Japan 1941

Countdown to Infamy

By: Eri Hotta

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

When Japan attacked the United States in 1941, argues Eri Hotta, its leaders, in large part, understood they were entering a conflict they were bound to lose. Availing herself of rarely consulted material, Hotta poses essential questions overlooked by historians in the seventy years since: Why did these men - military men, civilian politicians, diplomats, the emperor - put their country and its citizens in harm's way? Why did they make a decision that was doomed from the start?

Introducing us to the doubters, bluffers, and schemers who led their nation into this conflagration, Hotta brilliantly shows us a Japan never before glimpsed - eager to avoid war but fraught with tensions with the West, blinded by traditional notions of pride and honor, nearly escaping disaster before it finally proved inevitable.

©2013 Eri Hotta (P)2013 Tantor

Nisei's question "Why"?

wonderfully presented, it explains the problems of being single minded. it works if you are on an island by yourself, but can be tough on your Mate, family or country..
Thank you Eri..
Respectfully
born in camp Nisei..

Unbelievable!

If anyone thought they knew the history of the period leading up to World War II in the Pacific, this history will be an eye opener. Ms Hotta has opened up an all new chapter on the mind set behind Japan's decision to go to war. That Japanese decision makers could on the one-hand understand the futility and eventual consequences of going to war and yet allow circumstances to run their disastrous course is astounding. Another element of pre-war Japan that is revealed is the dismal state to which the Japanese economy had descended as a result of the war with China.

As I wrote, this history is an eye opener, a must read/listen to for anyone who is interested in WWII. The narration is excellent. It was hard to stop listening.

I never knew

I never really knew or understood the lead up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This book was really eye-opening, and really helped to shed some light on a subject, which is not talked about in the United States to any great extent.

Interesting, but ultimately unnecessarily bloated.

The thesis of Ms. Eri Hotta regarding Japan's entry into the Second World War might be summarized as follows: The leaders of Japan, individually too weak and indecisive to argue for peace in the face of rising militarism, bluffed and blundered into a catastrophic war.

This makes for an interesting book, and it is thoroughly researched with memorable characters, but toward the final third of the book one begins to wonder why it hasn't ended. So much detail is given that the development of the central claim begins to feel like bludgeon work.

All in all, this is an interesting but rather bloated account of Japan's run up to war.

Extremely Enlightening, Definitely worth re-reading

Without question this book has given me a clear picture on the Japanese mindset in the months leading up to the decision to go to war with United States as well as the interwar years between the first and second world wars. I definitely recommend this to anyone who wants a more in-depth look at how the war started not just on the battlefield but in the minds of the Japanese people and its government’s leaders.