in said events. The fact of the matter is that war by its very nature and existance is a brutal and vile scourge on humanity. I understand this all to well. What belies opinions and books like this is a false belief that superior knoweledge of anti-war will stop them (future wars) from happening. How can this explain the religious fanaticim exemplified in the mideast under the auspicious of an Islamic Jiad. No, there is no war that is clean and antiseptic. You cannot with any intelligence send men or women into combat without preparing them fro the stark realities of it. The better prepared an individual is ensures an improved chance for survival. If I had to go back into a combat situation I would gladly take any Marine over this author or any one else with an hallucination of reality. Seemingly intelligent and opinionated people which espouse the "Athinean, right never has to fight" view (to the Spartan world) should always preface their books and opinions with the caveat that they have never had to do "dirty work" in the real world. Remember, it was men like Chamberlin that cost the world over 60 million dead.
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