FICTION

MACARTHUR MUST DIE by Ian Slater (Donald I. Fine: $21.95; 336 pp.) There were heroes in those days, and villains. You knew who was whom, and so did they. Nor did we have a corner on bias. Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, for his part, had convinced Japan that whites were inferior--and they didn’t take much convincing. Thus when young Tomokazu Somura is tagged to kill Douglas MacArthur, it is an honor, “a holy command” to avenge the death of Isoroku Yamamoto, “the genius of Pearl Harbor.” Tucked into Ian Slater’s rousing, splendidly told adventure is the shaky psyche of wartime Australia, directly in the line of fire of all-conquering Japan. Historically, Darwin has been bombed, New Guinea is about to fall and there is a contingency plan to abandon the northern two-thirds of Australia to the enemy. MacArthur is in Brisbane, rallying the troops, and Somura--who had studied in Brisbane--is en route in one of Japan’s monster aircraft-carrying submarines. Searing suspense rides along on Somura’s mission, underscored by racial tension. Somura--flinty, resourceful, pitiless--enlists the aid of his trusting Australian girlfriend, whose father has been beheaded in Singapore and whose brother has been tortured to death. MacArthur’s legendary insouciance in the face of danger plays nicely against Somura’s fanaticism. . . . Prime-time stuff.