Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy

Eri Hotta's Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy is a meticulously-researched, day-by-day recounting of Japan's military and political situation throughout 1941. Hotta seems to have reconstructed every meeting of two or more diplomatic, military, imperial, or cabinet officials from the entire year. This is informative to no end, but goes well beyond the level of detail your average reader would need. (Or even your not-so-average reader; I picked this up because I teach World War II in Japan, and I still found myself skimming vast chunks of text.)

The most interesting and most readable parts of the book are not the policy discussions or arguments over military strategy. They are the recollections of Soldier U, called up again and again into his late 30s as Japan's "China Issue" drags on and then as they debate invading the Soviet Union (they don't) and French Indochina (they do). Close on the heels of Soldier U are the passages about changes to the daily routine in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan as basic goods (rice!) become scarce even before the country enters into war with the United States.

In fact, the most amazing thing is that Japan went to war with the U.S. at all. Again and again cabinet ministers and members of the imperial household discuss that a war with the U.S. is too unwinnable, that the country is too vast, its population and resources too many, its will too strong. (As an aside, I love that it is Gone with the Wind that hammers this home most clearly to some Japanese who, seeing the film for the first time marvel at the "quality, technical superiority, and glamour" of the movie and wonder "how they could possibly defeat a country that had managed to produce such an astonishing film.) Yet, each man -  and make no mistake, they are all men here - feels that war is inevitable and as such the preparations must move in that direction until the train has left the station and the ship has left the harbor.

This is not a book about Japan during World War II, per se. More than anything, Hotta succeeds in presenting the psychology of a nation, one that is deeply unsure of its place in a rapidly changing world.My final verdict, then, is more nuanced than usual. This is an often-tedious book, but one sheds valuable insight on the Japanese psyche circa World War II. Ultimately, though, only the most devoted close readers of World War II or Japanese culture (or preferably both) are likely to truly enjoy the countdown to Pearl Harbor.