Cultures Of War: Pearl Harbor/Hiroshima/9-11/Iraq (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
Very interesting deconstruction of the symbolism of Pearl Harbor and 9-11 as well as a solidly documented history of the events in the title. Dower does a good job of showing how strategic decisions are made without being overly partisan taking a broad view of culture, bureaucracy, religion, economics, and politics. While it's quite clear he thinks the bombing of Japanese cities was not wise or ethical, he presents all the reasoning of those who carried it out fairly. He gets more sarcastic dealing with Iraq and GWB but even here he stays away from the polemical. I give it 4 stars instead of 5 because I found it repetitive. It could use some editing. The same arguments are made over and over. I often wondered if I'd lost my place and was rereading a section since the words seemed so familiar. I'm quite confident I'll never think the same way about the Pacific War, 9/11, the occupations of Japan and Germany, and the Iraq war as I used to. Any book that can change long held opinions on so many subjects of great interest to me is one I'm glad to have read. I've often shaken my head in puzzlement about the Pacific and Iraq Wars. "What were they thinking?" Now I can understand it better. Where to begin? This book created a variety of feelings in me while reading from annoyance and anger to somnolence and a grudging acceptance and concurrence with much of what he said. Howard Zinn would have loved this book. Having participated in war planning for Iraq and met Mr. Rumsfeld the "liberal rant" that pervades the author's critique of the Bush presidency's adhocracy is painfully true. The messengers of "whoa, wait a minute" were all shot down and branded as disloyal. I've always been a big supporter of the "A-bomb needed to be dropped on Japan." This book convinced me otherwise. This book is best when it describes the Japanese experience/history of which the author is an expert. The last part of the book about laws of war was tough going. Too pedantic at times. Don't know if it deserves the National Book Award? Maybe it does. It changed my outlook on a decision that I always thought was sacrosanct.
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