5 comments about Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment.

1. This book is required reading for my daughters freshman high school English course. Amazon didnt carry the 'cliffnotes' yet I found another seller through Amazon; of course, then the books were shipped separately.
   
   Excellent topic considering our local Japanese-American history during WWII.



2. and my children like it. It is a great book to read with your children on one of the internment camps during wwII in America. The first person account is wonderful. I don't know why so many kids thought it was boring. No, there are no bombs going off, a lot of gun shooting, or killing with blood and guts but it is still a great book.



3. i read this book when i was about 11 and purchased it for my 12 yr old son last month. he loved it as much as i did. loves to read, loves world war ii history and had no idea that the u s had holding camps for u s citizens of japanese descent. started a diolog with his g'pa, s f born and bred, about japanese americans he'd known as a child who were imprisoned. should be required reading for all



4. This is the greatest film depicting life in the Manzanar camp in the California desert. It should teach us all about prejudice and where it brings us.



5. Farewell to Manzanar is a novel about a girl and her family going into an internment camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
   This book is very well written. It explains the struggles that many Japanese people went through during World War Two and Pearl Harbor during the early 1940s. This books states how it was like to be Japanese inside an interment camp and the uncertainty of what was going to happen the next day. This book is based on one main thing, oppression. It is a novel based on oppression because there is negative power being used by the government for only one specific social group or race, which in this case are Japanese people. The main characters in this book are the father who is taken away from his family by the government and his family, who is not sure when he is coming back. The mother is a strong, independent woman during the novel and Kiyo, who is the little brother, is always trying to make someone laugh. Finally there is Martha, who is the girl telling the family's story.
   
   Overall, I think this is a good book to read because you get to see what Japanese Americans' experiences were like in internments camps and what it felt like to not know what was going on or coming next. -by Carlos
   
   Martha remembers lots of things, but this one she will never forget. She remembers it was December and there had to be about 20-25 boats bombed in Pearl Harbor. Her dad is taken away from her house, because the U.S wants to get information from all Japanese Americans to check and see if they are responsible for Pearl Harbor.
   
   In my opinion, this girl suffered more than anyone I know, because she loses everything. She loses her dad, her family, and also her house. There is nothing left for her. I've never seen my dad, but I would hate to have seen him then lose him. Her family is taken to Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp. She is with them, but not living the way she wants to. She is with her brother and mother in the camp. She loses her house, because the U.S thinks she is potentially responsible for Pearl Harbor, or has something to do with it. Overall, I think this book is very good because it gives you very good details on how a little girl experiences a traumatic event at a young age. -by Chavez
   
   A Farewell to Manzanar is a very well written book. It is about a little Japanese girl and what her family had to go through during three years in the Japanese interment camp, Manzanar. There are things she loses like her dad, her house, and her personal belongings. While she is in the interment camp, she goes to school. She has to get permission from parents to spend time with their children while in the camp. Her dad gets taken because the FBI finds evidence that the father has been giving Japan fuel and oil. They are wrong, but just like that, take him away.
   
   Its really interesting reading what the little Japanese girl has to go through in the interment camp. She stands strong even though her dad is taken away. Even though she suffers, she still keeps on strong. It's a good example that even though things might seem hard, there is always a solution for everything. -by Elsie

5 comments about Flyboys: A True Story of Courage.

1. Absolutely marvelous jobl! Every high school student should be required to read this book. I am about to order seven of the books to give to friends and family members. My father died after being shot down while a gunner on a B-24 bomber in March of 1944. As I read the book, I realized - even though he must have experienced some terrible minutes going to his death - how fortunate he was to not have been captured. I also spent some two plus years in Japan as a member of the occupation forces and found the Japanese people to be, like most Americans, sensitive,kind and ashamed of any military personnel and the political leaders who tolerated atrocities of any kind.
   
   Michael Dunne Healy



2. I purchased this book for the aviation story, but received the most unbiased history lesson about the two fighting cultures. We recommend it to all our friends and fellow history buffs.



3. Bradley hit a grand slam home run with "Flags of Our Fathers" but with "Flyboys" he ran a triple into a double. Reviewer Starzec does a fine job of detailing and addressing some of the odd commentary and analysis by Mr. Bradley that marginally taints an otherwise great book so I will not go into detail here. Bradley's writing style engages and flows easily and takes the reader on an emotional course right to the end of the book. This is a heretofore little known story but certainly an important one. This is one for the personal bookshelf. Good read.
   Steven Bustin, Author: Humble Heroes, How The USS Nashville CL43 Fought WWII
   Humble Heroes: How the USS Nashville Fought WWII



4. When James Bradley finished writing Flags of Our Fathers, he was approached by Bill Doran of Iowa regarding a secret war crimes trial that took place on Guam in 1946. The trial was declassified in 1997 and Bill Doran, an attorney, began requesting all the documents he could regarding the trial, the American pilots who had been tortured and killed on the island of Chichi Jima, and the attempts to destroy the radio station on Chichi Jima. After he had all the documents, he began searching for someone to write their story. Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking, contacted James Bradley and suggested that he contact Bill Doran. After reading the documents, he decided he would write the story. It is a well-written and interesting book. While it concentrated on the atrocities committed by the Japanese, Mr. Bradley also admits that the American soldiers were not angels concerning their treatment of Japanese prisoners, which supports something my father once told me - "Don't let anyone fool you. The Japanese committed atrocities but we weren't any better."
   
   There is one thing that his book brought to my mind that I don't think I've given much thought to - 1/3 of the world's population died in the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1917 through 1919. A generation later, how many thousands - nay, millions - of people were killed in World War II? So, I did some research - the Soviet Union lost 23,100,000 people (the country with the most casualties), China lost 20,000,000, the total number of deaths in World War II was 72,599,600. (These figures come from Wikipedia.) This would be like the destruction of the 6 most populated cities in the world (Mumbai, India; Karachi, Pakistan; Delhi, India; São Paulo, Brazil; Moscow, Russia; and Seoul, South Korea) plus Wuhan, China. (Or almost 19 cities the size of Los Angeles, California!) That's a lot of dead people in less than 30 years! And in less than another generation, the news media was claiming the world was overpopulated? What was the world before 1917, then? What would the world be now if the Spanish Flu and World War II hadn't happened? And yet, we talk about the death rate - especially the infant mortality rate - as being "unacceptably high" prior to antibiotics and vaccinations. I confess to being confused. Are we saying that many more people were born in the years between 1945 and 1970 that we made up for 1/3 the world's population plus 72 million peoples?
   
   Dropping that point, the book is well-written and recommendable.



5. James Bradley's book was a welcome read for me because it is about the Pacific air war, although he gives it a very different twist than you'd find in most history or military books.
   
   I picked up this book because I like WW II history and had read alot about the bombing campaigns and our beloved bomber crews. (I didn't know Bradley wrote Flag of Our Fathers nor have I seen the movie.) My knowledge, however, was mostly about the European Theater of Operations and our Army Air Corps strategy of "Daylight Precision Bombing". This book definitely "introduced" me to the Pacific air war which really was conducted differently than in Europe. Bradley, without making comparisons of the tactics and strategy between the two theaters of operation, does lay out very well how the air war was fought in the Pacific. This being... the Navy and carriers had the predominance "according to Bradley".
   
   I say "according to..." because I need to read a few other books to verify Bradley's thesis. But, I have read alot and most everything else in his book made very coherent sense. I was actually surprised he wrote about our campaigns in the Philippines. This part of our U.S./military history is so little known.
   
   Now my commentary: Even before I read this book, I knew the horrors of Dresden. I knew my dad held Gen. Curtis LeMay in high esteem. I knew about the fire bombings of Tokyo - and I accepted it as matter of fact. I know lot of us who grew up with parents that were of age during the WWII period are aware of the Japanese atrocities toward our POWs and massacre of civilians such as the "Rape of Nanking" - BUT! I have to admit that most of us must have gotten the sanitized version. James Bradley's book gives you the gut-wrenching details that made me put the book down a few times.
   
   Some of the critics of this book focus on James Bradley's sweeping accounts of U.S. militarism starting with the Indian campaigns and to the Philippines. They say it detracts or loses focus from the story. Some say this is PC or being a liberal. I went to a military school and part of my duties were to study warfare and the profession of arms. I benefited from a large library collection of old books on military subjects and on war. I remember as a cadet I read a book about the atrocities committed by our troops in wiping out entire villages in the Philippine archipelago. Truly, how many of us in America were aware of such things. Most of us can only remember My Lai of Vietnam which involved about 120+ civilians deaths. And, controversially, Lt. Calley was court-martialed. We wiped out a whole tribe of 5000 Filipinos and nothing was done but a reprimand to the general in command. But, then I realize the greatness of the United States is that we have people who aren't afraid to write about our own war atrocities.
   
   So, despite Bradley mixing in history and moralism into this riveting story of eight individual lives, I believe he is accurate as he can be. To his credit, he uses the first person such as "I" and "my" to tell you that this is the author's perspective. He doesn't try to make it like this is an impassive academic research or a government war report. {Most of us won't read those kinds of primary sources.} Whoever said his book contains "PC" is getting it backward. Bradley is laying it all out in front of us whether we like it or not.

5 comments about Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter.

1. Yakuza Moon by Shoko Tendo is an excellent novel. Her memoirs kept me reading and shocked me at times. Her life is very interesting and intertwined with the Japanese mafia made it all the better. If your into true life stories, the Yakuza, and aren't afraid to be shocked then I recommend this book.



2. Whereas the samurai encapsulates the image of the pre-modern ideal of Japanese masculinity through his martial skill, stoic nature, self discipline, and code of honor, the yakuza, Japanese gangster, supposedly carries on a number of these traditions in the modern, or post-modern, world, especially the codes of honor and respect for not only his superiors but his inferiors. Wearing traditional Japanese garb, an expensive Western suit, or a loud aloha shirt, pockets full of money from sometimes questionable businesses, and carrying centuries of culture within his being, the yakuza has come to fascinate not only the Japanese populace, but the world at large through primarily his depiction in film and crime novels.
   
   Shoko Tendo is the second daughter and third child of the yakuza oyabun, Japanese gang boss, Hiroyasu Tendo and she witnessed his great excesses and eventual downfall, but she was not involved in the gang herself and therefore is unable or not willing to expunge deeply upon the topic of her father's involvement with the yakuza, but instead writes on her life and how her father's being a yakuza would affect her life for years to come. It is for this very reason that I believe that a number of Western readers are disappointed with Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter. They are looking for a memoir that will feed into their cinematic/stereotypical ideals of what Tendo's life should be like, but instead they receive a thin tome written by a woman who suffered from continuous abuse at the hands of men who were yakuza and these men, instead of being paragons of virtue, Japanese tradition, and honor are alcoholic, cowardly dope fiends who beat on those weaker than them and cower from those who are stronger.
   
   What Tendo gives the reader is a cathartic, honest account of a woman who is connected to the shady crime underworld and how it ostracizes her from mainstream Japanese society. Scoffed at by her teachers, neighbors, and classmates after her father is imprisoned, Tendo becomes a yanki, female delinquent and gang member, and finds herself growing addicted to a number of narcotics starting off with huffing paint thinner to injecting heroin daily all the while drifting from detention centers to abusive relationships. At times, it seems she finds peace, but eventually these fleeting moments are shattered by harsh reality.
   
   Another criticism that I have read concerning the memoir is that it is poorly written, and that it seems like a sordid tale written by a grade-schooler. Tendo herself apologizes about the writing in the book's afterward stating that she has next to zero formal education (she nearly ceased doing school work after elementary school, having become a yanki at 12). Leaving the quality of writing behind, Tendo does have the tendency to foreshadow in a sophomoric way and her moralizing is a bit weak, but the bare bones honesty of a woman opening her heart to the reader makes the overall read overcome its limitations in craft. A fine memoir that attempts to shatter some of the stereotypes associated with the yakuza, Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter makes for a quick and enlightening read on the subject of the Japanese underworld.



3. Perhaps it was a bad translation. Perhaps it was written in a rush. Or perhaps the author just isn't particularly talented. The last seems to be the case with Shoko Tendo's memoir about life as the daughter of a Japanese mobster. Many of the chapters ran like separate vignettes without much dramatic tension. There was little insight into the actual lives of the yakuza, and the reader is left trying to add pieces together. What keeps the pace is Tendo's interesting life, and the trials she must overcome to better herself. When she receives the full-body tattoo, it seems anti-climactic and, dare I say it, unimportant. The tone of the entire piece just doesn't have enough resonance to carry itself. For example, the trite (and very bizarre shift in the aforementioned tone) last line is this: "Thank you Mom and Dad." Like something out of high school essay, I felt deceived with such a simplistic ending. Some passages contained rich imagery, but they didn't last very long. Overall, with the subject and some of the narrative, the book had promise. But it seems carrying out the task proved to be too much of a task.



4. The reviews for this seemed positive enough to feed my interest in anything and everything Japanese. I was very disapointed! The book is written (I'm not sure if this is a translation issue) like something a middle schooler would write, if not for the foul language and explicit situations. Really, it does not do too great of a job describing Japanese culture, instead focusing mainly on the abuse of women. Further, the tone of the book is dull and uninviting. A real let down!



5. Many American youth are fascinated with Japanese anime, films, and culture. Typical high school students in America, in my experience, tend to understand Japanese crime families to be "legal" in Japan. Accepted. Yakuza Moon relates a vivid picture of brutality and drug abuse in terms that are quite clear. The quaint myth that gangsterism in Japan is accepted is exploded. Shoko Tendo's autobiography makes it quite clear that to the Japanese mainstream, Yakuza crime families are held in low repect. Yakuza Moon's tattoos are a fascinating part of the crime subculture. With American teens' fascination with tattoos, it offers a different and critical attitude which may give pause for thought to the phenonema in America. The style and complexity of the novel places it in the category of adololescent literature. The diction can be a bit abrasive, but probably realistic.

5 comments about Evidence Not Seen: A Woman's Miraculous Faith in the Jungles of World War II.

1. An inspiring story of a young missionary woman and her complete surrender to the Lord under unbelievable adversity. God's tenderness and mercies are real in her life and it encourages every believer to move into such intimacy with the Lord. One biography you will not want to put down!



2. This is one of the BEST books I have ever read. The evidence of God's work in the lives of the people in the book is amazing and inspiring!!



3. Darlene Rose is so real in this book, just as her faith and her God are. She never pretends to be more than human, which makes her story even more amazing. This book never stays on my shelf long. I keep giving it to someone to read.



4. This is an excellent book about the consequences in a fallen world of holding on to the faith. It is proof positive that faith in the one and only God sustains even through the most difficult circumstances.



5. I read this book several years ago and will never be the same because of it. Darlene Deibler Rose's story is burned into my heart because it changed my view of God and how He deals with His children. Her wisdom gained through intense suffering rings true to what I read in Scripture, and how wonderful to hear someone whose faith has been severely tested come out on the other side and say to the rest of us "what the Bible says is TRUE!" A loving God sometimes allows us to suffer and yet never leaves us nor forsakes us, all the while causing our faith to truly grow and be perfected as we trust Him. Quite simply, Darlene Deibler Rose is one of my heroes of the faith, and her story is not to be missed!

5 comments about Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway - The Great Naval Battles As Seen Through Japanese Eyes.

1. Hara gives an unusual and frank insight in the workings of the Japanese Navy during WWII. He describes in great detail how he fought many battles as a destroyer captain and what he, his colleagues and enemies did right or wrong: many battles were stacks of blunders and were won by who blundered the least or simply was the luckiest.
   
   Couldn't put it down: had to keep reading which cost me some sleep....



2. Probably one of the two books anyone interested in the Pacific naval war simply MUST have in his libraray (the other the brilliant 'Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy' by the unfortunately named Paul S. Dull). True experts and affecionados should overlook the occasional mis-identification of ship types (undoubtedly a result of either negligent editing or translation problems), but otherwise a superb recollection of the Pacific war from the point of view of a famous Japanese destroyer captain.
   
   Having studied this war and its naval campaigns, one thing that always struck me was the peculiar paradox of the near-deification of Admiral Yamamoto (engineer of the Pearl Harbor attack) by the Japanese at the time, and many foreign historians as well. Frankly, from any objective point of view, it was Yamamoto who almost single-handedly ensured the disasterous defeat of the Japanese navy, first, by not in fact taking out the most important targets at Pearl Harbor (the enormous fuel tank farm, and the even more important ship-repair facilities and machine shops), and secondly, by repeatedly committing vastly insufficient forces at the places of most importance, and invariably sending these elements through the most convoluted and tortuous separate routes to get there (each element could be easily defeated one at a time).
   
   Further, it appears that at no time during the war did the Japanese have the slightest interest in obtaining or using intelligence, by either method or desire, and this led them into one catastrophe after another. Guadalcanal is probably the best exemplar of this failed strategy, where neither the Japanes Navy, nor the Japanese Army had any idea of the strength of the American presence there, apparently weren't even interested, and instead committed and lost battalions, regiments, whole divisions of troops and squadrons of ships again, and again, and again, until both the Army, and Navy were bled white.
   
   The Japanese submarine fleet was even more useless, not because of any real defect in the subs themselves, but the ridiculous manner in which they were used. This is even more stunning when you consider that not only was the Japanese submarine fleet largely founded by German engineers and specialist after the First World War, but the Japanese maintained close communications with the Germans throughout the war, even sending submarines to Germany and back several times, as well as German U-Boats sailing to Japan and being used by the Japanese Navy. Yet despite the continued availability of the very finest in submarine expertise, the Japanese apparently never bothered to discuss the topic of strategy and/or tactics with the Germans. Incredible!
   
   With all my various studies of this war, I never came across any real recognition of these fundamental flaws, until I read this book, and it is apparent that not only were these flaws as real as i thought, but that many members of the Japanese Navy itself were fully cognisant of these same mistakes, and yet, were unable to convince their own senior command of the need for changes, and so went down together. Starting to sound familiar?



3. This may be one of the best first person accounts of the Pacific theater of operations, that I have read from either side. Not only does Capt. Hara explain the individual battles in which he participated in vivid detail, he also gives his own perceptions of Japanese leadership (or lack thereof) during this incredibly demanding period. With his background in torpedo warfare, Hara shares his perception of both the abilities and short-comings within his own navy, but also those of the USN (praise and condemnation where he deemed appropriate, including himself). Overall a very good and fast paced oral history of the Pacific War, I would recommend to anyone.



4. Japanese Destroyer Captain is an excellent written account of Captain Hara missions in the Pacific theater during World War II. This work gives a rare insight into the Japanese perspective regarding the great naval battles of World War II from early campaigns to the last desperate struggles of the Japanese Empire. This account provides a reason why the Japanese lost the initiative in the Pacific by exposing the ill concieved naval tactics which lead to the defeat of the Imperial Navy. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Naval battles of World War II.



5. I found this revision to be a little too generic in the type and spelling, but very informative none the less. I used to have the early 70's copy of this book in paperback. I enjoyed it then as I do now.

5 comments about Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman.

1. THE BOOK ITSELF WAS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. I ENJOYED READING THIS BOOK. IT WAS HARD TO PUT DOWN. I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR ANYONE.



2. This is an amazing book that I happened upon by accident. I have shared it with others who were impressed when reading about the life of this unassuming missionary. It was truly inspirational. I highly recommend this book.



3. Get this book!!!
   You won't be able to put it down, there are many books and even a movie (made Hollywood style, which Gladys didn't like) but the movie let me know about Gladys Alward
   
   But this book, written withe the help of a Christine Hunter, gives Gladys Alward's story in her own words!



4. Gladys' story reveals the power of God's call in a woman deemed inconsequential by the powers that were. This biography is well worth reading, and would be encouraging to children who need someone to emulate.



5. Intriguing, informative and insightful of the ways of China in the late 1900's.
   Well written and easy to read and held your attention. Shows a very courageous
   woman.

5 comments about Flyboys: A True Story of Courage.

1. This book really surprised me. It was the first one I read by this author (and I will now certainly read Flags of Our Fathers), and I thought it would be a super-patriotic book about how brave the American airmen were and how awful the Japanese were to them. What really surprised me is that Bradley gives such a balanced view of the two sides in the war, and, while not favoring the Japanese in any way, helped me as a reader to understand the war from their perspective. It also pointed out how horrific and dehumanizing war is to soldiers on both sides who are fighting each other, and how they come to cease to view the enemy as human beings. I certainly came away from the book heartbroken over what happened to the American flyboys and how much their families suffered their loss. I also came away from the book convinced that one should be very wary when a government demonizes people on the other side of a conflict, and how important it is never to forget that all people are human beings with the same needs for love, family, security.



2. This book had promise of telling a story that needed to be told of Japanese atrocities during WW2. However, the author was not focused in his efforts electing instead to tell the story of airpower in the military and trying to justif the actions of the Japanese by telling of what the Japanese held as US atrocities. In fact he himself indicates thet he might have crossed the line when he stopped just short of calling one naval aviator he interviewed a babykiller as a result of a mission he had flown. Interspersed within these pages was an effort to tell in very graphic detail the story of the death of several US Naval Aviators. Overall a poor experience and would cause me to stop and think before I read another one of his books



3. This book made me re-think what I thought I knew about WW2 and the Pacific War. Bradley's writing has an amazing way of bringing faceless characters to life. As a man in my 20's, most of my experience with WW2 has come from the History Channel and other documentary type footage. This book reads as a suspense novel. It follows the lives of a few brave men who volunteered to be navy pilots, fight the japanese, and defend America. The stories of these men's home lives was as fascinating as their wartime experiences.
   
   The horror begins when the pilots are shot down, and taken prisoner by the Japanese. There are many points in this book when the romantic view of the war is shattered. The sacrafice of the soldiers in this book is amazing, and makes me pray that soldiers today do not face the same atrocities.



4. Not as advertised. This book feels like its thrown together. The focus is not on aviation so much as on the brutality of the Japanese and the fates many American aircrew faced when captured. Also the first 3rd of the book has very little to do with aviation. The author discusses the growth of the militaristic regime in Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many references to the American Indian wars, American occupation of the Philippines, etc. Lots of info that sets the scene for a story that never really develops. Its all valid but the book ends up really being about torture, suicide, cannibalism, etc. It's a story that should be told but just know that, that's what you are getting, not a book about military aviation. The flying anecdotes seem almost secondary when compared to other great aviation books. Who knows, maybe if all military related books spent so much time on the brutality, there would be less interest and more focus on ending violence in our world. I am very interested in reading about WWII aviation and recognize how horrible ANY war can be. Recommended if interested in war atrocities of the worst kind.



5. This is a tremendously moving, yet horrific story.
   
   It details the lives of a handful of very young U.S. Navy pilots in the Pacific during World War II, touching on their motiviations for joining the military and their greatest fears. Among them was George H. W. Bush, who won the Navy's Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry in action in the Pacific airwar.
   
   The centerpiece of this book is the suicidal U.S. Navy attacks on the Japanese island of Chichi Jima. Located less than 200 miles from Iwo Jima the island was the home to a vital Japanese radio relay station that controlled communications between Imperial Japan and Asia. The Americans attacks were a failure and more than half a dozen U.S. pilots went down over or near the island and were captured. Almost all were deliberately executed by the Japanese defenders. Two were beheaded, two were killed with bayonets, and another was beated to death by a brutual and drunken Japanese officer with a club.
   
   The story is based on the secret courts-martial preceedings against the Japanese officers and soldiers involved in these executions. What makes it horrific is the apparently widespread practice among some Japanese officers of eating the flesh of their victims, a practice they learned in their war with China. The livers and other body parts of four of the U.S. flyboys were consumed by several Japanese officers on Chichi Jima. Prior to the publication of this book, the exact details of the deaths of these American flyboys had been kept from their families.
   
   This is a tale of courage and horror, of war at its ugliest, and of reconciliation between former enemies.

5 comments about Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps.

1. I'm a history buff of sorts and alsways looking for books on American History. I've just started reading this book and it is already very interesting. We need to know how our citizens felt when they were treated like the enemy. We don't want to do it again.



2. I loved this book. As a Sansei, 3rd generation Japanese in America, I learned so much from reading this book. Both of my parents were interned during the war, but in all these years, they've only shared bits and pieces or vague generalities of their own experiences. Reading Mary Matsuda's vivid and detailed account of her own experience gave me a much greater appreciation and understanding of this traumatic, stressful period, along with a better understanding of basic Japanese customs and beliefs that have guided my own life. It has been a powerful step towards better understanding my own family's history, and I so appreciate that this story was shared by the author. It was beautifully written. I highly recommend this book to all.



3. A must. Extremely readable. Should be required reading for Junior or High School students. Evokes a sense of what it felt like to be Japanese during that infamous time.



4. My family was also sent to internment camps, actually some of the same ones as this author. We came from the same beloved Vashon. Being a child of a parental figure who came from that era and having had aunts and uncles, grandparents and great grandparents who had lived that experience but never spoken of it, this book has opened my eyes and helped me understand the severity of it all. I can understand now the turmoil emotionally and physically that they under went. I cried with this author. For even today, in this wide spread nation, I can still see the ripples of underlying current made from this time period and the choices made by our leaders. This is a wonderful book. You'll learn something, and if you don't, you should ask yourself some hard questions.



5. Even if one is aware of the internment of the American Japanese, I doubt that most people can form any real idea of what it was like without reading a personal chronicle like this. It is difficult to express how painful it is to read, and I already knew the basic story. Sure, now we know that it didn't turn into a second Holocaust, but the people in the camps didn't have that comforting foreknowledge. One needs to be reminded that although the intense portions of a tragedy may be long over with, the ramifications for the people who suffered through it can last all their lives, even for those who didn't lose everything that they had owned before the catastrophe.
   
   Jeanne Wakatusi Houston also wrote a classic memoir: Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment, and it is well worth reading both of the books for the similarities and differences between the two experiences. Houston was perhaps 8 or 10 years younger than Mary Matsuda, and her family dynamics were quite different, so they really complement one another. Being older, Mary Matsuda had to confront personally and directly issues that Jeanne Wakatusi Houston didn't, although of course her family members did. JWH tells us more about her life after the camps; MMG ends her books in 1945, with only an afterword summarizing the later lives of the Matsudas.
   
   I found the book very vivid. I could easily imagine how I would feel having to destroy so much family history, even being afraid to keep a set of dolls lest it add fuel to the anti-Japanese fervor. And I feel that I have some inkling of what it was like to live for years under constant strain, not knowing what would come next, or if it would ever end. I was close to crying at points, which is unusual for me. The Matsudas lived on Vashon Island in the Puget Sound, which should make the book all the more interesting to fans of Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel.
   
   The book includes a bibliography, a glossary and numerous black-and-white photographs of the Matsudas and the camps.

5 comments about The Jungle is Neutral: A Soldier's Two-Year Escape from the Japanese Army.

1. This book could have been an excellent five star book had it kept up the action at the pace from page 1 to page 100. Those pages should be given to every western military college and used as a briefing on insurgent warfare. In a two week period the author of this book and two fellow soldiers blew up eight Japanese locomotive trains, numerous trucks, and miles of rail road tracks. This commando team killed well over 500 Japanese Army soldiers and - perhaps - were much more effective against the IJA than the weak and ill led Allied armies that surrendered to Japan in early 1942. The trouble with this book is he author becomes a training instructor for the communists and other non-regular soldiers fighting the IJA (Imperial Japanese Army). So, the book becomes more involved with the day-to-day running of camp life from about page 130 until page 330. So, from mid 1942 until early 1945 this excellent soldier tells about training insurgents, living in a camp, putting up with illness, and there is lots of writing on eating.
   
   So, yes, I read this book. Is it worth it? Yes, he gives good leadership advise on conducting small unit leadership in a jungle type enviorment. The centralized location and ramdom attacks on enemy targets allows a very small group of soldiers to do massive damage to IJA operations. The bits on camp life and cooking get a little long. I'm not making this part up; on every three pages he will give a long description on a meal.
   
   Past page 330 the book gets wildly interesting again. Liberator bombers are used as long range supply drop transports and they are seen operating all over the SE Asia area. The author makes contact and starts living the normal life of a soldier. He admits that he missed the main parts of the war. While he initially helped hinder IJA in 1942 and trained insurgents in late '42 to early '45 it was the other allied soldiers who fought and won from Burma to Stalingrad. The author admits that he sort of wishes that he had been part of that action.
   
   But this is a fair war book and I'll give it a nice 3 star rating. It give insight into jungle operations and how to conduct insurgent actions.
   
   I hope you enjoy this good book.



2. I had read a review on the "The Jungle is Neutral" over 30 years ago and finally found the opportunity to purchase and read the book. Book is written mostly as a chronicle of what happened to the author in what is now Malaysia during the Japanese occupation of WWII. It is an interesting read of that trying time and the author's nerve and tenacity (as well as a lot of luck) needed to survive in the "wild." Book is well-written but is often too interested in minutiae. Still, I enjoyed the read and the information conveyed.
   
   Tom



3. This book could easily be overlooked as an outdated World War 2 yarn.
   For years "The Jungle is Neutral" was regarded as the Bible of jungle warfare training.
   For the 21st Century reader, it is an amazing,uplifting tale of the human spirit overcoming overwhelming odds.
   A must read for the professional soldier.



4. Some of the descriptions of survival & evasion in the jungle were incredible. The first half of the book had my interest more & then I think it tailed off in the second half. Worth reading.



5. The Malaysia theater of WWII has often been neglected, especially after the capitulation of the commonwealth at Singapore. This book was written by one the the operatives the Brits sent in to hassle the Japanese forces behind their lines. It is an interesting story that leads to many adventures and insite into a complex number of peoples fighting the Japanese.

5 comments about No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War (Bluejacket Books).

1. I had an opportunity to visit Corregidor Island (Philippines)a few months ago and got quite interested in the history of WWII.
   
   When I found out that the last Japanese soldier didn't surrender for nearly 30-years after the war was over I couldn't believe it. Then I found out that he had written a book about his life and specifically his time as a soldier.
   
   A very interesting read. This may be hard to believe, but it explains why he never gave up during those 29+ years on Lubang Island. Gave the book to a friend of mine and they enjoyed it as well.



2. I just finished reading "NO SURRENDER; My Thirty Year War" by, Hiroo Onoda.
   An amazing story to say the least, and...a true one! Here is a real story that would shame any of modern televisions' "Lost" series.
   
   Onoda is a Japanese soldier of the Imperial Japanese Army that is sent to the island of Lubang (in the Philippines), to conduct jungle warfare against the American and allied forces in 1944. The main elements of the Japanese army are retreating, as Onoda and others are left behind to continue the fight until..."Japan returns". Onoda remains on Lubang with a few others to continue "the cause" not 5 years, or 10, or even 20 but...thirty years! Onoda finally turns over his sword in 1974! Here is the real story of the "last Samurai."
   
   I was in Subic Bay in 1968 as part of the naval forces that were stationed in Viet Nam. Just a few miles away from where I stood, Hiroo Onoda was still fighting "my father's war" under the flag of the Rising Sun!
   
   Despite his heroic efforts and on-going pledge to duty, I find it impossible to believe that Onoda did not know the war had actually ended. During his tenure on the island he would have noticed the on-going changes of technology, and...as early as 1965 he and his small group came into possession of a transister short-wave radio. Onoda and the others listened extensively to radio Peking, radio Japan, and even the BBC. Like most people who live their life as a "mission," anything can be justified. In fact, Onoda latter concedes to this very point.
   
   I only wish this book contained an updated section to reveal what ever happened to Onoda after he returned to Japan. I wonder if, Onoda finally died or, if like all old soldiers... "just faded away."
   
   History buffs or, serious military historians should have at least one copy of this book on their shelf.



3. I can't believe that this monster still generates interest and fascination to this day. What Onoda doesn't include in his writings but which has been revealed in personal stories and interviews is that as early as 1950 he was fully aware that the war was over but loved killing too much. He has revealed that since the war was over civilians would be less wary and would become easy targets. And indeed, they were. He would sneak into a village at night and cut the throats of sleeping children.
   
   He also would take pot shots of mothers hanging their clothes on clothes lines or feeding their chickens.
   
   He calls himself the ultimate soldier and yet he killed the defenseless over and over. And when he finally tired of having to kill his own food (more often than not he would steal it from the mouths of needy children) he went home to a hero's applause. Why Japan would accept him and laud his "heroic" efforts instead of turning him over to Phillipine authorities as a not only a war criminal but more accurately a serial killer is simply unexplainable.
   
   This clearly demonstrates Japan's unwillingness to accept their responsibility for atrocities during the war, WHICH THEY STARTED with the Rape of Nanking in 1931 in which unborn children were ripped from the wombs of their mothers by the "bold and brave" soldiers of Japan. It is no wonder then that an inhuman cowardly monster like Hiroo Onoda would be the poster child of heroism for the Japanese.
   
   We must wonder why we think such an individual merits such attention.



4. It was not mentioned in the book, that Mr. Onada was forgiven for 29 Filipino deaths caused by him. It is difficult for me to beleve he could have been so naive and ignorant.



5. Growing up I had heard the incredible stories of Japanese soldiers popping up from the jungles years & decades after the war was over. It always blew me away that someone could continue on fighting for so long after the war had ended. I could see someone doing it for 1 or 2 years because they were usually on isolated islands. No one (as far as we Know) was fighting the war for longer than Hiroo Onada.
   
   The only thing was though Onada didn't really need to fight for longer than the one or two years after 1945 when the war ended - that is if his mind wasn't blocking out all the information that was showing him the war was over. No matter what happened he was too suspicious that it was a trap by the American's or Filipinos. I found the story amazing but after a while one has to wonder if he will ever believe anything.
   
   Countless times the island was blanketed with notes dropped from planes that said the war was over & Japan had surrendered. One of the soldiers he lived with walked away from Onada & his friends in 1949 (after 5 years living with Onada). He walked to freedom & then came back & tried to convince the last 3 soldiers (Onada, Shimada & Kozuka) to give up - that the war was over, they were wasting their time. They dropped notes with the 3 soldiers names on it, pictures of Onada's family members...& walked around the island with bullhorns yelling that the war was over. Onada, Shimada & Kozuka heard this from their friend & saw the notes but were convinced that their friend was captured by the enemy & it was all a trap.
   
   Over the years his brother came & yelled on speakers to get Onada to surrender, Onada got within 150 yards of his brother & recognized him & his voice but still thought it was a trap.
   
   
   Another time his sister did the same thing - he still thought something was fishy & refused to fall for the trap. People always left old newspapers around - from around the world , but mostly from the Philipines & Japan. Sometimes the stacks of newspapers were several feet high. They would read them all, right down to the "want ads". They still twisted things in their minds that the Americans had edited out all these papers & taken out the parts about the war - Onada thought the Americans went to all this trouble just to trick these couple of people on some isolated island.
   
   For about 15 years they had access to a transistor radio & they would listen to stations all over the world - mostly Japanese but others such as the BBC. Still they couldn't wrap their heads around it that things were as they were being told from ex-soldier friends & family members. Finally after 30 years somehow Onada saw the light.
   
   The survival part of the book is pretty interesting & there is no doubt his 30 years of living out in the elements & off the land is one of the greatest survival stories in our lifetime.
   
   He was a smart guy & had a brilliant mind for details but his mind prevented him from seeing that the war was over 29 years before he finally walked out of the jungle.