Japan 1941 : : Countdown to Infamy

Locations
Call Number: 940.54 Ho
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	940.54 Ho	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	940.54 Ho	4-week checkout	Due 05-02-2024

What a difference a day makes -- Rumors of war -- The return of Don Quixote -- The beginning of it all -- The soldiers' dilemmas -- Good riddance, good friends -- Japan's north-south problem -- A quiet crisis in July -- "Meet me in Juneau" -- An unwinnable, inevitable war -- One last opportunity -- A soldier takes over -- Winding back the clock -- On the brink -- "No last word between friends" -- The Hull note -- Jumping off the high platform -- The new beginning.
Examines the attack on Pearl Harbor from the Japanese perspective.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
CHOICE Review
Booklist Review
Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Excerpt
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Really solid study of how Imperial Japan found itself at war with the United States submitted by dewittj on July 6, 2023, 4:44pm Eri Hotta begins her work with a surprising fact: on the eve of entering a disastrous war of choice with the United States, few of Japan's leaders actually thought they had much chance of winning the war. The provocative question this raises is "why would anyone choose to go to war if they didn't think they would win?" What emerges over the course of the book is a dangerous situation where ultranationalists pushed the country toward ever more aggressive action, while the more sensible leaders were too timid to stand up for the cause of peace and undermined their own diplomatic proposals, taking meaningful concessions off the table so as to avoid appearing weak and unpatriotic to the more jingoistic elements of the government.

To be sure, this book is a challenging one. Many of the names are difficult to keep straight for an American audience, and throughout the first couple chapters the reader may find it difficult to find his or her proverbial feet. It is definitely worth the read, however, and I found myself drawing uncomfortable parallels between the tense situation with Japan, China and the U.S., and the current situation between Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. The United States attempted to use sanctions to pressure an ultranationalist state to leave its neighbors alone. The thinking was that, if deprived of the means to make war, the aggressor would rationally choose peace. Instead, it only inspired in them a desperate defiance which caused direct conflict with the U.S. None of this is to suggest we should not be providing aid to Ukraine here and now. Ultranationalists don't stop when they are appeased. But this book did underline for me the precariousness of the diplomatic situation in which we find ourselves.

All of that (including the random detour into the present day) is to say that this is an intelligent provocative book that paints a depressing picture of how irresponsible leaders can, to quote the author, seemingly "sleepwalk into war."