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William2

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William2’s Bookshelves

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William2 is Currently Reading

William2 is currently reading

High Cotton

by Darryl Pinckney

bookshelves: currently-reading

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William2 said: " Wow! What a book! The approach seems modernist. With a lot of jumping from image to image — stream of consciousness. I do not view it as a bildungsroman yet it is a novel of growth. This is a Buddenbrooks set amid the Civil Rights movement, and the f ...more "

progress: On page 55. — Nov 12, 2024 09:29AM

Nov 12, 2024 01:14PM · see review

William2 is currently reading

Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia

by Gary J. Bass

bookshelves: 21-ce, history, japan, us, war, ww-ii, currently-reading

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William2 said: " Some bits:

"Japanese officials systematically incinerated documents for the war crimes trials that would surely follow one of the grandest efforts at evidence tampering in legal history.

"In June 1945, Foreign Ministry officials began burning secret do Some bits:

"Japanese officials systematically incinerated documents for the war crimes trials that would surely follow one of the grandest efforts at evidence tampering in legal history.

"In June 1945, Foreign Ministry officials began burning secret documents in anticipation of an Allied ground invasion, expanding their efforts in August. First to go up in flames were papers about China, then the Soviet Union and then the Axis. . . Protecting the throne, the Army Ministry had the troops burn imperial rescripts or anything written by Emperor Hirohito." (p. 112)

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"For a Japanese [civilian] audience saturated with wartime propaganda, [Prosecutor] Keenan's horrifying tales — Australian prisoners being worked to death as slave labor building a railway through the Burmese and Thai jungles, Chinese civilians coerced to build military installations in Manchuria and then killed for secrecy, Australian nurses massacred off Sumatra — were fresh and shocking. So was the claim that the slaughters at Nanjing, Manila, and elsewhere were part of a systematic policy of atrocity warfare. Belying Imperial Japanese claims that its soldiers had fought honorably, Keenan contended that "identical measures were constantly employed throughout the areas of Japanese occupation to torture prisoners of war and civilians, such as the 'water-cure,' 'electric shock treatment,' 'hanging upside down, prying fingernails, and body beatings.'" (p.203)

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The story of Japanese popularity among those native to European colonial possessions is nicely detailed here. In other books I've read it's barely a mention. The story of Subhas Chandra Bose's collaboration with Japan, as a means of freeing India from the British yoke, is entirely new to me.

"The war came home fast in Bengal. With nearby Burma falling into Japanese hands, Japanese bombers struck at Calcutta and southeast Bengal. As many as eight hundred thousand terrified people streamed out of Calcutta, about a third of the city's total population. There were rumors of an imminent Japanese invasion, a prospect welcomed by many Bengalis. Alarmed by growing sympathy for Japan among Bengalis, the British colonial authorities rushed to spread propaganda about Japan's imperialism and atrocities in China, Malaya, and Burma, as well as censoring or harassing Indian newspapers which spread what the British considered antiwar propaganda." (p. 217)

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Since China had no institutions assigned to evidence gathering, when it came time for them to try their enemies in Tokyo, they could produce no compelling documentation. The result was that many defendants — like Hirohito's uncle Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, in part responsible for the Rape of Nanjing — were never tried. Fourteen years of Japanese war crimes in China, tens of millions of dead, and men like Asaka walked free.

"Beyond Nanjing, though, the evidence was far less comprehensive, often lacking corroboration or specifics. Nor did these statements show orders from commanders or link the war crimes to any of the defendants. This was the realization of [Chinese judge] Mei Ruao's fears about insufficient evidence gathered by the debilitated authorities of the Republic of China. In Nanjing, the prosecution put forward a compendium that could only be denied by fanatics; for the rest of China, while clearly there had been widespread horrors, the particulars were more debatable, sometimes unsuitable for conviction beyond a reasonable doubt." (p. 269) ...more "

progress:

(page 222 of 800)
— Oct 18, 2024 06:55PM

Oct 27, 2024 07:36PM · see review

William2 is currently reading

The Dead Father

by Donald Barthelme

bookshelves: 20-ce, fiction, us, currently-reading

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progress:

(page 99 of 177)
— Oct 15, 2024 05:23PM

Sep 07, 2024 02:50PM

William2’s Quotes

“I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”
― Edgar Allan Poe

tags: insanity, sanity

14478 likes

“My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, "Sir, I am your most humble servant." You are not his most humble servant. You may say, "These are bad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times." You don't mind the times ... You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in Society; but don't think foolishly.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Life of Johnson, Vol 4

tags: appropriateness, cant, excess, expression, language, moderation, thought

69 likes

“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.”
― William Styron, Conversations with William Styron

tags: books, reading

13222 likes