THE IMPOVERISHED SPIRIT IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN: Selected...

THE IMPOVERISHED SPIRIT IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN: Selected Essays of Honda Katsuichi edited by John Lie, translated from the Japanese by Eri Fujieda, Masayuki Hamazaki and John Lie (Monthly Review Press: $16; 223 pp., paperback original). Lie presents the first English anthology of the work of Japan’s most admired and controversial journalist. Honda rose to prominence through his articles on the war in Vietnam, the murderous policies of Cambodia’s Pol Pot regime and the mistreatment of the Ainu, the aboriginal inhabitants of Hokkaido. Describing Japan as a spiritually impoverished “tadpole society”--a leaderless mass of individuals that band together out of herd instinct--he excoriated the Japanese educational system for promoting conformity and stifling creativity. But his most celebrated expose uncovered the government effort to exclude any mention of Japanese war crimes, especially the “rape of Nanjing” from school history texts. Honda attacked these efforts as symptomatic of the Japanese refusal to acknowledge the human rights abuses committed throughout Asia during World War II and of the attempt to portray Japan as a victim of the war, rather than an aggressor. The rather straightforward translations make it difficult to assess Honda’s style, but he clearly ranks as an important writer who deserves the attention of American readers.