A jarring and personal look at the definition of "war crime" that in some ways did for Japan what [b:Slaughterhouse-Five|4981|Slaughterhouse-Five|Kurt Vonnegut|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1440319389s/4981.jpg|1683562] did for Germany. This novel, like Vonnegut's, highlights the sufferings of civilians by Allied fire bombing during WWII. It was a time when the aerial bombing of civilian targets by Allies was so routine that no one questioned the morality of killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. The fire bombing campaigns leveled city after city just as thoroughly, through repetitive air raids, as a single bomb leveled Hiroshima at the close of the war.

Yoshimura creates a protagonist who executed a B-29 pilot for war crimes after his mother is incinerated by fire bombing and after whole cities are leveled; he is wanted in turn for the war crime of executing the pilot, after the war is over, when his act during the war has been labeled a capital offense.

Unlike Slaughterhouse Five, One Man's Justice is delivered in a near-documentary level of prose that feels more like witness-bearing than fiction. Partly it's the translation--so many sentences are adequate, and yet thuddingly dull, where it's easy to imagine a different word choice or sentence structure would have made for a better read. It's still a riveting look at postwar Japan, filled with details that only someone who lived through it could imagine. ( )

Takuya Kiyohara, a Japanese officer of the Imperial Army during World War II, works in anti-aircraft defense during heavy attacks by Allied Forces. As the war draws to a close and Japan must surrender, Takuya takes an active role in the beheading of an American prisoner of war who had been captured after the B-29 bomber in which he was flying had been shot down.

After Japan surrenders, Takuya fears he will be recognized by either police or American soldiers as a war criminal. He moves from people he knows to those he doesn't in order to avoid recognition and punishment for his "war crimes", avoid placing undue hardship on those who help him, and create a sanctuary for himself.

I invite you into Yoshimura's world of Japan after WWII and the personal account of one man, previously an esteemed army officer, but now a fugitive fearing for his life. It's always an interesting process to read war stories from the side of the "enemy". I'm always amazed at how reading about the "other" seems to always put the perspective of the enemy into sharper focus. I appreciate how the author has us take a look into the psychology of a soldier and how his outlook changes after he is part of the surrendering side. The ending for this story is just right. It allows the reader to reflect on how perspectives change from one side of the war to the other and from being actively involved in a war and the baggage carried in the psyche of a soldier after a war.

This is truly a terrific read. I've no come to expect such writing from this author, though! ( )

One Man’s Justice is a poignant account of defeat told from a loyal Japanese solider turned war criminal fugitive. It’s a story about the hardships and humiliating sting of a defeated nation. It’s a story of how war can twist moral absolute truths and makes the indefensible justified. And it’s a story of how world politics can making what should be the solid ground of justice a murky and incomprehensible fog.

At a time when the once proud Japan is reduced to rubble and humiliated by surrender an act otherwise unthinkable by traditional standards becomes the only option for a group of frustrated solders not ready to give up the fight. With the firebombing of entire cities and the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulting in thousands of civilian deaths, the lives of American POWs not only become dispensable but also are taken as an act of revenge for the atrocities of others. As a participant in the executions of American POWs, our loyal Lieutenant Takuya, is labeled a war criminal by the conquering United States, which at the time is automatic death sentence. Unable to bear the thought of execution for an act that Takuya doesn’t consider a crime and as a soldier was only following the orders of superiors, he must flee and become a fugitive in war torn Japan. Without a functioning economy or an adequate food supply, the Japanese road to recovery is full hardships for the average citizen; for a fugitive like Takuya the additional stress of being caught by the authorities is almost unbearable. Not to mention the humiliation of being the subjects of a military occupation where the Japanese people have no real control over their lives and now must adjust to this idea of democracy. Nothing in Takuya’s life is steady or certain; except for the idea if caught, he will be executed for his actions. However, world affairs and time has made justice in Japan malleable and more forgiving. So even his idea of justice becomes unattainable and Takuya’s foundations crumble like the old Japan he once knew.

Yoshimura has a way of taking a simple story and making it a complex exploration of what grounds us as human beings. In [One Man’s Justice] explores the idea of right and wrong and how the that perception changes in a given circumstance, generationally, and over time. To Yoshimura an absolute right or wrong is not absolute given the right set of circumstances. Take a confused, self-deluded product of a strict and disturbing moral order, facing defeat and humiliation at the hands of the enemy and pretty much any action can be rationalized at the moment. However, with time that rationalization disappears and what’s left is a haunting memory and broken life. What’s particularly remarkable about this book is that it’s a clear-eyed account of a defeated nation. Yoshimura doesn’t shy away from the anger felt by a people who have been firebombed and subjected to the 1st and so far last atomic bombings. And he’s not a afraid to air the atrocities committed by Japan. In some measure this is to show how the inequality of outcomes for war criminals depends on the victors. How a few soldiers killing of a handful of POWs outweighs the death of thousands of civilians at the hands of hundreds of B-29 raids is fundamentally unfair and should be treated as wrong if justice is to be applied equally to everyone. ( )

An interesting novel, very focussed on one man's experiences after the war as he is on the run from a war crimes charge. The novel gives a Japanese perspective not often heard in the UK which you may or may not be sympathetic with, but nevertheless is a story that should be heard. It is concisely written and the reflection that does occur is often more about the decisions he has made while on the run, although he does reflect on how politics influences war crimes trials, rather than the law. ( )

“One man’s justice is other man’s injustice”. While not denying the existence of an objective order of justice, the author shows how frequently, in practice, the notion of “what is right” is swayed by our subjective perceptions, and, consequently, how illusory one’s moral self-image can be.

The story follows Takuya Kiyohara, an officer of the Japanese Imperial Army, on the run from the occupying American authorities, because of his participation in the execution of American POWs. In the book we witness the moral breakdown – institutional, social, individual – of Japan after the defeat, and how the moral standards of a victorious America are perceived by the Japanese as shifting and questionable.

Some reviewers have objected that the book has an anti-American bias, as seemingly stressing American excesses, while keeping silence about the Japanese atrocities during the war, and giving little development to the moral character of the American prisoners. But I don't think that there is a bias. The story is focused on the personal experience of one man, and the war is seen through his eyes: the American fire-bombing of Japanese cities, the Japanese medical experiments and execution of American POWs, the American war trials of the men that Takuya has known, and his own plight. What is beyond his immediate experience does not enter into the narrative – and what he experiences is enough for the book to make its point about morality.

Takuya's character is believably developed; the prose is sparse, lyric in places, and still reads as a thriller. But it is far more than that: it is a powerful meditation on justice, on the horrors of war, and on what war does to a man’s soul. ( )