Tales by Japanese Soldiers

Of all the major military forces of the second World War, the Japanese soldier endured a level of suffering and hardship surpassed only by the Russians. Once believed to be invincible, the Japanese army was on the verge of potential and ultimate victory in 1941. In these pages are accounts of the decline and destruction of an army that was gradually dismembered, with units spread out and isolated all over east Asia and the west Pacific by 1945. You will see the human face of the individual Japanese fighting man, and read of his endurance in the most grim and morbid circumstances: incessant forced marches in hostile tropical climates, starvation, disease, and death. This volume is a collection of sixty-two reminiscences of soldiers, and a handful of nurses. If one views the propaganda films of the 1940s, one will see the overt racial bias that was presented to the public, in regard to the Japanese adversary. To be fair, the Japanese propaganda machine was encouraging as much fanatical hatred of the West as well. Accounts of barbarous acts and atrocities commited by Japanese and German forces have been thoroughly chronicled by Western authors, but as with any massive institution such as a military, there will be vast numbers of individuals who were not involved with the actions of a wayward and corrupt few. Unfortunately, there is a tendency to place a collective guilt on the entire group. Those who were guilty of war-crimes were tried and punished, for the moat part. In this collection, we see that not all Japanese personnel were the fanatical savages that some would have us believe. Among the axis memoirs, there are a considerable number of reminiscence by German troops. The Japanese veterans have largely remained silent. Here we have a rare insight into the war from their point of view.

This is a collection of stories and memories by Japanese soldiers that fought in Burma between 1942 and 1945. The collection does not intend to give a comprehensive picture of the war, or of its participants. It is a series of snapshots of war as seen by the eyes of the ordinary people that actually fight it. Neither does the collection have literary ambitions: they have just told us their stories dircetly as they experienced them, with no special narrative technique or refinement. It actually does make the book so much more powerful. Some people have complained that it is mainly about marching or waiting, well: that's what war is for ordinary soldiers: No maps, no situation reports, no overview, no moral justification. They walk in the direction they are told, the lie down when bullets start buzzing around their ears, and they try and kill the enemy before he kills them. In between actions they try and puzzle together a life away from fear. Maybe we are spoilt by the magnificent war memoirs by some of the German generals, which, on the other hand, were educated cultured men with a bird's view of the war. There are some especially poignant stories about meetings between British and Japanese soldiers which are far away from the Hollywood image of the raving yellow lunatics that must be killed on sight. These men and women were not so much different from the allied soldiers we are taught to revere. And, indeed, they were often hailed as liberators by the colonial subjects of the US, Britain, France, and Holland.

This is the voice of the real forgotten war. This book relates numerous first person accounts of the Burma Campaign. The tales come from officers, common enlisted men, to female nurses. Their descriptions are very vivid, and show the tragic side of war. One can also get a better feel of the Japanese culture and their views towards the war. They view the war from the ground level, without any question such as "why are we here", regardless of that they seem to have an almost casual attitude towards their own demise, which I found very interesting. I would rate this book very highly if you have an interest in both the Pacific theater and Japan.

_Tales by Japanese Soldiers_ is a much needed addition to the very small number of Japanese sources on the Second World War available in the English language.The book deals with the Burma Campaign where a very large number of Japanese faced the combined British, Indian, Chinese, and US forces. In fact, the Japanese suffered their largest defeats on land in Burma. On the other hand, the Allies also suffered their longest retreat of the war here in 1942. Several Japanese officers and soldiers recount their experiences in _Tales by Japanese Soldiers_. Descriptions are given in chronological order, beginning with the 1942 invasion of Burma and ending with the British return in 1945. The biggest section is on the Battle of Imphal-Kohima, the great battle of attrition in 1944, in which the entire Japanese 15th Army was decimated. Stories of the retreat from Imphal are particularly compelling, especially a set of drawings by Yasumasa Nishiji.This is an important book that adds valuable perspective on the experience of the Japanese in the Second World War.