Seems like a lot is missing from this article, especially the part about the atom bomb.
Here's a few reviews from Amazon.com:

A fiercely nationalistic book every American should read, August 5, 2002 

This book was a million-seller in Japan, and was translated into English in 1991. The author was a promininet Japanese politician. The book is dated, and history has not always borne out the author's views. Nonetheless, anyone attempting to understand modern Japan should read it. Some of the passages will be very surprising and disturbing. 
Author Ishihara avoids the conventionally polite Japanese protocol and forcefully states that Japan is the equal of the United States, that Japan should have its own defense forces, (and strong ones), that Japanese computer technology is second to none and should be used as a negotiating tool, and Japan will be the most influential power in dealing with Asian nations. 

Ishihara berates America for racism, and contends that the atomic bomb was not used on Germany because Germans were white, and Japanese were yellow. He asserts that nations colonized by Japan have been far more successful following liberation than those colonized by the United States. 

The book exemplifies the growing trend toward national pride in Japan, and also forcefully addresses the feeling by many Japanese that their nation is misunderstood. 

Plainly, the sentiments in the book foretell a troubled period in Japanese-American relations, and remind us that the Japanese have not forgotten Hiroshima any more than America has forgotten Pearl Harbor. Ishihara's call for a constructive dialogue between the two nations is well taken. Otherwise, the future looks cloudy at best. 

Very highly recommended, even if slightly dated. 

emblematic parochialism and obscure nationalist rage, September 19, 2006   

I read this book in the CIA-translated version as a Senate aide concerned about the rise of Japan, which included as co-author one of the leaders of Sony (Morita). While interesting for scholars, as I glanced thru this version - which is watered down but still white hot with anger - I was struck at how far off base the predictions of the man seem today. Afterall, when it was written, Japan was at the crest of the bubble economy, it appeared as if Japanese computer chips (and its electronic industries) would confer great power on the country (they could refuse to sell components that went into US missiles), and the US was in a now-unimaginable phase of self doubt. As such, the way things have turned out, after nearly 16 years of stagnation and the rise of high tech manufacturer-competitors elsewhere, reveal the author to have been so badly mistaken regarding the trajectory that Japan would take as to be laughable. 

In a deeper sense, it points to the fact that Ishihara did not understand the economic forces at work at the time and so was full of utterly baseless nationalistic bravado. Japan's economic rise was based upon the post-war reconstruction boom, then a relatively protected economy that allowed huge undustrial combines to band together as cartels (gouging their won consumers to sell at low prices abroad to gain marketshare and crush competitiors), and lastly to a number of significant management innovations (TQM, just-in-time manufacturing, etc.) that are reflected in the fact that they make excellent cars. However, it was basically a follower economy making products that have become commoditized by cheaper manufacturers elsewhere in Asia - just as its innovations became widely emulated - and corrupted by the money generated in real estate speculation that eventually collapsed in a deflationary spiral. Meanwhile, its political reforms have been weak at best, and senselessly nationalistic at worst. 

Ishihara understood none of this and casts no light on any of it of value. Instead, he drags out pre-WWII arguments about the innate superiority of the Japanese character and similar rather ugly arguments. He is also appalingly loose with the facts: for example, he claims that the US bombed Japan, but not Germany with the atom bomb for racist reasons (Japanese were yellow, Germans were not) - but if you know a minimum of history, which Isihara apparently doesn't, you would realise that at the time of the German defeat (April, 1945) the bomb was not yet completed (it was first test detonated the following July)! The book is full of this kind of sloppiness. What he does succeed at, however, is expressing the resentment that parochial Japanese nationalists felt at the time. In retrospect, his arrogance appears as breathtaking as it is ignorant. But his anger and resentment, and what they reflect of Japanese attitudes, is very real indeed. Seen this way, the book is one long crypto-racist rant. 

Japan has a long way to g