{Now dead} Un-f'd gaijin got official commendation

[Taro Toporific]

LETTERS FROM KOBE
Letter trove details Occupation life
Firsthand impressions of WWII's aftermath discovered in U.S. woman's correspondence
Japan Times: Friday, Sept. 5, 2008
.....More than 1,000 pages of handwritten letters from 1947 to 1948 by an American woman who witnessed and described in detail the Allied Occupation of Japan have been discovered...
....she wrote a lot about "juvenile delinquents" among young army troops at the Kobe base, including the transmission of venereal disease between young American soldiers and Japanese women...

The social problem of VD-- one that is hush-hush at home and in polite civilized circles, is common talk here. A unit is given a commendation when it goes for several weeks without any new cases of VD

....more...
(The Japan Times will run a series of articles on Ryan's letters with excerpts.)

[pheyton]

An amazing find. I would like to read that book when it gets published.

Do any FG's have a recommended reading list of books relating to Japan?

[Behan]

Ditto for me what Peyton said.

[samuraiwig]

Do any FG's have a recommended reading list of books relating to Japan?

This should be a thread on its own. I searched, but didn't find one.

Here's a few that I like, sticking to non-fiction by FG writers. I'm sure most of these are familiar to people here. Anyone got anything a bit more esoteric to add?


General

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, Ruth Benedict. (Edit: For the reasons that Charlie helpfully clarified below. Next time I'll add a page of analysis to justify each selection...)

Ian Buruma's Wages of Guilt and Inventing Japan. There are probably others of his that I've forgotten.

Speed Tribes by Karl Taro Greenfield and Tokyo Confidential are less pun-filled substitutes for the late WaiWai.

Alex Kerr's Lost Japan. The first half of Dogs and Demons is good, but it tails off when facts and reasoning give way to angry opinionating.

Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West is not perfect, but it has a pretty interesting central concept.


People and Places

Both of Alan Booth's walking books, The Roads to Sata and Looking for the Lost.

Pretty much anything by Donald Richie, especially The Inland Sea and Japanese Portraits. His cinema stuff is probably great, but I'm not so interested.

Giants of Japan by Mark Weston gives Japanese business and politics a human face.


Sports

Robert Whiting's You Gotta Have Wa and The Chrysanthemum and the Bat. Japanese Rules is good for football (soccer) fans.


Business

The Rice Paper Ceiling: Breaking Through Japanese Corporate Culture, Rochelle Kopp

The Japanese Negotiator: Sublety and Strategy Beyond Western Logic, Robert March

-----

And a few I didn't like:

A Ride in the Neon Sun, Josie Dew (just not very good)

Hokkaido Highway Blues, Will Ferguson (Booth/Richie very lite)

Accidental Office Lady, Laura Kriska

Blue-Eyed Salaryman, Niall Murtagh (10 pages of nothing much for every 1 sentence of sub-standard insight)

[Charles]

This should be a thread on its own. I searched, but didn't find one.

Here's a few that I like, sticking to non-fiction by FG writers. I'm sure most of these are familiar to people here. Anyone got anything a bit more esoteric to add?


General

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, Ruth Benedict..

OK, you pretty much blew your credibility right out of the gate. Perhaps you are unaware that Benedict never actually went to Japan, and the book is based mostly on her research in books and magazines, plus a few interviews with expat nihonjin living in the US, so it's hardly a representative survey of actual Japanese culture. It's been widely ridiculed for its sweeping generalizations, clumsy cliches, and thinly veiled racism. In any case, it's ancient history, having been written before the end of WWII. It would be relegated to the trashbin of history except that it is useful to learn what rubbish was promoted as "cultural anthropology" in an era of intense racism.

[Takechanpoo]

An amazing find. I would like to read that book when it gets published.

Do any FG's have a recommended reading list of books relating to Japan?

In postwar confusion period, several hundred thousand of rapes to J-girls by U.S soldiers happened. But these "genocide" have been concealed by far. Uncle Sam have pressured J-government not to disclose it. Actually the official documents in Japan related to this several hundred thousand of raping J-girls cases are not open to the public. Sneak uncle sam.

[samuraiwig]

OK, you pretty much blew your credibility right out of the gate. Perhaps you are unaware that Benedict never actually went to Japan, and the book is based mostly on her research in books and magazines, plus a few interviews with expat nihonjin living in the US, so it's hardly a representative survey of actual Japanese culture.

Thanks for the history lesson, Charlie.

Yes, I am perfectly aware of the background and limitations of Benedict's book. And I am not claiming any sort of credibility. I like reading books, not necessarily pontificating about them in a quasi professorial style.

I didn't read Benedict as a de facto social study of Japan. It's on my list precisely because of the reasons you mention. Although I have to say I was impressed by the accuracy of some of the assumptions she was able to make, in the circumstances.

Whatever its flaws, it makes for a more interesting read than most books cobbled together by FGs who spent half their lives in the country. Do you have anything constructive to add to this thread?


Taro: Thanks for the link to the JT article. As Pheyton says, that's a good find.

[wuchan]

In postwar confusion period, several hundred thousand of rapes to J-girls by U.S soldiers happened. But these "genocide" have been concealed by far. Uncle Sam have pressured J-government not to disclose it. Actually the official documents in Japan related to this several hundred thousand of raping J-girls cases are not open to the public. Sneak uncle sam.

and what the japanese military did was any better? Also, please explain to me how mass rape is classified as genocide?

Jesus fucking christ. Up until WWII it was standard operating procedure for any invading military to rape and pillage. War is an ugly thing, all the efforts in the past 60 years to make war more civil has made going to war kind of unfair for the big guys. If the US or Russia invades a country and somehow violates the locals "human rights" the rest of the planet goes apeshit. But if a small african nation does the same people look the other way and just say that "it is none of our business."

[Behan]

and what the japanese military did was any better? Also, please explain to me how mass rape is classified as genocide?

Jesus fucking christ. Up until WWII it was standard operating procedure for any invading military to rape and pillage. War is an ugly thing, all the efforts in the past 60 years to make war more civil has made going to war kind of unfair for the big guys. If the US or Russia invades a country and somehow violates the locals "human rights" the rest of the planet goes apeshit. But if a small african nation does the same people look the other way and just say that "it is none of our business."

He's a troll. He says stuff to upset people.

[nottu]

[Charles]

Thanks for the history lesson, Charlie.

Yes, I am perfectly aware of the background and limitations of Benedict's book. And I am not claiming any sort of credibility. I like reading books, not necessarily pontificating about them in a quasi professorial style.

I didn't read Benedict as a de facto social study of Japan. It's on my list precisely because of the reasons you mention. Although I have to say I was impressed by the accuracy of some of the assumptions she was able to make, in the circumstances.

Whatever its flaws, it makes for a more interesting read than most books cobbled together by FGs who spent half their lives in the country. Do you have anything constructive to add to this thread?

Of course, my criticism usually has a constructive agenda, even if you don't see it. But I just hate that book. You might be amused at the wikipedia entry for the book, it is rather good. A long time ago I vandalized that article, back when it was just a few sentences long. My remarks are still in the article, with a little footnote asking for attribution.. ha!

Just off the top of my head, here are a few books I like, but I noticed I mostly like books written by nihonjin. I'd have more picks but my books are mostly in storage now, I'll dig more up someday.

"Different Games, Different Rules: Why Americans and Japanese Misunderstand Each Other" by Haru Yamada. Focuses on cultural differences based on linguistics and culture.

"The Unspoken Way: Haragei" by Michihiro Matsumoto. Unfortunately out of print, used copies for $5 on Amazon. An extremely eccentric take on Japanese culture, but very insightful at points.

"Womansword" by Kittredge Cherry. A look at Japanese women through the language used to describe them, as written by a FG feminist.

"The Anatomy of Dependence" by Takeo Doi. An antidote to Benedict's book, although it has major flaws of its own.

"Kurosawa: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema" by Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto. Disclaimer: he's one of my old professors (although he might deny it.. ha). Further disclaimer: I've only seen the first chapter as a preprint, and it was about the most astonishing thing I ever read. Someday when I can afford to buy the rest of the (expensive) book, I'm sure it will be equally astonishing.

"Embracing Defeat" by John Dower. It revolutionized our knowledge of the Occupation Era. Impeccably researched, but not academic writing, it is amazingly accessible and a very good read.

"Postwar Japan as History" edited by Andrew Gordon. Yes, this one is academic but it's the best assembly of modern Japanese history essays I've seen. Writers include both Japanese and FGs, with topics including politics, economics, and mass culture.

"Empire of Signs" by Roland Barthes. Probably the worst book ever written about Japan. Unintentionally hilarious (although that may depend on your knowledge of postmodernist literary theory). Barthes attempts semiotic deconstruction of Japanese language and culture, without knowing any Japanese at all.

[Mulboyne]

This should be a thread on its own. I searched, but didn't find one.

This is about as far as a thread has ever got on this topic. Mostly, they have ended up like this one.

I'm always interested in books which show Japan in a new light or else books which somehow shape the way people think about Japan, whether rightly or wrongly. For instance, "Tokyo Underworld" is fun because it made me think more about the postwar period. With greater gravitas, "Embracing Defeat" does the same. I recommend two books by Mark D West: "Law in Everyday Japan: Sex, Sumo, Suicide, and Statutes" and Secrets,"Sex, and Spectacle: The Rules of Scandal in Japan and the United States" which provide interesting context for aspects of Japanese life.

Books like "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword", "Japan As Number One", "The Enigma of Japanese Power" and "Dogs and Demons" seem to set the terms of discussion on the country and they are worth a read regardless of their numerous faults. Sadly, there hasn't been a book to capture the zeitgeist in years. Business books are almost universally terrible but friends recommend "Nippon Challenge: Japan's Pursuit of the America's Cup" which covers similar ground. It is out of print but available second hand and I've just reminded myself to go and get a copy. In truth, I can't recommend all the books which taught me most about Japan because many are out of date while others I now know to be wrong. They pointed me in the right direction at the time but probably wouldn't do so for anyone today.

There are probably more novels in translation now than ever before. When you include manga and "light novels", there's an overwhelming amount on offer. However, I'd also recommend tracking down the author Saiichi Maruya who seems to be out of print now but was well translated by Donald Keene. You can still get second-hand copies of "Singular Rebellion" and "A Mature Woman".

[samuraiwig]

"Embracing Defeat" by John Dower. It revolutionized our knowledge of the Occupation Era. Impeccably researched, but not academic writing, it is amazingly accessible and a very good read.

Thanks for the recommendations, Charles. I've heard only good things about the Dower book. Will have to pick up a copy.

This is about as far as a thread has ever got on this topic.

That's too bad. From that other thread, I also enjoyed Confessions of a Yakuza.

Also I missed another good Donald Richie book - The Honorable Visitors. He tells tales of visiting FG and their reception in/reaction to Japan, including Ulysses S. Grant, Rudyard Kipling, Aldous Huxley, Charlie Chaplin, Jean Cocteau, William Faulkner, and Truman Capote.

We have got off the topic of Taro's interesting original post, so maybe a mod could extract the book stuff and stick it in a new thread.

In truth, I can't recommend all the books which taught me most about Japan because many are out of date while others I now know to be wrong. They pointed me in the right direction at the time but probably wouldn't do so for anyone today.

This is another reason why I didn't add much description to my list. Different books gave me different insights at different times. Some were deeper than others, and in retrospect some were more accurate than others. But all those books were useful or interesting in their own way.