KIRKUS REVIEW
Based on a solitary, shoestring trip to -- and through Japan made eight years ago, John Patric writes of the good -- and the bad of the country and people. Talking to all classes of men and women, observing closely, he makes his own interpretation, draws his own conclusions, using specific conversations and incidents as evidence to illustrate general points. Patric believes that by this war Japan attempts to prove that she is no longer an inferior race. Fanatical, cruel, but stoic in their frugality, skilled in mass production and in achieving much with little, the Japanese are a formidable enemy. Traveling extensively through Korea, Manchuria, and China as well -- he contrasts the backwardness and poverty of these countries with Japan. Supplementary reading -- rather than definitive -- but a balanced, personal portrait which -- although it contains nothing really new -- tallies with much that others have said.