Tales by Japanese Soldiers (Cassell Military Paperbacks) -

I was very excited when I ordered this book. I've been interested in the history of the second world war for a long time now but never before have I had the oppurtunity to read a book from the Japanese point of view.

Japanese soldiers and officers who fought during that conflict were labelled by political propaganda as merciless, savage killers with a complete disregard for human life. The Japanese troops were made out to be monsters and that point of view is still held by many people today, largely because of the terrible way the Japanese treated Prisoners of War. No book has ever really tried to paint the Japanese during the war as ordinary soldiers and human beings with the same fear and vulnerabilities as everyone else

The book is very informative of Japanese tactics, movements and use of aircraft and mountain guns as support during combat and of the high regard the Japanese had of bayonet charges (a morbidly facinating fighting technique). The book also covers the fear and shame some soldiers felt at being wounded or pinned down by enemy fire and therefore unable to continue fighting. Also there genuinely seemed to be very little fear of dying, whether this was bravado or genuine courage is sometimes hard to tell but I think on the whole the soliders seemed to feel that if it was necessary for them to die for the betterment of Japan then they were ok with it. I was surprised to read that alot of Burmese people were pro-Japanese and supported the Japanese forces in Burma. It amused me in some strange way to read that the Japanese soldiers seemed more frightened of cholera than British soldiers!

I was however disappointed with a seeming lack of human emotion from the Japanese. Occasionally a Japanese soldier would write that he felt sad about something but that was it, the whole thing seems so clinical. Perhaps alot was lost in translation but most of the writing is surprisingly functional and non-emotional. The book is full of sentances like "Today we crossed a bridge, it was very hot, we saw some British tanks. They fired at us, we hid behind some trees. Later on we had soup" thats not an actual extract but its similar to the style of alot of it. I just wish they put a bit more emotion into what they were writing, many diary entries seemed very detached, almost as if the soldier writing it was in some way sedated.

Thats my opinion. Perhaps the Japanese soldiers just didn't like to put alot of emotion into what they wrote or perhaps any emotion was censored out. I'm not sure but what I will say is that although I got a very good, clear idea of what the fighting conditions during that conflict were like as well as how battles and skirmishes were fought. What I didn't get was any real idea as to how the Japanese soldiers actually FELT about the war and being shot at and having to kill a man with a bayonet or blow up a tank with four men still inside or how it felt to be shot at themselves. How it felt for them to be involved in this terrible war. Why did they treat prisoners so badly?

These questions are still unanswered and I feel that many people are still looking for these answers. I suspect, judging by the very fact that the Japanese government still refuses to apologise to all the victims of their brutal treatment in prison camps that even the Japanese themselves don't know why their ancestors did it.

What a Book (0/0 people found this helpful)

Every one is patriotic to there country..but when I read this book, it made me realize the Human Suffering for every Country In World War 2..It made me realise also How Important Peace is and no more wars. Get this book, Read this book and let it inspire you!

The Burma campaign as never told before (3/3 people found this helpful)

A unique book, telling the story of the Burma campaign from a very different perspective. A refreshing insight into a war which no one likes talking about - simply because this was one war where no side can claim glory. An excellent read!

How refreshing (4/8 people found this helpful)

I wasn't there. So I ride a Japanese motorcycle and have a Japanese watch. It is common to knock to the Japs. How badly they treated the Ally POW's and, I guess, they deserve all the knocks they get because of it. But this helps to balance the overall picture. The Japs suffered too. The hunger, thirst, wounds, fighting. Whether we believed in waht they did or not doesn't matter, THEY did, and it's all here. From the start to the end. The Triumphs, the hopes, the tears. They suffered too - and most probably didn't want to do it.

The Emperor's soldiers in victory and defeat (17/17 people found this helpful)

TALES BY JAPANESE SOLDIERS Of The Burma Campaign 1942-1945 By Kazuo Tamayama and John Nunneley

The Japanese are famously reticent about the detail of their involvement in the Second World War. Now, for the first time, 62 personal accounts by private soldiers, non-commissioned officers and junior officers tell how they lived, fought, and died, in that merciless conflict from which only 118,352 of an army of 305,501 returned home.

Much of the material has been selected from recollections preserved in regimental histories, the closely-guarded, restricted records of the All-Burma Veterans Association of Japan, private papers, personal memoirs and interviews. No similar volume has ever before been published, either in Japanese or English.

Make no mistake. These are straightforward, unvarnished accounts, often stark and shocking, often intensely moving, by infantrymen, gunners, engineers, medics, navy men, pilots. They reveal, also, astonishing contrasts in human behaviour on the battlefield: of naked, adrenaline-fuelled savagery - and tears of compassion for the dying enemy soldier. Remarkably, there is ungrudging admiration for 'The Great British Empire' they were fighting to destroy.

They tell, almost casually, of that routine reckless bravery which soldiers of the Allied Forces witnessed again and again and could scarcely comprehend. Of unquestioned readiness to die a glorious death for their country - and deep melancholy at its imminent prospect. 'We cut our nails and hair, wrapped them in paper and sent them to the rear in case our bones were not recovered to be sent home for consecration at the Yasukuni Shrine.' And when taking one's own life in the 1944 monsoon retreat along 'Human Remains Highway' to the Chindwin River was to thousands of wounded, diseased and starving soldiers the only way out of a veritable hell.

The book covers the Second World War's longest campaign from victorious invasion to defeat and surrender. In chronological sequence each vividly readable story is headed with the name, rank and unit of the writer. British, Indian, Gurkha, East and West African and Chinese units are identified in scores of encounters, skirmishes and set-piece battles. These include: Bilin * Buthidaung * Donbaik * Imphal * Indainggyi * Indin * Irrawaddy River * Kanbalu * Kohima * Kokkogwa * Kuzeik * Kyaukse * Mandalay * Monywa * Rangoon * Pegu * Sangshak * Singel * Shwedaung * Shwegyin * Sinzeya * Sittang * Tavoy * Thadodan * Wanetchaung * Yenangyaung.

Timed to mark the 60th Anniversary of the outbreak of 'The Pacific War' that threw Britain against Japan, 'TALES BY JAPANESE SOLDIERS' is the authentic voice of Nippon's own 'Forgotten Army' despatched to fight to the death in Burma's jungles and mountains and plains.

Tales by Japanese Soldiers (Cassell Military Paperbacks)

Reader Reviews:

Interesting but lacking in something... (0/0 people found this helpful)

What a Book (0/0 people found this helpful)

The Burma campaign as never told before (3/3 people found this helpful)

How refreshing (4/8 people found this helpful)

The Emperor's soldiers in victory and defeat (17/17 people found this helpful)

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