Japan's War

Rating:
Summary: admirable work but with some minor pitfalls
Review: This is one of the few books that really shines in documenting the Japanese strategy/politics from Meiji period to the end of WWII. The huge scope in this single volume limits the depth of details it can reach. However, it is detail enough for a general reference of all the events involved from Japanese's side point of view. Mr. Hoyt also takes an indifference approach to the subject matter. He not only lambast the rape of Nanking, rape of Hongkong but also General LeLand's bombing of Tokyo, which kills 200,000.

There are also some minor mistakes on this book that leaves a scar in my mind. A few examples:
1. The illustrations have a pictures of the "Betty" bomber. The legend say it is a Type 0 bomber. However, a "Betty" should be a Type 1 bomber.
2. In the middle of book, when he describes the Janpanese army's joke at the foreign minister by claiming him as the harm minister (because of the similar pronounication in Japanese), Mr. Hoyt misplaces the Kanji characters with his explanation. This makes the context and Japanese meaning of the character in opposite.
3. When he refers to the hanging of General Itagaki by the conviction of murdering of the old marshal, he uses Zhang Hsueh-Liang at the end of the book. However, Zhang Tso-Lin was the old marshal while Zhang Hsueh-Liang was the young marshal (Zhang Tso-Lin's eldest son). Surprisingly, he refers them correctly in the middle of the book when he is discussing the murder around in 1936.