The Japan Society Review 49
Book, Stage, Movie, Arts and Events Review

Issue 49 Volume 9 Number 1 (February 2014)

A tale of forgiveness
The Railway Man reviewed by Susan Meehan
The art of war
Sean Curtin re-examines Ronald Searle’s PoW sketches
In this first issue of 2014, we focus on Japan’s wartime ThaiBurma Railway which has recently been in the spotlight
following the release of the internationally acclaimed movie
The Railway Man. The film is based on Eric Lomax’s moving bookof the same name and our review by Susan Meehan explores
both versions of this emotive tale. On a positive note, thisregrettable chapter in UK-Japan relations clearly demonstrates
that bitter former foes can successfully be reconciled and build
a strong and enduring relationship. In some respects this is oneof the key messages of the film, through forgiveness and theproper acknowledging of a painful past, a strong and mutually
beneficial future can be created. We look at the historicalbackground to the movie with an analysis by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
and Professor Ian Nish of Yoshihiko Futamatsu’s Across theThree Pagodas Pass: The Story of the Thai-Burma Railway,

which was translated by Ewart Escritt. We also review Ronald
Searle’s immensely powerful visual record of his gruesome life
as a prisoner-of-war building the so called ‘Death Railway’ in To
The Kwai – And Back. Sir Hugh Cortazzi looks at a stimulatingcollection of scholarly essays on war-related themes entitledWays of Forgetting, Ways of Remembering: Japan in theModern World which is edited by the eminent historian
John Dower. Looking at this issue’s theme from a completely
different perspective Mike Sullivan reviews a fictional work thatmasterfully intermingles a range of issues which arose from theconflict for Japanese who were living in the USA when WorldWar II broke out.
Sean Curtin, February 2014

Contents
1) The Railway Man.........................................................

.........................................................­........................................................................................................................................
EditorSean Curtin

2) Across the Three Pagodas Pass: The Story of the Thai-Burma Railway(part one)Managing Editor

3) Across the Three Pagodas Pass: The Story of the Thai-Burma Railway(part two)

Reviewers

4) To The Kwai – And Back; War Drawings 1939-1944

5) Ways of Forgetting, Ways of Remembering: Japan in the Modern World
6) Snow Falling on Cedars

Jack Cooke
Susan Meehan, Ian Nish, Sean Curtin & Mike Sullivan
Special Reviewer
Sir Hugh Cortazzi
New reviewswww.japansociety.org.uk/resources/the-japan-society-review

Across the Three Pagodas Pass: The Story of the Thai-Burma Railway Special promotional price for Japan Society members
20% DISCOUNT @ £25 (RRP £35) / Email info@renaissancebooks.co.uk to redeem offer

The Railway Man
Directed by Jonathan Teplitzy
Based on an adaptation of the bestselling autobiographyof the same name by Eric Lomax
116 minutes, 2014
Review by Susan Meehan

The Railway Man is a powerful film based on Eric
Lomax’s book of the same name, featuring particularly
strong performances by Colin Firth and Jeremy Irvineas, respectively, the young and older Eric Lomax. Nicole
Kidman playing Patti, Lomax’s second wife, exceeded mylow expectations of her for this role.
Fittingly, love blossoms
betweendevotedrail enthusiast Eric
and Patti on a train. It
seems
orchestrated
by fate as Eric has only
caught that particulartrain by figuring out
an alternative route
home as a result of
his scheduled journeyhaving been delayed.
Eric and Patti end
up getting married.
Far from being an
idyllic marriage, Patti
soon becomes awareofEric’ssuddenrages, mood swings,
abrupt withdrawal ofaffection and unexpected annoyance at incorrect bills
and other such trifles. She realises that Eric is periodicallytormented with memories of the horrific torture hefaced at the hands of his Japanese captors during WorldWar Two.
Eric, a former signals engineer in the British army, is unable
to tell Patti of the horrors he endured as a Prisoner of Warof the Japanese, captured after the fall of Singapore in 1942
and forced to work on the infamous Thai-Burma Railway.
In flashbacks we see how Eric, aided by a group of fellow
PoWs who scout for the necessary electrical parts, manages
to build a radio. Able to hear BBC news reports, the PoWs
discover that Germany and Japan are in retreat and that the
UK is holding out. This gives them the courage and hope tohang on to their lives.
The Japanese captors, on finding the device, mercilessly
beat one of Lomax’s group. At this point Lomax carefully
takes off his glasses and selflessly offers himself up for
torture.
These torture scenes, offered as flashbacks, are harrowing
and remind the viewer of the unimaginable torment towhich the PoWs were subjected. Having read the book, I
2

was aware that Eric’s torture went on for two years but
this is not made clear in the film. While difficult to watch attimes, the full horrors of the torture are more fully disclosed
in the book. I found that the lingering psychological effects
which the beatings had on Eric, were even more distressing
than the actual physical torture itself as depicted in the film.
It is unsurprising that Eric experiences frequent meltdowns
as a result of his memories. Patti feels useless as she cannot
get through to Eric despite her attempts at coaxing him.
She manages, however, to elicit some details about Eric’s
suffering and war experiences from Finlay, a fellow former
POW and friend of Eric.
The story builds up to a climax as Finlay receives a newspaper
article about Takashi Nagase, the interpreter who, over 30
years earlier, hadbeen attached to
the Japanese secretpolice and who hadliaisedbetweenEric’s group of POWs
and the Japaneseunit officers who
tortured them andforced them towork on the railway.
Nagase is alive andworking at a Burma
Railway museum.
EncouragedbyFinlaytoseekrevenge on theirbehalf,Lomax
sets off to visit
the museum andNagase, whom he has never forgotten and also held guilty
for being complicit in his torture.
The denouement is certainly spectacular, and as with otherparts of the film veers from the truth, primarily for dramaticeffect.

The Railway Man is a sensitively made film depicting thehorrors of war. Desperately sad, it ultimately delivers themessage of forgiveness. It features fine performances.
Jeremy Irvine is a fabulous young Lomax, having skilfully
captured Colin Firth’s mannerisms and way of speaking.
Firth beautifully captures Lomax’s torment, much in thesame way as he did when playing another complex, fragile
and wounded character, George in the 2009 film, A Single
Man. Nagase is played well by both Tanroh Ishida and
Hiroyuki Sanada.
Patti is a supportive wife who is eventually successful in
helping Eric deal with this past. The character is un-showy
and Kidman does not steal the film in any way. On Francine
Stock’s The Film Programme (12 January 2014) on Radio 4,
Frank Cottrell Boyce, the screenwriter, amusingly recounted
that on seeing the film, the real Patti said that she had neverbeen as dowdy as Kidman portrays her in the film.
Issue 49 Volume 9 Number 1 (February 2014)

There are a few touches of humour in the film, mainly when
Lomax is shown enthusing about trains. Those interested
in the film would also be advised to read the poignant
book as Cottrell Boyce has taken liberties with Lomax’s
story. While the book mainly focuses on Eric’s experiences
as a PoW, the film is based more solidly in the present andcentres on Eric’s second marriage to Patti, with flashbacks
to the torture scenes. The film’s ending is also radicallydifferent, but understandably so in order to raise the levelof tension for the cinematic audience.
Tanroh Ishida who plays the young Nagase withtremendous sensitivity is an up and coming young actor tolook out for. Ishida was trained in Noh and Kyogen from theage of three. Moving to London at the age of 15, he studied
at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. You may haveseen Tanroh Ishida at the 2013 Japan Matsuri in Trafalgar
Square on 5 November performing as a special guest withthe music band Jetsam.
As an insight into the horrors of World War Two, thevicissitudes of life and a testament to the redeeming
power of love and forgiveness, this film really deserves tobe watched!

Across the Three
Pagodas Pass: The
Story of the ThaiBurma Railway
By Yoshihiko
Futamatsu
Translated andintroduced by Ewart
Escritt
Renaissance Books, 2013
Review by Ian Nish
Yoshihiko
Futamatsu
wasaprofessional
engineer trained at Kyoto
University. In wartime he became a gunzoku, a civilian
member of an army bridging unit involved in the attack
on Singapore. He says that, because of the operations ofBritish submarines in the Andaman Sea, the Japanese
did not have a secure maritime supply route to Burmafor their campaign there in 1942. Instead they adopted aplan for a land route by building a railway from Thailand to
Burma which had been studied in Army GHQ since 1939.
Futamatsu as an engineer with the rank of captain (later
major) was switched from bridging to railway construction
and joined the project in June 1942. Employment of PoWs
was apparently a military decision rather than one taken inTokyo and had, the author states, been carefully thought
out from the start. But the army had to revise its plans
because of the unexpectedly large number of British andother allied soldiers captured in the fall of Singapore.
Issue 49 Volume 9 Number 1 (February 2014)

When the allies began a counteroffensive in north Burmaat the beginning of 1943, Army GHQ ruled that therailway must be finished by the summer. This led to what
Futamatsu calls ‘rushed construction’ (Kyusoku kensetsu);
it was ‘a reckless command’ which led to imperfectstandards of building. The line was opened to traffic in
October 1943 when the soldiers of the 5th railway regimentworking south from the Burma side with the help of local
coolies joined up with the 9th railway regiment at theThree Pagodas Pass near the frontier station of Konkuita,
hence the title of the book. But the operation of the line
presented problems: the opening-to-traffic coincided withenemy air attacks. Japan had no fighters in the area; andher anti-aircraft guns were ineffective. In the following year
the supply route was often interrupted by intensive alliedbombing, especially of bridges. Thus, the engineering
teams spent much time repairing the line. Futamatsu wasunderstandably depressed at seeing the destruction of therailway so carefully planned and painstakingly constructedat such cost in human lives.
Futamatsu became a PoW in Bangkok at the end of the war
and successfully claimed early release as a non-combatantgunzoku. He was repatriated to Uraga on 27 June 1946.
He resumed his career with Japanese National Railways
and continued with consultancies as an engineer into the
1980s.
Primarily the book provides an account of his wartime
experiences, a personal story of hardship, illness anddisappointment over failed attempts at repatriation. He
is proud of the Thai-Burma railway as an engineeringachievement in a hostile environment. But he has criticismsof the route chosen and the faulty planning: it was nevergoing to be able to carry enough supplies for the ambitious
campaign being waged by the army in Burma. He is reticent
about his beliefs over the treatment of PoWS and other
Asian railway builders. But he quotes at length from British
authors who have written accounts of their treatment on
the railway and comments sympathetically on them. He is
critical of the film Bridge on the River Kwai along the linesthat those like Louis Allen have pointed out.1 Futamatsu
had issued two pamphlets on the Thai-Burma railway
around 1955 but, annoyed by the inaccuracies of the filmand elsewhere, he published a comprehensive study on
the subject in 1985 (in Japanese). It is this which is now
translated.
It is not possible in a short review to examine his arguments
in any detail. The author argues that, since Japan had notsigned the Geneva convention on PoWs, the Japanesemilitary was entitled to decline responsibility for employing
PoWs. But the editor points out that Japan had signed andratified the earlier Hague Convention (p.51). Futamatsu
repeats the familiar Japanese view that soldiers must notsurrender but die, when captured. At the same time heacknowledges the great contribution which the prisoners
and coolies made to the railway building. This is not abook devised specially for a western readership but thetranslation of something addressed in the first place to a
Japanese public.
3

Futamatsu’s book is fluently translated from the Japaneseby the late Ewart Escritt, himself a PoW working in Thailand.
Escritt also contributes a lengthy introduction containing
partly a memoir of his own experiences on the railway
and partly a critique of Futamatsu’s ideas (pp. xxvii-lviii).
Since Escritt’s and Futamatsu’s deaths the project has been
carried forward by Professor Peter N. Davies, Emeritus
Professor of the University of Liverpool. In his foreword
he explains the vicissitudes of seeing this project throughdespite the traumas of translation and publication. He
claims that it gives the reader the opportunity of evaluating
the non-western viewpoint on the infamous railway andreaching a balanced judgment on a highly controversial
subject (p.xxii). The book is a good read and contains muchinteresting new information.
Notes
see The Writings of Louis Allen : War, Conflict and Security
in Japan and the Asia- Pacific, 1941-52, Folkestone, Global
Oriental, 2011, ch. 7
1

Across the Three
Pagodas Pass: The
Story of the ThaiBurma Railway
By Yoshihiko
Futamatsu
Translated andintroduced by Ewart
Escritt
Renaissance Books, 2013
Review by Sir HughCortazzi
The sufferings of allied
prisoners of war forcedby the Japanese military to work on what was generally
referred to as the Burma-Siam Railway and often as the‘Death Railway’ have been recounted in many books bysurvivors. The film entitled The Bridge on the River Kwai
attracted large audiences and many of those who saw
it probably thought that it gave a fair picture of events,
although this has been disputed by ex-prisoners of war andthe story contained much that was fiction.
This book is the first publication in English of an account of
the construction of the line by a Japanese railway engineer.
The line had to be built at top speed on the order of theJapanese army chiefs. Japanese forces in Burma had hitherto
been supplied by sea, but they had become increasingly
vulnerable to allied air attacks and to maintain the Japaneseposition in Burma supplies and reinforcements were
urgently needed. Despite the huge technical and logisticaldifficulties of building a line through tropical forests, over4

many rivers and passes and the suffering inflicted not only
on allied PoW but also on local forced labour the line wascompleted in 1943 and enabled troops and supplies toreach the Japanese in Burma. But the line never came nearto meeting its load targets. The original plan had envisioned
loads of 3,000 tons per day, but it soon became clear that
this target was far too high and the target was reduced to
1,000 tons. Largely as a result of allied bombing ‘by 1944
the daily average was seldom above 300 tons (Peter Davies’
Foreword page xvi).

maximum efficiency in what in fact was an emergency, sowhen the day’s work stint was extended each day’s norm
was only achieved by coercion. Usually the prisoners did nothave the services of an interpreter, their g-slow tactics often
went too far and incurred severe scolding and harassment.
Of course, the Japanese soldiers’ natural instinct involved
contempt for them and this affected their behaviour. The
severe nature of the work and the demand for speedy
finishing of tasks did, I think, destroy any chance of kindly
treatment.’

Escritt who had been forced by his Japanese captors towork on the railway and who translated Futamatsu’s book,recorded in his introduction:

Futamatsu did what he was ordered to do even if heseems often to have thought his orders unreasonable
and unfeasible. At one point a Japanese staff officer
without adequate knowledge of railway engineering gave
instructions about building the line up a precipitous pathin an unrealistic fashion. His senior accepted the order andreprimanded Futamatsu for querying the order (see page112): ‘Here was an example of how military ethics could
make a soldier accept an illogical order.’ Obedience isdemanded of service personnel, but in the Japanese army it
had to be blind unquestioning obedience however wrong
or stupid the order. As Escritt points out in his introduction‘justifiable pride in the techniques and skills of a civilian
railway engineer makes him sceptical of the professional
regular soldiers’ attitudes’.

‘Personnel employed on the railway included about 11,000
Japanese military, 61,106 prisoners-of-war, and 182,948
Asiatic coolies. Of the prisoners of war 12,399 were recorded
as having died before leaving Thailand and Burma, and it
has been estimated that over 90,000 Asiatic coolies died on
this work.’
Many of the PoW who survived their experiences on therailway were destined to die when prison ships taking themon to more forced labour in Japan were torpedoed by allied
submarines. Some elements in the Japanese army planned
to massacre prisoners remaining in Thailand if Japan was
defeated, but the PoW were spared by the speed withwhich the war ended in August 1945 following the atomic
bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as there were plans forthem to be massacred.
Futamatsu in his account quotes at length from booksby G.P. Adams and J.B. Bradley who wrote about theirexperiences as PoW forced to work on the line andrecognizes that all who worked on the railway had a very
tough time. He describes the hellish conditions caused by
the climate including heat and rainfall, debilitating and fatal
diseases including malaria, dysentery and cholera as well
as by insanitary camps and inadequate food and medical
supplies. The Japanese also lacked modern machinery andtransport equipment which might have eased working
conditions and speeded up the process. He also recognizedthat the orders to speed up completion added significantly
pressures on all involved.
Futamatsu defends Japanese treatment of PoW on the
grounds that Japan had not signed and ratified the relevant
Geneva Convention. He also argues that in the Japanesearmy corporal punishment for even the most minor
infringements was the accepted norm and that in thisrespect PoW were not treated differently from Japanese.
Allied personnel had surrendered in a way that Japanese
never would have done and that this at least in his view was afurther justification for Japanese behaviour to their captives.
This argument for inhumane treatment is unacceptable.
There was not even these specious arguments for theJapanese exploitation of local slave labour.
Futamatsu (page 58) records coolly:

He admits (page 110):‘Even despite such conditions [as he had described] therailway was finally completed by the prisoners-of-war andcoolies working with us. It is certain that the railway could
not have been finished without their help. They defied thedemon of ill-health and finished the job, and lamented thesouls of the many victims whose bones lay in the jungle.
It was probably the result of the indomitable spirit withwhich the survivors worked, even when it looked as if they
were zealously labouring even in an enemy’s strategic
railway.’

Souvenir Press, 2006
192 pages
ISBN 0285637452
Review by Sean CurtinThis disturbing book waspreviously reviewed backin Issue 3 (May 2006) by Sir
Hugh Cortazzi but is worth
examining again as it contains
one of the best contemporary visual records of the terrible
sufferings endured by the prisoners-of-war who built theThai-Burma Railway.1 Written narratives are often unable toconvey the full horror of the inhuman regime which Ronald
Searle’s grim depictions so brutally portray.2
Searle (3 March 1920 – 30 December 2011) was a gifted
artist who was captured by the Japanese in February 1942,
remaining a PoW until August 1945. The book tells his story
from the fall of Singapore to his survival against the odds
and eventual liberation. The text is fairly limited allowing themany finely drawn sketches to tell their own gruesome tale.
While Searle’s focus is on his and fellow captives’ suffering, I
was also shocked by the extreme level of brutality Japanese
troops inflicted on ordinary Chinese civilians. On page 66
Searle observes, ‘It is estimated that 20,000 Chinese alone
were shot or beheaded during the first few days after
capitulation [of Singapore].”This was a tragic episode in a war, which Japan could
never have won unless the Americans and their allies hadlacked the ‘indomitable spirit’, which clearly impressed
Futamatsu.
The first thing I looked for when I took the book up
was a map showing the line. There is no reference
to a map in the table of contents. Nor is there a listof the photographs, which are inserted after page64, but the second illustration is a photograph of asketch map drawn by Escritt.
Despite the fact that the railway, which no longer
exists, was completed seventy years ago the
publication of this book is a valuable addition to
the history of the war and of the sufferings of those
who worked on it. The translation by Escritt was
produced in the 1980s but required annotation,
revision and editing which Professor Peter Davies
has skilfully done.

‘Supervision by the engineers was based in getting
Issue 49 Volume 9 Number 1 (February 2014)

To the Kwai - and back:
War Drawings 1939 - 1945

Issue 49 Volume 9 Number 1 (February 2014)

Japanese troops with beheaded Chinese civilians
As one progresses through the book, the reader isconfronted with an utterly dark world dominated bymindless cruelty and countless deaths. Life on the so called‘Death Railway’ was mercilessly harsh, the author notes, ‘. . .
it was no holds barred and any prisoner not visibly about
to drop dead was forced to work. Needless to say, this did
not decrease the casualty rate, nor did it speed the advance5

of the railway (page 110).’ We are given a stark account ofwhat the bleak daily regime was like and the tremendous
loss of life it inflicted. Describing a typical day which would
begin before dawn, Searle writes, ‘When we reached thebare rock just above the river, we were put to work, cutting
into it with hammers and chisels until it was too dark to see
any longer. Then we struggled back up to the camp that werarely saw other than by the light of the bonfire. After two or
three weeks, when the cutting was finished, we were moved
further on up the track to hack out another (page 108).’

million poisonous feet into our filthy scalps as we tried tobrush them off, setting our heads ablaze (page 113).’ Searle
depicts an absolute living hell and it is hardly surprising thatmany of those who survived this unimaginable nightmare
were deeply traumatized and psychologically scarred.

Ways of Forgetting, Waysof Remembering: Japanin the Modern World

When Sir Hugh Cortazzi originally reviewed this book forJapan Society Review Issue 3 in May 2006, he wrote, ’I
wish that Japanese historical revisionists and Japanesenationalists would read this book. They might then begin
to understand why we object to Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi and Foreign Minister Taro Aso paying their respects
at the Yasukuni shrine where the Yushukan museum
glorifies war and the Japanese military. They should be
remembering all those who died and suffered during the
war including the civilian dead in Singapore and, of course,
in Japan itself.’ Searle’s vivid sketches brilliantly capture thehorror of daily life on the Thai-Burma Railway which hecompares to the Dark Ages, but adds, ‘unlike the medieval
warriors in the jidai-geki (period drama) of Kurosawa, there
were no heroes. Merely killers and survivors (page 9).’The New Press, 20126324 pages
ISBN 978-1-59558-618-6
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
John Dower, who is Professor
Emeritus of History at MIT,has specialized in the modern history of Japan. His book
Embracing Defeat was a penetrating analysis of Japan in
the immediate post-war years. In this collection of essays
Professor Dower concentrates on perceptions in Japan andthe United States of the war and its aftermath.
The first essay focuses on the Canadian historian E.H.
Norman who published the first scholarly study in English of
the Meiji era. Norman, who had been appointed CanadianAmbassador to Egypt in 1956, committed suicide in 1957
following accusations in Senator McCarthy’s inquisition
into allegations of communist activities. Norman, as Dower
makes clear, did not advocate Marxist revolution. He quotes
a speech which Norman delivered at Keio University in 1948
on the theme ‘Persuasion or Force: The Problem of Free
Speech in Modern Society’ which demonstrates Norman’scommitment to free speech and persuasion rather thanforce.

Dower rightly rejected the idea put forward
by some American strategists with little
knowledge of history that the occupationof Japan could be a suitable model for postinvasion Iraq.

PoWs endure brutal conditions constructing the ThaiBurma Railway
We are told of the regular sadistic torture Japanese troops
remorselesslyinflictedonthePoWsfortheirownamusement(pages 114-5). Searle fully understood the utter contemptwith which he and his fellow captives were regarded, ‘wewere not, it appeared, recognized as conventional prisonersof-war as established by well-meaning but misguided
politicians, but as shameful captives. The traditional
Japanese military philosophy allowing no alternative to
victory but death, we were dishonoured, the despised, thelowest of the low (page 80).’ While the physical treatment
was intolerable, living conditions were equally unbearable,‘It was not only the labour that nearly drove us out of ourminds; it was also the insects, that curse of the jungle,
and they ate us alive. Mosquitoes and foul fat flies were ahorror, and their bites were often fatal. But it was probably
the non-killers that made our lives the most miserable. At
night after work, tired as we were, we were kept awake byswarms of bedbugs that wandered over us, sucking ourblood and nauseating us with their smell when we crushedthem. Day and night the lice burrowing under our skin
kept us scratching. Sometimes giant centipedes wriggled
into our hair when we finally got to sleep and stuck theirby John W. Dower

PoWs slave away in brutally harsh conditions from before
dawn until after dusk
Notes
Other PoW artists who recorded the horrors of the ThaiBurma Railway are John Mennie, Jack Bridger Chalker, Philip
Meninsky and Ashley George Old. Ronald Searle is perhaps
best remembered not as a war artist but as the creator of
the fictional St Trinian’s School and for his collaboration with
Geoffrey Willans on the Molesworth series. The majority of
Searle’s original war work is on display in the permanentcollection of the Imperial War Museum in London, alongwith the work of other PoW artists.

1

See Sir Hugh Cortazzi’s original review in Japan
Society Review Issue 3 (May 2006)
2

Issue 49 Volume 9 Number 1 (February 2014)

In discussing Norman’s work Dower raises the questionof ‘whether the present emphasis [among historians]
on narrow but ‘deep’ vertical research’ makes for ‘a fuller
comprehension of Japanese history.’
His essay on Race, Language and War in Two Cultures
asks: ‘Given the virulence of the race hate that permeatedthe Pacific war, at first it seems astonishing that Americans
and Japanese were able to move so quickly toward cordial
relations after Japan’s surrender.’ Dower notes that ‘Racism
did not disappear from the US-Japan relationship, but it wassoftened and transmogrified.’ ‘Paternalistic patronage on
the American side’ was met with acquiescence on the partof the Japanese.
Japan’s Beautiful Modern War discusses Japanese war
propaganda which he thinks was ‘brilliant, and without
confronting it squarely we are doomed never to grasp
the full nature of Japan’s war - and, by extension, neverto have the broad comparative perspective necessary
to see how all peoples and cultures make their wars
Issue 49 Volume 9 Number 1 (February 2014)

beautiful, noble and just’ [in their own eyes at least!]
Dower’s essay entitled An aptitude for being unloved: War
and Memory in Japan discusses the way in which many
Japanese have come to see themselves as victims rather
than aggressors. But he points out that white-washingand sanitization of history are not unique to Japan. The
United States is still reluctant to accept responsibility for the
carnage in Vietnam. He also reminds readers of the way inwhich the Americans for pragmatic reasons exonerated theShowa emperor from any responsibility “for policies andactions undertaken in his name.” But this was not the only
American cover-up. “The most appalling of these cover-ups
was the case of Unit 731 involving high-level [Japanese]
officers and scientific researchers whose practice of official,
institutionalized murder is comparable to the crimes of the‘Nazi doctors’” He asks: “can it not be said that most nations,states, peoples, collectivities fall short when it comes tothinking in terms of equality and assuming a sense of
responsibility for historical transgressions?”
Two essays deal with the results of American saturation
bombing of Japanese cities and the atomic bombs dropped
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The diary of a Hiroshima doctor
which Dower quotes is moving with its “modesty anddignity” and “of course, pathos.” But even in the Hiroshima
peace park “the Japanese reveal themselves to be both
victims and victimizers” by “keeping a memorial to the
Korean victims from violating the central, sacred ground.”Dower’s essay Mocking Misery: Grassroots Satire in
Defeated Japan shows that despite Japanese privations in
the immediate post-war years many Japanese still retained
a sense of humour.
Dower rightly rejected the idea put forward by someAmerican strategists with little knowledge of history thatthe occupation of Japan could be a suitable model for postinvasion Iraq. Somewhat mischievously he suggests thatperhaps the Japanese occupation of Manchuria might be amore appropriate example.
Dower’s new book contains much food for thought foranyone interested in modern Japan.

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7

Snow Falling on Cedars
Directed by Scott Hicks
Based on the 1994 novel byDavid Guterson
127 minutes, 2000
Review by Mike Sullivan
This is a story about the trialof a Japanese American,
Kabuo Miyamoto, accused ofmurdering a white American,
Carl Heine, over a land dispute,intertwined within this we see
the touching story of the town’s newspaper editor, Ishmael
Chambers, as a boy and in a relationship with Kabuo’s
present day wife, Hatsue Miyamoto. Both stories, both thetrial and the relationship are heavily influenced by WorldWar Two, for the young lovers this means slowly being
driven apart as war approached, while the trial is permeatedby prejudice following the war.
Before the war many Japanese people had settled in
America and in consequence became friends, neighbours,
business partners of other Americans, as well as forming
relationships. Ishmael grew up with Hatsue and awareof attempts to keep them separated developed a strong
friendship which as they became teenagers turned to love.
However, World War Two would mean that this would
break down. Japanese men were put into work camps,
any items from Japan were confiscated and any white
Americans who tried to maintain peace were despised fortrying to defend their Japanese friends. Eventually Ishmael
and Hatsue are forcibly split up as she was put into a campand he went to war. Hatsue has no choice but to recognize
the insurmountable differences between herself andIshmael, and sends him a letter ending the relationship.
Ishmael is left heartbroken, he loses his arm fighting against
the Japanese and becomes a very bitter man.
The Miyamoto family were in the process of buying land
from the Heine family when the war broke out, as they
were unable to complete payment they lost their land andwere negotiating to resolve this when Carl was found deadwithin the netting of his boat with a head wound. Kabuo
suffers from discrimination as witnesses speak against him
because of his race, despite being an American war veteran.
The head wound is attributed to how the Japanese know
Kendo and caused similar wounds to American soldiers in
the war and on top of everything else the trial happens tooccur during the anniversary of Pearl Harbour. Meanwhile
Ishmael does his own investigation and uncovers possible
key evidence, however torn between his past feelings for
Hatsue and his own bitterness against the Japanese and herhusband he withholds it. As the trial comes to a close herealises that he has to face his past and make a choice.

8

Issue 49 Volume 9 Number 1 (February 2014)