History -- Japan at War: An Oral History by Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook

Japan at War: An Oral History. By Haruko Taya Cook & Theodore F. Cook. New York: The New Press, 1992. 479 pp. $27.50.

"In Japan," write the authors of this path-breaking study, "one can encounter a powerful, generalized hatred of war, a strong belief that wars should not be fought, but little appreciation for or understanding of the reasons why Japan was at the center of that global conflict a half-century ago."

The Japanese, casting themselves as victims rather than victimizers, have focused their attention mainly on Hiroshima and the sufferings of the populace during and immediately after the war. For decades, a veil of silence has hung over the personal experiences of the survivors, as though there were...