PACIFIC CHARTER

This book says things that need to be said, if the U.S.A. is to accept, in advance, the challenge of our place in the world today. Abend speaks out of years of close living with the problems of the Pacific area. He speaks out of a right-about-face in his own attitude towards the Japanese. He speaks out of personal experience in double dealing, as he presents intimate portraits of Japanese leaders, once his friends, -- Matuoka, Konoye, Suzuki and others. But he also speaks out of personal bias and occasionally, second hand information. He has had experience and knows that the British as colonial rulers in Malaya and Singapore were pig-headed, selfish and lacked vision; but -- with no personal background of India, why does he accept, readymade, a picture of a benevolent Britain overlordship, and condemn, out of hand, the Gandhi program as playing to the winning team, whichever side it is (with the assumption that Gandhi is definitely betting on the Axis). Accepting these strictures on the soundness of his text, I still found it easy reading, illuminating as to past and future of the Dutch, the British, the Americans, the French as colonial masters; and challenging as to the imperative necessity of reinterpreting the Atlantic Charter so that the people of the Pacific area would know for what they are fighting, and what the future holds. He asks that we be ""tender hearted and tough minded"". He charts a course.