Issue 61 (February 2016, Volume 11, Number 1)

Throughout 2015 many people took part in events marking the 70th anniversary of World War II. Unsurprisingly, in the UK the focus was on the war in Europe, but it is important to remember that the war in the Pacific took place on a greater geographical scale, accounted for around fifty percent of the overall deaths and casualities, and continues to play a major role in regional and international relations.

Coinciding with the anniversary, Barak Kushner – a world expert on the legacy of the Asia Pacific War – published Men to Devils, Devils to Men, looking at the trials of Class B and C war criminals in China and Taiwan (Class A crimes were dealt with by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo). In his review Sir Hugh Cortazzi looks in particular at how the process was complicated by immediate post- war geo-politcal relations.

The Pacific War features heavily in Japan and the Shackles of the Past, economist R. Taggart Murphy’s meta history of Japan, although in attempting to explain the coutry’s current economic, political and social situation he goes back as far as the Heian era (794-1185). Here, Richard Coxford suggests that readers may be left frustrated by Murphy’s reliance on generalisations and a narrow range of American literature.

The Book of Tokyo: A City in Short Fiction was released back in 2014, but has been growing steadily in exposure and popularity in the UK. In her review Annabelle Sami looks at whether it lives up to its hype.

Finally, we review works by two giants of Japanese literature. Chris Corker looks at the first UK release of Murakami Haruki’s debut novels, Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball – what can they tell us about the development of one of the most succesful writers on the planet? While Murakami fans have long been calling for him to receive a Nobel prize, Ōe Kenzaburō became a Nobel laureate back in 1994, and at the age of 81 is still going strong. Here Charlotte Goff reviews his heavily autobiographical Death by Water.

Editor
William Upton

Reviewers
Chris Corker, Sir Hugh Cortazzi, Richard Coxford, Charlotte Goff and Annabelle Sami

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