by Yoshimi Yoshiaki & translated by Suzanne O’Brien ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2001
Useful for students of human-rights questions and Asian history alike.
A controversial Japanese bestseller that uncovers the imperial military’s institutionalization of rape.
Yoshiaki, writes translator O’Brien in her useful introduction, is one of but a few Japanese historians who have challenged the conventional view that their compatriots were unwilling and unwitting victims of a handful of military expansionists who led Japan into WWII. Instead, Yoshiaki suggests, most Japanese went to war willingly and many conducted themselves with appalling brutality, committing crimes that were seldom prosecuted following the Allied victory. Her case in point is the forced servitude of women in military brothels established in Japanese-occupied nations throughout Asia. Much of Yoshiaki’s text is a grim recitation of facts and statistics, with quotations from official documents; it becomes more vivid with the testimonial of women themselves, one of whom recalls the assembly-line quality of the brothel, where soldiers “proceeded in conveyer-belt fashion in an atmosphere of a particular sort of tension.” Yoshiaki notes that the Japanese military established “comfort houses” as a means of placating soldiers who were “perpetually critical, were not respectful toward officers, and were in general resistant to the army’s internal discipline”—a far cry from the widely prevalent view of the wartime Japanese military as an unquestioningly obedient monolith. Serving not only as a “wartime benefit” for soldiers, the institution of sexual slavery was also meant to curb freelance rape. So, Yoshiaki writes, at the urging of citizens who feared rape at the hands of their conquerors, the Japanese government even established brothels for the American occupation forces until the US army issued an order forbidding them in March 1946.
Useful for students of human-rights questions and Asian history alike.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-231-120320-X
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Columbia Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
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by William Strunk & E.B. White ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1972
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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