NYTimes article: Seeking the Essence of Japan? Look to Germany
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JET alum David Kowalsky, a Seattle-based technical writer, alerted me to an interesting article in the NYTimes the other day: “Seeking the Essence of Japan? Look to Germany” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/movies/11stua.html?_r=1&ref=movies
Regarding the brief talk toward the end of the article about the similarities between Germany and Japan, David comments that the way Germany and Japan have dealt with their war guilt has been very different. He recommends a good book on the topic called Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan by Ian Buruma. http://www.amazon.com/Wages-Guilt-Memories-Germany-Japan/dp/0452011566/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231728075&sr=1-1
Side note: David also mentions that he (like me) first “discovered” Ian Buruma way back when he read the now out-of-print book Behind the mask: On sexual demons, sacred mothers, transvestites, gangsters, drifters and other Japanese cultural heroes http://www.amazon.com/Behind-mask-transvestites-gangsters-drifters/dp/0394537750/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231728470&sr=1-21.
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