
Zero, The Story of Japan's Air War in the Pacific—as Seen by the Enemy
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Overall
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Performance
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Performance
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Performance
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Horrible writing
- By DearMrDear on 06-02-18
One final note on the narration. I'm almost sorry to admit, this AI-driven narration is pretty good. Hilariously, years are pronounced as regular numbers, and there are annoying pauses throughout, but overall this exceeded my expectations. I would not want to hear all or even most audio books narrated this way, but if Virtual Voice gets fringe books like this into audio, so be it.
The Pointy End of "The Wind Rises"
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An outstanding history.
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One commenter noted that the authors did not mention atrocities inflicted by Japanese forces. While true, that's not the place of this book. Overall, the authors express a good deal of remorse for following Japanese leadership and the hardships they inflicted on people around the Pacific. They also discuss, albeit briefly, the factors unique to Japanese society underlying the people's fanatical support for the war.
The authors support the notion that the Japanese government, knowing that the war was lost, was willing to sacrifice its citizens fighting a US invasion. While they don't say it, and they certainly decry the horror of the atomic bomb, they give the impression that they understand why it was used.
So, not a ton of flying (although there are some really interesting personal, stories of particular missions) but, if you'd like to understand how Japanese leadership saw the war, especially the air war, and what they could have done differently, this is a super worthwhile title!
Japanese perspective of Pacific air war
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