#774 in our old book database. Not rated.

An amazing book on race relations and how racism, both in the United States and Japan, fueled war policies and goals during World War II. This is a must read for anyone interested in the Pacific War during World War II. ( )

A very detailed analysis of racial bias on both sides in the Pacific war. My Japanese girlfriend gifted it to me as a must-read recommended by her historian dad. I fully agree. It doesn't sugar-coat but exposes the vicious propaganda and atrocities of both sides.

It was really good but as one would also expect, really sad. ( )

A powerful case for the argument that racism played as big a role in the Pacific theater as it did in the European, but Dower devotes more of his resources to detailing American racism, leaving the Japanese sections more vaguely sketched out (we never get the perspective of the men on the ground as we do with the Americans). This may be because he's got to overcome the preconceptions of his primary readership (i.e., most Americans think of WWII as "the good war"), but it makes his argument seem a bit lopsided. ( )