Strange But True
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| The Cover of Strange But True |
Jack Seward is one of the best Japan-authors around. His books are excellent and he is a very smart man. If you see his book on the bookshelf in Maruzen or Kinokuniya and haven't read it, pick it up. It is always a guaranteed good read. Seward, recipient of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Third Class, an award granted him by the Emperor of Japan, has a wide variety of texts to his name. He has written everything from social commentary, to novels, to language textbooks. When it comes to writing about Japan, without fear or favor, he is THE MAN.
This particular text, Strange But True, is a neat little text about some of the more obscure and interesting stories linked to Japan, and her history. This book covers a lot of territory. We read about some of the toughest women of medieval Japan, Americans in Japanese prisons, Sada Abe's sensational “dismemberment” of her lover, an arm-less geisha, the story of “Tokyo Rose”, the Japanese support of General MacArthur's upcoming “erection”, the Japanese messiah Shiro Amakusa, the crucial execution of “Operation Z” during the war, and the amazing story of William Merrell Vories.
This book really humanizes not only the Japanese, but also our reactions to the Japanese with some of the more incredible and hard-to-tolerate accounts that we hear. Not that this book soft-peddles the Japanese, but through its tone and approach merely explains in a matter-of-fact way these strange and sensational stories. The reader is left to make up his own mind. Over the past several decades the world has been increasingly smaller, especially in terms of how we are able to examine cultures outside our own. With differences there is often friction, and while this text does not avoid it, it helps us understand better some of the contexts from which these conflicts originate.
Naturally, because this book covers so much territory, it cannot explore many of these stories in depth. Thankfully, there are small bibliographies at the end of each chapter. So, if you are so inclined you can do more research on your own into particular stories. A very enjoyable read, easy to go through, and with excellent style and balance. Highly recommended.
Mark Groenewold
Kanazawa, Japan
December, 2002
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