No comments about Dark Skies Over Paradise.

1 comments about One Thousand Days in Siberia: The Odyssey of a Japanese-American POW.

1. About eight years ago, I read Peter Sano's story when it was in its earliest form. I knew then that he should have it published - and finally, he did. Peter was born in America but at the age of 15, in 1939, he was sent to Japan to become the adopted son of his childless aunt and uncle. Drafted into the Japanese army in 1945, Peter was sent to war. By being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Peter ended up in Siberian POW and labor camps for three years before finally being released. During those years, Peter made life bearable for many of his fellow prisoners, often at his own expense - and though he downplays his heroism, he kept some people alive who would otherwise have perished. His is a tale both humorous and tragic and in the end, inspiring. Today, Peter is back in America, an accomplished architect, husband, father, and one of the kindest and gentlest souls I have ever met. It was impossible to put down his manuscript once I started it until I had devoured every page. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys tales of triumph over adversity, love beating hate, and quick wits winning out over the harshest odds.

1 comments about PRISONERS OF SANTO TOMAS: A True Account of Women POWs under Japanese Control (Pen & Sword Paperback).

1. This was an excellent book to inform the reader about two of the several Japanese internment camps they operated during the Philipine occupation during WWII. The book is compeltely the transcribed diary account of a young woman who was interred with her mother. The graphic accounts of the drama of human action under stress is insightful and pulls no punches.
   This book is one of several about the Santo Tomas and Bagio camps. There were others, and other books deal with them.

No comments about I Am Alive!: A United States Marine's Story of Survival in World War II Japanese POW Camp.

No comments about 100 Japanese You Should Know (Kodansha Bilingual Books).

5 comments about Memoirs of a Gaijin: A Humorous Look at the Daily Life of a Foreigner in the Japanese Countryside.

1. I loved this book! The author is a natural story teller, with a great gift of humour! I laughed out loud so many times! The book was easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable! Through the author we gain a rare perspective on day to day Japanese culture as seen through the eyes of a gaijin! This book is a must read for anyone who has been or is thinking about going to Japan!



2. Needing to lose a few extra calories? May I suggest reading "Memoirs of a Gaijin"? That's right! This book is guaranteed to tone the abdominal muscles. Seriously though, this is a VERY amusing book. Read at your own risk though. Besides the calorie loss, you will find yourself wanting to travel more. At least I did



3. I laughed and I cried. This is such a great memoir told in such a way that I felt like I was sitting in the pub catching up with a hilarious old mate. Memoirs Of A Gaijin will make anyone want to take the plunge and have some time out in rural Japan. The combination of highs, lows and quirky things Japanese people do makes this book an accessible and enjoyable read for everyone.



4. I read all of the 5 Star reviews of this book, so I went ahead and ordered it with confidence. That was a mistake. I thought that it would be fun hearing the experiences of a foreigner in Japan and comparing them with my own experiences during my 3 months in Tokyo. I was wrong. I could in no way shape or form relate with this girl on any level. I felt that she was blinded by her own beliefs and took little time to digest the things she was experiencing, simply placing judgement on everything she came across. Not only did she not have much to offer in the form of an open minded opinion, I didn't find the things she said funny, in fact sometimes actually offensive.
   
   I honestly did want to like this book. I gave it a chance. When I became frustrated with the author I put the book down, took some time and came back to it later, hoping it was just me. But time and time again I found myself shaking my head in disbelief to what I just read.



5. Her honest approach in writing and sharing her experiences make it a memorable experience for the reader to read. She shares her love for the people in her own way.
   
   Her humorous re-telling of her experiences shows not only how she copes with living in a foreign land but how the Japanese themselves cope in having a "foreigner" living in their small farm town of Japan. Yes, rural towns do exist in Japan, as she clearly illustrates.
   
   Living in a foreign land where nobody knows your name,is not always easy nor a smooth experience but her book make it an experience worth learning from.

2 comments about The Code of Love: The True Story of Two Lovers Torn Apart by the War That Brought Them Together.

1. Pamela Kirrage and Donald Hill were very much in love and living in England right before the outbreak of World War II. Donald was sent overseas and spent three and a half years in a Japanese prison camp. He was never the same after the war, but tried to live a normal life with Pamela and their children.

   David kept a diary during his imprisonment, but no one could crack the code until years after Donald's death, when Pamela found a mathematician who solved the mystery.

   This book tells Donald and Pamela's sad, but moving story of true love, the horrors of war and the ultimate triumph of the human spirit.




2. This is simply the best book I have read in a long time.

   Andro Linklater writes clearly and eloquently about the love affair between Pamela Kirrage and Donald Hill at the eve of World War II. He brings to life the great excitement of their budding romance and the long, difficult years they spent apart, Pamela doing her part to support England's war efforts at home and Donald languishing in a Japanese concentration camp.

   The atrocities that Donald experienced are described in a matter of fact manner that does not take away from the sheer horror of what he must have endured. He was determined to document what happened in the camp at the risk of his own life and eventually coded his diary to ensure that it would not be discovered. Through it all, his promise to return to Pamela gave him the will to survive.

   Years later after Donald's death, Pamela resolved to know the contents of his diary so she could understand what had happened to him, what had happened to them. I found the efforts to decode his diary just as fascinating as the turbulent relationship between Pamela and Donald.

   This is an intelligent and articulate account of two passionate people caught up in the throes of war and their struggle to regain their lives and relationship once reunited. It is a romance, a war history, and a mystery all rolled into one.

   I am recommending it to everyone I know. Read it!

1 comments about Neutral War: A Novel of Soul-Chilling Barter, Bioterror, and High-Stakes International Poker.

1. Neutral War is an undetached, unsympathtic, in your face story of the relationship between two men of differing cultures in the years before and during World War II. While I found the pace rather slow and the author seemed entrenched in conveying every fact he discovered it still didn't dispell the honesty, and truth which drips from every word.
   While I would have sincerly liked to have read more of the (fictional??) relationship between the Swedish narrator and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto since this clash of cultures was intelligent and at times humorous, Gold seems bent on pressing us with facts, facts, and more facts.
   
   Is there something wrong with this...not in my book. It was an inspiring and candid look at the protocol of war. It practically proves the adage 'those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it.'
   
   Neutral War is 'very' much a book for OUR times and should not be overlooked for thinner, fluffier, more cozy reads.

5 comments about Japan at War: An Oral History.

1. A compelling set of recollections from Japanese citizens and soldiers who lived and experienced WWII. These stories give an interesting insight into the psyche of the average Japanese citizen and soldier during the war. This is one of the few existing WWII books pertaining to the Pacific Campaign that gives you insight into the thoughts and feelings of the Japanese during the war. A must read for anyone wanting to see the perspective from the "other side". Highly recommended.



2. This was a very good well written book! It is easy to follow, and takes the reader down numerous paths of the war years and the scars that were inflicted on those who lived, and died.
   
   I believe the book was initially utilized as a text in some colleges, but it is not written like any text book I ever had to read.
   
   This book is an accumulation of oral interviews that helps the reader to visualize, smell, and even taste the sadness and poverty of those who fought the war; not just on the high seas, or the jungles of the South Pacific, but...on the streets of Tokyo, Nagasaki, Kyoto, and Hiroshima.
   
   This book examines a proud culture and the utterly devestated people who lived within it.



3. This book gave me great insight into how a people are injured by the lies of their government. I learned a lot about the Japanese culture.I could easily see myself in the mothers of Japan. I bought this book at a garage sale where the owner was selling all of the books they read in their Asian studies program at college. I was honestly shocked and heartbroken to read about the Japanese point of view.
   The really scary thing is how current the idea still is that an uneducated populus can really be driven to a horrible end by their government's lies! Now I am learning Japanese (another garage sale find!) from tapes. I will visit Japan with a greater sense of their history and culture.



4. This book presents interviews with a tremendous range of Japanese people who experienced WWII. It is an incredible book. About ten years ago, I read this as an undergraduate for an Asian Studies seminar course on relations of China, Japan and the US. This book had a tremendous impact on shaping and expanding my understanding of just what went on in the Asian sphere of WWII. Since reading it, I have frequently referenced it for courses that I teach. It is a fascinating and disturbing book which when taken as a whole provides deep insights into what was going on inside and outside of Japan during that period.



5. I was fortunate enough to have this author as a professor for a history of Japan course. His knowledge and insight on the subject proved to be invaluable and this book is a must-read for anyone interested in Japanese history. Personal stories, many of which have never before been shared, about a time that many have struggled to forget, this book offers a glimpse at the effects the war had on the "common man." I Highly recommend this book. It's a quick read, but by far one of the best ways to learn about the subject.

1 comments about Japanese Experience Indonesia: Selected Memoirs of 1942-1945 (Ohio RIS Southeast Asia Series).

1. This superb little collection of essays and journal notes sheds light on an obscure, yet important aspect of Asian history. We Westerners tend to give the wartime aims of Japan a uniformly dark aspect, yet there were idealists among the Japanese conquerors who dreamed of an Asia free of Western imperialism. One cannot be naive in dealing with this subject - the brunt of the Japanese occupation machine was geared to subjugation and exploitation. Yet in the East Indies there were many Japanese administrators who prepared the Indonesians for the inevitable battle with the returning Dutch.