Product Description
Military obligations rested lightly upon the Filipino people for much of the period that America occupied the Philippines, but Filipinos could enlist in the United States Army and Navy, attend the service academies at West Point and Annapolis, or join military organizations restricted to duty in the islands such as the Philippine Scouts, Philippine Constabulary, Philippine National Guard, and the navy's insular force. In the 1930s, the Philippine government established its own armed forces. Throughout much of this time, the U.S. army also kept a substantial portion of its troop strength in the Philippines.

This annotated bibliography of nearly 700 titles highlights the extent and variety of the Philippine-American military experience from the conquest of the islands by the United States in 1902 to the defeat of Philippine and American forces by the Japanese in 1942. The bibliography includes memoirs and biographies of Filipino and American officers and enlisted men (from MacArthur to Ferdinand Marcos), unit histories, army post and navy base histories, medals and insignia books, and the most extensive list of prisoner-of-war memoirs yet published. Annotations address controversies such as the widely disparate estimates of American deaths on the Bataan Death March and include previously unpublished information, such as casualty figures for American and Philippine forces in 1941–1942. ... Read more

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This book dispels two common myths about the American-Israeli patron-client relationship - that arms transfers to Israel have been motivated by American domestic politics rather than national interests and that these arms transfers have come without any political strings attached to them. The first part of the book describes and analyses the institutionalisation of the American-Israeli arms pipeline during the Johnson administration, demonstrating conclusively in the process that arms transfers to the Jewish state were based primarily on American national interests. The second part of the book consists of four case studies that clearly reveal that American arms transfers to Israel, whether in wartime or in peacetime, have always come with a diplomatic price tag attached to them. The book is based largely on American government documents from the "Foreign Relations of the United States" (FRUS) series, from the Lyndon B Johnson Presidential Library, and from the United States National Archives. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A quick and absorbing read...
Rodman's study of U.S. arms transfers to Israel provides important insight into this critical and oft-misunderstood element of the strategic relationship, as David Schenker of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said. Relying on extensive U.S. archival research, the book details the evolution of this relationship from Israel's early reliance on Western European equipment through the start of U.S. arms sales during the Johnson era to the end of the Reagan administration.

Rodman's thesis is that arms sales have provided Washington with critical leverage over Israel, enabling the United States to "wring concessions out of Israel in order to advance American national interests," particularly during Middle East wars. For Israel's part, according to Rodman, weapons purchases from the United States constitute an acceptable sacrifice of autonomy for security. The slender volume is a quick and absorbing read and is full of well-footnoted examples illustrating the complicated dynamics of U.S. and Israeli decision-making related to weapons sales.

The argument is convincing. Rodman points out that U.S. efforts to influence other Israeli policies via this lever, such as its pursuit of a nuclear weapons program, have proved decidedly less effective except during Middle East wars, when, as Rodman argues, U.S. influence on Israeli policy has been dramatic. In 1967, pressure from Washington forced Israeli restraint in the face of Egyptian provocations, such as the closure of the Straits of Tiran. When the United States recognized the futility of diplomacy, Rodman says, Washington gave the Jewish state a tacit "green light" to embark on war. The same held true, Rodman points out, during the 1969-70 War of Attrition when Israel was compelled to stop its bombing raids against Egypt after Washington threatened to withhold the military aid and diplomatic support necessary for the raids to continue.

In perhaps the most striking example, in 1973 U.S. pressure appears to have dissuaded the government of Israel from taking preemptive military action against Syria and Egypt. "Caught between the Israel Defense Forces General Staff and the Nixon administration," Rodman says, "the Meir government chose to follow the position of Israel's patron rather than the advice of its own military experts." After the outbreak of hostilities, the Meir government accepted the Nixon administration's cease-fire proposal because, Rodman writes, Israel had no alternative but to "trade the postwar concessions desired by the United States for continued American [military] support."

As Rodman deftly points out, Israel's conduct during the 1967-1973 period is "not comprehensible unless it is examined in the context of the American-Israeli patron-client relationship." Arms Transfers to Israel provides a comprehensive picture of the origins and development of the U.S.-Israeli military assistance relationship. In doing so, although not intentionally, Rodman's study goes a long way toward dispelling the now fashionable myth that the strategic relationship with Israel is driven primarily by domestic U.S. politics. ... Read more

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This book is an examination of American army legal proceedings that resulted from a series of moments when soldiers in a war zone crossed a line between performing their legitimate functions and committing crimes against civilians, or atrocities.

Using individual judicial proceedings held within war-time Southeast Asia, Louise Barnett analyses how the American military legal system handled crimes against civilians and determines what these cases reveal about the way that war produces atrocity against civilians. Presenting these atrocities and subsequent trials in a way that considers both the personal and the institutional the author considers how and why atrocity happens, the terrain of justification, and the degree to which the army and American society have been willing to take military crimes against civilians seriously.

 Atrocity and American Military Justice in Southeast Asia will be of interest to students, scholars and professionals interested in Military Justice, Military history and Southeast Asian History more generally.

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The United States in the Vietnam War, 1954-1975 is an invaluable reference guide to the costly and controversial war the U.S. waged in Vietnam, over the course of five presidential administrations. Focusing not only on the conflict in Southeast Asia, but also on the tumult the war inspired on the domestic front, Louis Peake provides an authoritative guide to the wide range of media available on the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. From collections of art work and poetry about the soldiering experience, to journalistic accounts of battles, and military training films, the entries consistently provide clear and concise descriptions, allowing the reader to easily identify the value of any particular resource.

With revised and updated annotations, and over 150 new entries, this second edition of The United States in the Vietnam War, 1954-1975 is an invaluable reference tool for researchers and students of the Vietnam War.

Routledge Research Guides to American Military Studies provide concise, annotated bibliographies to the major areas and events in American military history. With the inclusion of brief critical annotations after each entry, the student and researcher can easily assess the utility of each bibliographic source and evaluate the abundance of resources available with ease and efficiency. Comprehensive, concise, and current—Routledge Research Guides to American Military Studies are an essential research tool for any historian.

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"Altered Lives, Enduring Community" examines the long-term effects on Japanese Americans of their World War II experiences: forced removal from their Pacific Coast homes, incarceration in desolate government camps, and ultimate resettlement. As part of Seattle's Densho: Japanese American Legacy Project, the authors collected interviews and survey data from Japanese Americans now living in King County, Washington, who were imprisoned during World War II. Their clear-eyed, often poignant account presents the contemporary, post-redress perspectives of former incarcerees on their experiences and the consequences for their life course.Using descriptive material that personalizes and contextualizes the data, the authors show how prewar socioeconomic networks and the specific characteristics of the incarceration experience affected Japanese American readjustment in the postwar era. Topics explored include the effects of incarceration and resettlement on social relationships and community structure, educational and occupational trajectories, marriage and childbearing, and military service and draft resistance.The consequences of initial resettlement location and religious orientation are also examined. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Past is not Just the Past
I grew up in Seattle hearing bits and pieces of the stories of the Japanese Americans who had been rounded up from their homes nearby in the months after Pearl Harbor and sent to inhospitable concentration camps in the interior West, and am always curious for more information.This book, written by a professor of psychology and ethnic studies and a professor of sociology, is, predictably, a scholarly study. This is the first scientific, representative study of the American-born generation who lived through the experience.Time was running out, given the advancing age of the Nisei.So a random study was done in 1997 of 183 current residents of King County, Washington (Seattle) who had been what they call "incarcerated" in the camps.I found this a powerful term to express the injustice of what was done to the Japanese Americans without having to go through diatribes.It got the point across.They chose this location partly because research was already going on, and partly because of the high concentration of Japanese Americans there.

The book follows a chronological order, first describing what prewar life was like, for various age groups, then the act of incarceration, what life was like in the camps, resettlement after the war, and present day life.Two formats are used, first, quotations from the open ended responses people made.These tend to be all too brief; I wanted more.The other is charts and statistics.I've taken statistics classes so am not intimidated by this, but it might feel like a bit much to someone who just wants to know what life was like.But the narrative tells you, and you can let your eyes pass right over the numbers and pay attention to the words.

Among the interesting findings I'll just pick some.Even before the war, a generation gap was looming.The Issei, the immigrant generation, were terribly discriminated against, and thus clustered in "Japantowns."They lived either by farming or in businesses that catered to their own community.Thus, they tended not to learn English.Their children, the Nisei, learned English and American ways in school.They became their parents' interface to the American world.This is probably a universal immigrant experience.But it became even more problematic in the camps, where the structure of life was controlled by the US Army and the parents had little or no control over their children, and the family structure so important to the Japanese started to collapse.

Sixty years later, those who had been the youngest when they entered the camps had the least-negative memories, while those who had been young adults had the worst memories.Young adult women's memories were worse than men's.The book didn't talk about this, but I wondered if it wasn't related to the difficulty of raising young children with minimal resources.

Women who were not married when they entered the camps married two years later, on average, than their age-mates in the population at large--at a time when women were marrying earlier than they had during the depression years.And they had fewer children, spaced farther apart, again at a time when the general birth rate rose.

The Japanese American Issei generation had a low level of education, due to lack of opportunity, and they had high expectations for their children.Their children had high expectations for themselves.Almost half the young men and a quarter of the young women expected to go to college.And they actually exceeded those expectations, though many waited years to fulfill them.The same was true of occupational status.Issei fathers were very limited in the occupations available to them, but their children were ambitious.And as a group, they exceeded their ambitions.

One of the most interesting chapters was on resettlement.It clearly surprised the authors that the incarcerees had so much difficulty reestablishing themselves after the war.Part of this was caused by the government's policy of encouraging them to "spread themselves thin" across the country to be less conspicuous and "more American."Their strong community and church ties were thus destroyed and took years to rebuild in new ways.Before 1945, they were still not allowed to return to the Pacific coast, and some of these people who ended up in the Seattle area moved as many as eight or nine times before landing there.Discrimination made finding jobs very difficult, and many had lost all economic assets.

If you are interested in knowing more on what happened to the Japanese Americans during and after World War II, I would highly recommend this book.If you need to ignore the statistics, do so, but get the gist of the overview of the story.Then look in the long bibliography, or do a Google search, and find one of the many good autobiographies written by someone who lived through it, for an up close and personal view of what it was like.You'll benefit from both vantage points. ... Read more

Product Description
In his analysis of insurgency war, Donald Hamilton first attempts to provide insight into a strategic concept he believes is little understood today, and to explain its complicated relationship to American policy failures in Southeast Asia during the post-1945 era of containment. The study develops a working model of insurgency, explaining it as both a unique method and type of war-making. Significant findings include the inability of policymakers to perceive a potential insurgency in Vietnam as early as 1946, subsequent American involvement in not one, but three Asian insurgencies during the 1950s, and the ultimate failure of the U.S. military to meet the insurgency challenge in South Vietnam. This inability to eliminate the insurgency led not only to the complete breakdown of the South Vietnamese government, but was the primary reason why further U.S. military action after 1965 would prove ineffectual. This historical narrative also follows the involvement of several key players, including the personalities of Edward Lansdale, Sir Robert Thompson, Archimedes Patti, and Vo Nguyen Giap, who through their life experiences and writings, provide a keen profundity into why insurgencies occur, why they fail, and why they succeed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Artfully Done!
This treatment of conflict and the clear understanding of insurgency frees true students of warfare from past failed stratagem demons still haunting us today. By explaining, first, what insurgency is not (revolutionary war, extensions of Maoist approaches, etc), Professor Hamilton defines, illustrates, and then analyzes several post WWII conflicts to drive his premise home.This monograph is probably the best blueprint today to transform the US strategy from Global War on Terror to a longer lasting institutional and reasoned Insurgency doctrine.Only when Don's work is inculcated into modern military strategy will the US get it right.Mr. Hamilton's use of the Philippine, Malaysian, and Vietnamese experience are thorough and relevant.They are excellent studies on their own right as military histories and serve well as bulwarks and illustrative of evolutionary military thought.Overall, the Art of Insurgency is an excellent history, superb analysis, and a must manuscript for military institutions world wide.

Lt Col Andre Provoncha, USAF (ret)

The Art of Insurgency
Truly a superb and important work!
This book should be read not only by all those interested in military history and the Vietnam war, but particularly by those interested in understanding better the circumstances facing the United States and its allies today in the war on terrorism.Hamilton's insights on insurgent organizations, terror cells, and strategic design in historical context, can be well applied by policy makers today in understanding the depth of problems now being faced.Lessons learned then would not need to be repeated as mistakes today.This book is not overwhelming in repetitious fact finding, and Hamilton's minimalist writing style is appreciated.Academics will also enjoy the marvelous research and constructed bibliography.Recommended to all readers interested in like subjects related to contemporary military strategic thought and history, and to government officials of the highest rank. ... Read more

Product Description

The Korean War is the most comprehensive and detailed bibliography compiled to date on the American involvement in "The Forgotten War." In this revised and expanded second edition, Keith D. McFarland’s clearly written annotations provide concise descriptions of more than 2,600 of the most important books, articles, and documents written in English on the conflict in Korea. Key topics include origins of the war; the political and military roles of North and South Korea, the United States, the Soviet Union, China, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Turkey, and other United Nations members; campaigns and battles; weapons and uniforms; and the military and diplomatic aspects of the war. Specific subjects are easy to find using the index organized by topic and author, making The Korean War a necessity for every academic or research library.

Product Description
In 1942 U.S. military authorities, invoking a presidential order and an Act of Congress, forcibly evacuated over 110,000 persons of Japnese ancestry, most of them U/S. citizens, from their homes on the West Coast to what in fact were prison camps inland. The essays and articles in this volume explore this most extraordinary episode in American constitutional history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Possibly a Greater Work than Justice at War
This book is exceptional in terms of quality.The essays in The Mass Internment vary by time.Some are from the 1940s, while others are contemoraneous to the books publication date.The actual articles are incredibly valuable to the internment scholar.Many books are excellent social histories of the event, but few aside from Peter Irons have chronicled the legal and politcal history of the internment in such as manner as the articles in this work.Utilizing vast amounts of government documents, in addition to other secondary sources, these articles succeed in present varying accounts of the intenment while maintaining a high level of excellence.Well worth the price. ... Read more

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"Nearly fifty years after being incarcerated by their own government, Japanese American concentration camp survivors succeeded in obtaining redress for the personal humiliation, family dislocation, and economic ruin caused by their ordeal. An inspiring story of wrongs made right as well as a practical guide to getting legislation through Congress, "Achieving the Impossible Dream" tells how members of this politically inexperienced minority group organized themselves at the grass-roots level, gathered political support, and succeeded in obtaining a written apology from the president of the United States and monetary compensation in accordance with the provisions of the 1988 Civil Liberties Act." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A dramatic retelling of a great moment in U.S. History
Drs Maki, Kiano, and Berthold have done a tremendous service to U.S. historians and future generations of Americans with their well-documented account of the redress movement for Americans of Japanese ancestry who wereincarcerated in concentration camps during World War II. Besides offering atheoretical policy model to explain the successful passage of the redressinitiative, the authors provide a dramatic retelling of how thousands ofAmerican citizens, groups, and ultimately, U.S. congressmen from differentracial and political backgrounds joined together in their attempt toacknowledge one of the most terrible miscarriages of justice in U.S.history.Especially, the passages describing the former interneetestimonies and final fight for the bill in the Congress is the stuff ofhigh drama and speaks to the nobility and courage of our country's citizensand leaders. An exceptional book, which I hope, will finally refute anyreal objections to the redress bill and make clear in some increasinglyisolated critics' minds, the distinction between the the WWII JapaneseMilitary -- and loyal Americans of Japanese ancestry who fought hard forthe survival and principals of this country.

Excellent !Excellent ! Excellent !
This is a great book detailing how the case for redress was formed.It contains great info for those studying the great tragedy that hit the Japanese American community during WWII --their internment in AmericanConcentration Camps.And it serves as a reminder for us all that we needto live in harmony in order for our great country the United States tocontinue to succeed both socially and economically in the future.

Lesson for All to Learn
This is "the" book on the behind the scenes action of how redress was finally achieved for all Japanese Americans, who were illegally incarcerated in concentration camps for crimes they did not commit.Thefact that these camps were unconstitional has been proven countless times(refer:President Reagan's apology in 1988).The credibility of the bookis proven by the academic careers of the university professors who wrotethis tell-tale book (as opposed to the national enquirer level writing ofthe person who wrote the book mentioned in the below review) and its use asa textbook in the finest universities in America (Harvard, UCLA,UCBerkeley, to name a few).A must reading for those with an interest inethnic studies and American history/policy.

A biased view of a troubled time with 20/20 hindsight.
I would have followed the intended emotional path had I not also done some research of other sources. Americans are quick to punish themselves now days without really getting the facts.I suggest reading "DishonoringAmerica" by Lilian Baker,or make an internet visit to the San FrancisoMuseum website for actual, unaltered information. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Fantastic!!!
Alinder's book will appeal to those interested in Asian-American history, American history, California history, and most especially, those folks interested in photography. The book is well written, smart and provocative. While I'm familiar with many of the photographs and the history of the Japanese-American Internment, thanks to Alinder's book I know so much more and see so much more in the photographs. Great work. ... Read more

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Following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s declaration of war on Japan, the U.S. War Department allowed up to five hundred second-generation, or "Nisei," Japanese American women to enlist in the Women’s Army Corps and, in smaller numbers, in the Army Medical Corps.

Through in-depth interviews with surviving Nisei women who served, Brenda L. Moore provides fascinating firsthand accounts of their experiences. Interested primarily in shedding light on the experiences of Nisei women during the war, the author argues for the relevance of these experiences to larger questions of American race relations and views on gender and their intersections, particularly in the country’s highly charged wartime atmosphere. Uncovering a page in American history that has been obscured, Moore adds nuance to our understanding of the situation of Japanese Americans during the war. ... Read more

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Confinement and Ethnicity documents in unprecedented detail the various facilities in which persons of Japanese descent living in the western United States were confined during World War II: the fifteen ìassembly centersî run by the U.S. Armyís Wartime Civil Control Administration, the ten "relocation centers" created by the War Relocation Authority, and the internment camps, penitentiaries, and other sites under the jurisdiction of the Justice and War Departments. Originally published as a report of the Western Archeological and Conservation Center of the National Park Service, it is now reissued in a corrected edition, with a new Foreword by Tetsuden Kashima, associate professor of American ethnic studies at the University of Washington.

Based on archival research, field visits, and interviews with former residents, Confinement and Ethnicity provides an overview of the architectural remnants, archeological features, and artifacts remaining at the various sites. Included are numerous maps, diagrams, charts, and photographs. Historic images of the sites and their inhabitants -- including several by Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams -- are combined with photographs of present-day settings, showing concrete foundations, fence posts, inmate-constructed drainage ditches, and foundations and parts of buildings, as well as inscriptions in Japanese and English written or scratched on walls and rocks. The result is a unique and poignant treasure house of information for former residents and their descendants, for Asian American and World War II historians, and for anyone interested in the facts about what the authors call these "sites of shame." ... Read more

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This collection, edited by Distinguished Professor of Korean Studies Bonnie B.C. Oh, helps to fill a considerable gap in the English-language literature on Korea and the United States. Although much has been written about Korea in the Japanese colonial and World War II period and, of course, even more has been made available on the Korean War years, little has been written on the interim period when the United States attempted to rule Korea through a trusteeship. ... Read more

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More than 36,000 American servicemen died in combat or by other causes during the Korean War. As terrible as this figure is, it pales in comparison with the war’s nearly two million civilian deaths. And the South Korean armed forces, whose soldiers were drawn from a male population half the size of the Union’s in the American Civil War, suffered more combat deaths than the Union army. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

All Must Have Prizes
Dodo in ALICE declared "everybody has won and all must have prizes." War in Korea had many victims but no objective. The country was ravaged by Americans, Chinese, Russians, and Dutch as well as Koreans. Author Millett tries to be fair; the perspective seems to be that of a missionary, not giving offense. Soldiers did their duty quietly; Russians were told to be furtive - don't get caught doing anything.

Millett admires Koreans but does not say much about them.Seoul today ranks #1 in cell phones and controls more US bonds than Washington would like, but when I was there (I was drafted) farm people didn't have shoes.China today copies Korean fasion.Korean techology arose fromgenius, hard work and patience. Korean captive workers died in Hiroshima and rose above a century of Japanese abuse.Koreans in America are models of thrift and enterprise.

American should study Korea, but this book is not a start. All we have here is a story of a war America had no business starting or prolonging - not our only such dishonor.In a couple of places MIllett tries to honor Americans who have waited too long for respect.

Wallace F. Smith, Walnut Creek

A Making of a New Perspective on the Korean War
It's cliche to call the Korean War "forgotten" in the United States.More accurately, it is misunderstood, and has been in the west for over fifty years.For the Koreans, the results of the war war are daily in front of them: not least in the continued division of the peninsula.English speaking readers need to understand the central fact that the Korean war was fought by Koreans for the destiny of Korea.

Millett's groundbreaking effort brings this persepective into sharp focus.He calls the Korean war a "total" war (quoting Korean vets) and his first 14 thumbnail-sketch chapters bear out this interpretation.In terms of concentrated destruction in both time and space, Korea was as brutal a war as they come.Not much "limited" about it.

The book itself is divided into three sections, entitled "the Koreans", "the Allies", and "the Americans".Chronologically, it defines the conflict as beginning shortly after Liberation, 15 August 1945 and it finishes with a chapter on the man who first signed the Armistice documents for the United Nations Command.Millett's emphasis on oral history combined with impressive documentary research makes this book required reading to understand the war beyond the limits of operations, strategy, or diplomatic policies.The human face of war is poignantly and sympathetically presented.There are heros, cowards, soldiers, civilians, men, and women in this great drama of conflict, ideology, and destiny.

Their War for Korea promises to be the first of three volumes that will redefine the western view of the Korean War. ... Read more

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This volume explores commercial relations between the United States and China from the eighteenth century until 1949, fleshing out with facts the romantic and shadowy image of "the China trade." These nine chapters by specialists in the field have developed from papers they presented at a conference supported by the national Committee on American-East Asian Relations.

The work begins with an Introduction by John K. Fairbank, then moves on to analysis of the old China trade up to the American Civil War, centering on traditional Chinese exports of tea and silk. A second section deals with American imports into China--cotton textiles and textile-related goods, cigarettes, kerosene. Finally, the impact of the trade on both countries is assessed and the operations of American-owned and multinational companies in China are examined. For both the United States and China, the economic importance of the trade proves to have been less than the legend might suggest.

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Determined to be a U.S. Marine Corps officer, Bruce Yamashita enrolled in Officer Candidate School, where he was the target of persistent racial harassment by officers and staff. After enduring nine weeks of emotional and physical abuse, Yamashita was "disenrolled" in April 1989--kicked out of the Marine Corps because of the color of his skin. Fighting Tradition is Yamashita's own story of his courageous struggle to expose a pattern of racial discrimination against minorities that has existed at various levels of the Corps. With the support of a broad coalition of community and civil rights organizations, the Hawai'i-born law school graduate fought a five-year-long legal, political, and media battle against the military establishment that ended in his commissioning as a captain and the revision of Marine Corps policies and procedures. Fighting Tradition is not only a moving story of personal sacrifice and vision, but contributes also both directly and indirectly to our understanding of the complexities of institutional racism in a politically conservative, demographically shifting society. It is a unique window into the dynamics of race, government, and the law and a stirring reminder of the importance of political mobilization by the individual to achieve justice.

"A valuable account of one person's fight against racial profiling and the inexcusable damage to civil liberties and self-worth that result from it." --- Dennis Ogawa, University of Hawai'i ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

FOR Asian American marines,BY an Asian American marine a must READ!
I am aAmerican marine and served as an 0311 rifleman in the Marine Corps 5th infantry regiment and i would like to say I love this book. I am currently receiving my GI BILL and my major is Asian American Studies. I am writing my senior paper on Asian American Marines. This book is a real realistic and honest look into modern racism in the Marines. REAL marines that have seen a combat deployment will be able to decypher fact from fiction and this is the real deal. Asian America needs REAL patriots like this author, and some SELLOUTS who remain nameless need to go home with their fictional world of a level playing field. YOU sir are a good marine!
Semper FI

I was there too
There was no tradition of discriminating against Asians in the USMC...I would refer you to Navy Cross recipient Maj Chew-Een Lee USMC - what do you think he underwent being a AA Marine officer in the 50s!I was at OCS the same time Bruce was there...no big deal - some racial remarks but nothing I would call institutionalized discrimination.I and a Vietnamese-American graduated the same summer he was there - why weren't we dropped?Maybe because we performed to acceptable standards while Bruce did not.OCS is meant to subject candidates to mental and physical stress - if you can't hack someone calling you names - how will you take combat??Most of my Sgt Instructors were minorities themselves -if anything I think they were glad to see that a minority was becoming an officer.I've been a Marine officer for 15 years and can only say - I think he's made himself famous at the expense of other AA Marine officers who have graduated OCS without having to file a lawsuit.
Semper Fidelis ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent background to WW II Naval History.
It's obvious that the author is very well versed and deeply read in these matters.
His writing style was not that onerous and he made this kind of detailed researchreadable and interesting.
If you love WW II history and want some real in depth background, you would do well to read this. ... Read more

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This unique book compiles some 120 remarkable letters from Japanese citizens to General Douglas MacArthur during the postwar occupation of Japan (1945-1952). Painstakingly culled from a vast collection, these letters evoke the unfiltered voices of people of all classes and occupations during the tremendous upheaval of the early postwar period, when the Japanese were coming to terms with the devastating losses of the war, adjusting to a new political system, and creating the framework for economic and social recovery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Rich and Illuminating!
"Dear General MacArthur" is a wonderful and very illuminating compilation of letters written by the Japanese to Gen. MacArthur during the American Occupation (1945-1952). Sodei's running commentary alongside the letters is full of powerful insight and helpful explanations which allow the reader to genuinely understand how, and why the Japanese wrote the General with their praise, adoration, pleas, and criticism regarding him and the occupation. It is a "must" read for any who are interested in, or are students of Japanese culture. The letters are moving, incredible, sad, and hilarious. Never in world history did a country ever "love" MacArthur as much as the Japanese did after WWII. As the Pulitzer Prize-winning and illustrious historian of Japan, John W. Dower notes in his foreword, "This is a rare gem of a book. We have nothing else like it concerning Japan." Compiled and expounded by the foremost authority on, and biographer of MacArthur, it is a book that all should enjoy. ... Read more