This is an interesting, readable novel about Japanese fighter pilots during the Second World War. It rightly attacks the strategic and tactical stupidity of the Japanese military leadership in taking on the vastly stronger US forces, and equally correctly criticises the callous disregard the top brass had for the lives of their own combatants. But ultimately "lions led by donkeys" is a cop-out, removing any need to ask wider questions about the attitudes and behaviours of the regular members of the Japanese military and about Japanese cultural values.
For Hyakuta, the pilots are heroes, and there is no doubting the individual bravery of very many of them. But an unwillingness to challenge authority, excessive insider-outsider thinking, a belief that effort and "spirit" can solve everything, and a willingness to engage in pointless sacrifice - these cultural values were shared throughout Japanese society and contributed to the country's self-inflicted catastrophe. I can understand why the book has been so popular in Japan, placing responsibility as it does on a small number of individuals, but the failure to question those damaging cultural values is in large part why they persist even today. Hyakuta's novel is thus another evasion of the hard questions.
For Hyakuta, the pilots are heroes, and there is no doubting the individual bravery of very many of them. But an unwillingness to challenge authority, excessive insider-outsider thinking, a belief that effort and "spirit" can solve everything, and a willingness to engage in pointless sacrifice - these cultural values were shared throughout Japanese society and contributed to the country's self-inflicted catastrophe. I can understand why the book has been so popular in Japan, placing responsibility as it does on a small number of individuals, but the failure to question those damaging cultural values is in large part why they persist even today. Hyakuta's novel is thus another evasion of the hard questions.
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