I found the background on the development of post-isolationist Japan much
more interesting. I wish I had the time to do more research to see how
accurate he was.

I've come to the conclusion (about halfway through) that the technique
was to find the most startling book in English on the subject, then
borrow heavily from it. Crikey, the man doesn't even bother to rewrite
the quotes; he just throws quotation marks around them and inserts
them into his text without saying where they're from. I generally read
a book like this with my right index finger in the citations page; in
this case, it's the only way to know who he's quoting.

On Japan, he's stuck with Saburo Inega, a Japanese veteran, teacher,
and controversialist whom he describes as an eminent historian, and a
few others like Ikuhiko Hata, who is indeed an eminent historian but
hasn't written much of use to Bradley's book.

So you really don't have to do much research. Just read Inega and
maybe Herbert Bix on Hirohito. Bix did an excellent job, so in this
case Bradley lucked out in choosing his sources. In the section you
mention, you can probably rely on his interpretation, if you strip out
the journalistic eye-poppers like "the Spriit boys" and "the Boy
Soldier" (Hirohito).

As I say, I'm halfway through, and I haven't gotten to the Chichi Jima
mission(s) yet! There have been times when I was ready to give up, but
I did pay fifteen bucks at BJ's for it.




all the best -- Dan Ford
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