Japanese Prisoners of WarDuring the Second World War the Japanese were stereotyped in the European and American imagination as fanatical, cruel and almost inhuman. This view is unhistorical and simplistic. It fails to recognise that the Japanese were acting at a time of supreme national crisis and it fails to take account of their own historical tradition. The essays in Japanese Prisoners of War, by both Western and Japanese scholars, explore the question from a balanced viewpoint, looking at it in the light of longer-term influences, notably the Japanese attempt to establish themselves as an honorary white race. The book also addresses the other side of the question, looking at the treatment of Japanese prisoners in Allied captivity. |
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The writer of this book summary, presumably the publisher, states that the Europeans and Americans viewed the Japanese during WWII as "fanatical, cruel and almost inhuman," and then says "This view is unhistorical and simplistic."
Really? The writer is either grossly misinformed, astoundingly oblivious to the thousands of first-hand accounts that chronicle the opposite, or he or she has chosen to engage in revisionism of the worst kind. In spite of this it may be a good book. However, the description of the book does a great disservice to the men and women who suffered horrendous cruelty at the hands of the Japanese. This is not a subjective issue, but it is a matter of well-documented fact.
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Japanese Prisoners of War |
| Editors | Philip Towle, Margaret Kosuge, Yoichi Kibata |
| Edition | revised |
| Publisher | A&C Black, 2000 |
| ISBN | 1852851929, 9781852851927 |
| Length | 195 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Asia / Japan History / General History / Military / World War II |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |