Six top books on World War II in Asia

Gary Bass, a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, is the author of Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia; The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide; Freedom's Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention; and Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals.

[The Page 99 Test: The Blood Telegram]

At Lit Hub Bass tagged six top books on the Asian experience in World War II, including:

Eri Hotta, Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy

Imperial Japan’s fatal decision to attack the United States and the British Empire, as well as the Dutch in the East Indies, ranks among the most perplexing and self-destructive in diplomatic history. Bogged down in the quagmire in China, why would they take on fresh wars against all that combined military-industrial might? How had the Japanese leadership believed simultaneously that the United States was so relentlessly aggressive that they had to attack it but also so submissive that it would slink to the bargaining table once struck? In this excellent book, Eri Hotta, who has also done outstanding work on Japanese pan-Asianism, shows how Imperial Japan’s rulers talked themselves into a catastrophic war. While unsparing in her assessment that the war was a reckless disaster, she carefully and fair-mindedly weighs the complex deeds of individual leaders such as General Tojo Hideki, Prince Konoe Fumimaro, Admiral Nagano Osami, and the peace-minded Togo Shigenori. Although Japanese right-wingers like to single out the Hull note in late November 1941, whose invocation is usually a dogwhistle for the claim that Pearl Harbor was really the United States’ own fault, Hotta’s expert account debunks that; she suggests that the United States toughened its terms in response to Japanese troop mobilization in the South Seas, indicating that Japan was ready to attack any day. Her book is rich in scholarship and nuance, with a penetrating understanding of Japan’s history. And even though you know how it’s going to end, the narrative is tautly suspenseful—you keep hoping they’ll back away from the abyss.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue