OLD SOLDIERS SOMETIMES LIE

Hirohito’s WWII Chinese loot pops up 50 years later, calling old spooks back into action.

More a narration of facts, possible facts, and wouldn’t-it-be-incredible-if facts than a straightforward thriller, this latest from Hoyt (Vivienne, 2000, etc.) rejects the notion, pretty much debunked already in Herbert P. Bix’s Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (2000), that Japan’s wartime emperor was the unwitting dupe of evil imperialists in his cabinet and was, as most monarchs are, thoroughly involved in increasing his family fortunes, even if it means looting a few countries. The hard-to-swallow activities hang on the adventures of Tomi Kobayashi, Ph.D. (Chicago) and granddaughter of straight-shooting but maligned WWII General Yamashita and his Filipina mistress. Thanks to the miraculous Internet, Tomi has come into possession of the wartime diaries of a long-dead foreign correspondent, leading her to the trail of 11 gold dragons stolen by a yakuza gangster-turned-admiral in the Manchurian invasion and credited to the account of the emperor. The dragons, along with tons of other, less glamorous but equally ill-gotten gains, were hidden in numerous underground sites in the Philippines, a country the Japanese thoroughly expected to retain in a negotiated end to the war. Tomi’s inquiries lead her to Kip Smith, a former CIA agent turned photographer, who joins her search, taking her to the Philippines and connecting with old chum Ding Rodriquez, who knows everything there is to know about the politics and history in the islands. The three are shadowed by a pair of modern yakuza who eavesdrop as Ding and Kip retell everything Toni and detail-oriented readers could possibly absorb about the historic duplicity of Douglas MacArthur, Hirohito, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, nearly every Japanese prime minister, and Robin and Roberta Fallon, successors to Jim and Tammy Bakker. Oddly enough, the eavesdropping is thoroughly sanctioned by our heroes, even though they suspect their listeners have orders to kill them once their interminable tale is told. Most of the narration takes place over tasty-sounding regional dishes.

Plodding narration and unreconstructed macho attitudes hammer what could have been a pretty cool story to long-lingering death.