Books from the Japanese perspective

[Gebirgsjaeger]

Hi,

I am looking for books on WW2 from the Japanese perspective, preferably personal accounts. Can anyone suggest good reading to me? So far I have only "Japanese Destroyer Captain".

Ty!!

[Jukka Juutinen]

Ron Werneth's Beyond Pearl Harbor is the best I know of: http://www.schifferbooks.com/newschiffe ... 0764329326

[Gebirgsjaeger]

Thank you! Quite expensive but I will save some money!

[sniper1shot]

Wait.....going downstairs to my library....there are a couple of them. I too am looking for more Pacific memoirs from the "other side"

[sniper1shot]

I have quite a few titles but the majority of them are on the Allies and there are some good titles in them too:
Lonely Vigil -about Coast watchers
Bloody battle for Buna- as the title says etc

Japanese accounts:
Samurai- Subaru Sakai - memoir from the highest surviving pilot ace. Excellent book

Glorious Way to Die- Russell Spurr- the battleship Yamato's last sortie to battle. Not a memoir but a lot of first hand accounts Another good book

Kamikaze- Raymond Lamont-Brown
I will let my review do the talking on this one:

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=16225&p=108119&hil ... ze#p108119

[Gebirgsjaeger]

Thank you sniper1shot! Amazing!!!!!!!!

[sniper1shot]

OK- I knew I had more in my library.
Here are the others I have on the Japanese side:

OBA, The last Samurai- Don Jones....soldier who held out after the war with others. Very good.
http://www.amazon.com/Oba-Last-Samurai- ... im_sbs_b_3

No Surrender, My 30yr war- Hiroo Onoda.....soldier who held out for 30yrs. Another exceptional memoir.
http://www.amazon.com/No-Surrender-Thir ... y-year+war

(my copy has fallen apart I have read it at least 3 times)

That is about it for memoirs from the Japanese side that I have.

[Gebirgsjaeger]

Thank you! I will buy all of them!!!!

[lwd]

Maybe not quite what you are looking for but Parshall and Tully make extensive use of Japanese sources in thier works.
Shattered Sword (both of the above)
Surigao Strait (Tully)
The former also has a very good section on the politics of the Japanese Navy leading up to Midway.

[Helmut]

Servus,
Perhaps a little dated, but I enjoyed John Toland's THE RISING SUN.

Regards,

Helmut

[paspartoo]

The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 by John Toland is a great book writen from the Japanese perspective: http://www.amazon.com/Rising-Sun-Declin ... ohn+toland


Japanese Intelligence in World War II by Ken Kotani : http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Intellig ... rld+war+ii

[DrG]

I have read the Italian edition of these books of personal accounts by Japanese men, I suggest them:
- Yoshida Mitsuru - Requiem for Battleship Yamato;
- Kumiko Kakehashi - Letters from Iwo Jima.

These history books, instead, while written by American authors, provide deep information also from a Japanese perspective:
- Edward S. Miller - Bankrupting the Enemy: The U.S. Financial Siege of Japan Before Pearl Harbor;
- Walter E. Grunden - Secret Weapons and World War II: Japan in the Shadow of Big Science.