3.5 stars, rounded up to four.

The best part of this book is the variety of visual materials, many of them quite rare. The book itself reads like a massive scrapbook of press releases, with portraits included. The text is scanty, mostly summaries with little depth--think Wikipedia article, only not as detailed in some cases--and many unsupported opinions.

These opinions are easy to read--they build a picture of a remarkable man for his time, dedicated selflessly to human rights for all, the more remarkable as he came from the aristocratic elite, and worked at a time when Japan was inexorably tilting toward the Axis.

But I kept wishing for more explication of these summarizing conclusions, and more reference to primary source material backing them up. Not helping was a tendency toward bringing up a name or a point and repeatedly stating that it would be dealt with later, or elsewhere in the book. I finally had to start listing these on a piece of paper to keep track of them all.

Finally, the notes were separate from the pictures or text they referred to, causing much confusion and back-and-forthing.

It was a worthwhile read overall, whetting my appetite for learning more about the prominent figures of the period, and the photos and other visual materials were fascinating. These alone make the book worth buying. But I wish a good editor had worked with the writer to smooth out unnecessary organizational confusions, and to bring more depth to an interesting subject.

This was an incredibly intriguing read - I actually took a course on Modern East Asian history in college, which, of course, barely scratched the surface, so this was fascinating. My problem is that some pictures were missing, and that the notes being separate from the actual text was rather jarring. The notes should be with the information they are related to so I don’t have to go back and forth. I also dislike the whole “this will be mentioned later” tactic that is used. If you bring it up in a specific section, mention it there. This is a great book but the formatting takes away from it. I’ll still give it four out of five stars because the information was so interesting, but the book needs to be rearranged and reformatted a bit before publication.

I am a person who prefers nonfiction to fiction and I find history a wonderful topic for filling in one’s understanding of humanity. I must admit though, most history books are written in a style which sometimes gets thick with more words then needed. This is the first history book I’ve seen that makes every pertinent fact straight to the point without all the extra words that can leave your mind wandering off topic. That is not to say the information is not presented, it is, by using an abundance of photographic documentation. It has been said a picture is worth a thousand words and indeed the arrangement of text and documents in this book is an extremely effective way of presenting information. It is more elucidating and on point then words alone could achieve. I also appreciate the placement and depth of chapter notes. They are located where one can not only read them with ease (as opposed to the back of the book) but they are so complete it is almost like reading a bonus book

One can tell the author has put a great deal of research and effort into describing this overlooked period in history, regarding an also overlooked aspect of American and Japanese relations prior to World War II. Back in my college years I had to do a paper and presentation on this same subject, I only wish I had access to The Art of Peace back then.