Imperial Tragedy

This is a 1970 book which is, to me, a little bit on the unusual side. From the book's cover, one would think the book is about the entire history of Japan's involved in WWII, from December of 1941 on.

Actually, it isn't that at all. The book is over 530 pages long; of that, 247 pages deal with the events in December of 1941, and the rest of the book deals with the events of August, 1945, from the dropping of the atomic bomb to the actual surrender of Japan.

There's nothing covered in between those two times.

Also, what is covered is done more in a “You Are There” approach to writing, where you are reading something like a regular book with dialogue than something that is actually a regular historical book. This approach does make for some interesting reading, but for anyone who has read much at all about Japan's role in WWII, it doesn't really tell the reader anything new or anything different.

The book, then, is really only for the completist, not for the general reader.

Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page