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16 teosta 829 jäsentä 26 arvostelua

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Paul Ham is an Australian historian, journalist and author, He was born in Sydney, Australia in 1960. He earned his master's degree in economic history from the London School of Economics. He began working for the London Sunday Times in 1998 as their Australia correspondent. He is the author of näytä lisää Kokoda (2004), Vietnam: The Australian War (2007), Hiroshima Nagasaki (2011), Sandakan: The Untold Story of the Sandakan Death Marches (2012), 1914: The Year the World Ended (2013), and Passchendaele: Requiem for Doomed Youth (2017). He won the Queensland Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 2014 for his work, 1914: The Year the World Ended. He also received the 2018 NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction for Passchendaele: Requiem for Doomed Youth. His other work includes 1913, The Target Committee, and Honey, We Forgot the Kids (co-authored with psychotherapist Bernie Brown). (Bowker Author Biography) näytä vähemmän

Includes the name: Paul Ham

Image credit: Paul Ham. Photo courtesy of Mosman Library.

Tekijän teokset

Vietnam: The Australian War (2007) 115 kappaletta
Kokoda (2004) 105 kappaletta
1914: The Year the World Ended (2013) 96 kappaletta
Young Hitler (Kindle Single) (2014) 57 kappaletta
1913: The Eve of War (2013) 49 kappaletta
Sandakan (2012) 45 kappaletta
Yoko's Diary (2013) — Toimittaja — 35 kappaletta
New Jerusalem (2018) 26 kappaletta
1914: The Belgian Massacres (2014) 3 kappaletta
Firestorm (2014) 1 kappale

Merkitty avainsanalla

Yleistieto

Syntymäaika
1960
Sukupuoli
male
Kansalaisuus
Australia

Jäseniä

Kirja-arvosteluja

A fascinating account of the buildup and background to the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan and the aftermath. A lot of research obviously went into this book, and although I have read accounts before, those were mainly to do with the horrendous experiences of the survivors. This book makes it very clear exactly what drove the handful of men who controlled the entire Japanese war machine, and their lack of concern with one exception - a man who was always overruled - for the ordinary people. They were just cannon fodder or expected to live off starvation rations - a lot of children died of malnutrition - while labouring to demolish buildings and create firebreaks in the cities which by then were experiencing devastating icendiary bombing raids by the US airforce. Even children as young as 12 were conscripted while the mindless propaganda continued to insist that Japan was winning the war. As long as these civilians 'died with honour', that was all that mattered to those who ruled over them.

Behind the scenes, the heads of the military were resistant to the increasing conviction of the civilian members of the government that a peace had to be brokered - but the stumbling block was the US insistence on unconditional surrender. The Emperor had to be preserved and this had not been guaranteed. The book documents the peace 'feelers' these top officials put out, through various channels, the chief one being via the ambassador to the Soviet Union who was expected to convince the Russian goverment to be the mediator of an end to the war despite the - unusual for the time - blunt and determined attempts by that ambassador to explain to his superiors that the Russians had no interest in doing that and were in fact building up to break their agreement with Japan. The strange system of government in Japan at the time - where the Emperor was literally a living god but was also rarely expected to voice his own opinion and where, if he said that Japan should surrender, it would be seen as influence from corrupt officials who would then be fair game for assassination - meant that despite crippling losses and a mounting death toll from the conventional bombing, there was no will among the military or their leaders to cease fighting.

Contrary to the impression which has been given by the US government since the end of WWII, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are shown in the book to be of no consequence to the Japanese rulers. The chief reason for their finally agreeing to surrender was that the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan and was invading Japanese conquered territory in China. It was useful as an excuse - the Emperor for one used this in his broadcast to the general population that it was to save them from a cruel new weapon, but in his broadcast to the remnant of the Japanese fighting forces, he didn't mention it - in that, the reason given was that the Soviet Union had declared war and there was no point fighting such an overwhelmingly superior force. The author shows that the Japanese would most likely have surrendered without the dropping of atomic weapons, certainly without Nagasaki being bombed, and could have been induced to give up due to the blockade which had starved the country of all raw materials and fuel and food supplies. The decision had already been made in the US government not to invade, even before the atomic bomb had been tested, so there certainly was no saving of huge numbers of American lives as the public have always been told despite the few dissenting voices.

After the war, the US officials clamped down on news of radiation sickness and confiscated the documentation of Japanese doctors who tried to research it, as well as refusing to hand over any medical supplies to those desperately struggling medical professionals. At the same time, with inducements of food - or sweets to children - they induced Japanese who had felt the effects of the bomb or its aftermath to submit to tests, and did not provide any treatment. The whole attitude was one of extreme callousness. I had read about this before, but here it forms part of the continuous narrative of self serving and self deceiving attitudes among certain men in power in the occupation forces. Some did speak out, but reports were hushed up and so on.

In general, this is an illuminating book which raises moral questions such as how is it possible for countries which prided themselves on being Christian and democratic to inflict such horrendous suffering on a civilian population - commencing with the carpet bombing with incendiaries and high explosives and culminating in nuclear holocaust. As Ham shows, the Allies had condemned the barbaric treatment of prisoners and those conquered by Germany and Japan, and yet in effect had sunk to the same level. The only thing that holds this book back from a 5 star rating for me is that it is very focused on the US role in the Pacific and does not even acknowledge that the Royal Navy had a role in the Pacific war, which is an attitude shown in Hollywood portrayals for some years. A small acknowledgement of the British contribution in WWII would have provided a little balance.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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kitsune_reader | 8 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Nov 23, 2023 |
Short summary of the pre-war situation focusing on the belligerence of all parties while simultaneously professing the inevitability of the coming conflict. At once gearing war machines up for a fight they look forward to and feeling victimized by circumstance as if bound by the ties of fate to fight.
 
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A.Godhelm | 4 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Oct 20, 2023 |
Stutt bók um aðdraganda fyrri heimsstyrjaldar. Ham einbeitir sér að árinu 1913 og dregur fram sjónarmið og ummæli almennings og ráðamanna helstu stórþjóða í Evrópu um að stríð sé ekki bara líklegt heldur æskilegt og nauðsynlegt. Hann gagnrýnir og hrekur í raun seinni tíma ummæli þessara sömu aðila að stríðið hafi verið óumflýjanlegt og að þeir hafi verið leiksoppar örlaganna eða að stríðið hafi einungis verið Þýskalandi og Austurríska-Ungverska keisaradæminu að kenna. Ágætis rannsókn á hinni flóknu atburðarrás sem leiddi síðar til eins mesta hryllings síðustu aldar.… (lisätietoja)
 
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SkuliSael | 4 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Apr 28, 2022 |
How did a young man who wanted to be an artist end up one of the most reviled, evil men of recent history? As a mother, I have often wondered what horrible mistakes his family must have made to raise a son that ordered the deaths of millions of people. It turns out the answer really isn't as simple as a bad childhood or abuse or whatever go-to reason we might ascribe to it today. Paul Ham's book on the youth and young adulthood of Adolph Hitler is well researched and points out some pivotal times in the creation of a monster.

The book not only includes information about Hitler's upbringing and young life, but also the history of politics and social upheaval in Germany, Austria and Europe at the time. All of those historical elements set the scene for Hitler to develop into the dictator he became. His life moving from soldier to revolutionary to political leader to dictator is fascinating and sad at the same time. I wonder what would have become of Hitler had he been accepted into art school as a young man, instead of being rejected? In the end, I guess it really doesn't matter what "might have been'' as history can't be changed. But it is thought provoking to think that one or two small changes in this man's life might have prevented the deaths of millions across Europe.

Ham obviously put much research and thought into his book. He did say that tracing facts about family lineage and youth of the Fuhrer is difficult because many of the records were destroyed by the Nazi party so they could build him up as a perfect leader. They created lies and propaganda to cover up the illegitimacy and questionable background of one of his parents and anything deemed less than stellar in his background. The author does not present Hitler in a totally negative light. He shares the good and bad that he discovered about Hitler as a young man. He was not born totally evil. He morphed into it over years. And, as we all know, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

All in all, a very interesting book and I learned a lot that I didn't know. It is a hard subject to read about as I had family members who fought in the war, and extended family in Germany who were killed. I read the book in small doses....when it got to be too much, I would take a break and come back after a rest from it. As a mother I'm glad I read this book. It shows that the sum of a man's adult decisions do not necessarily stem from his upbringing, but as a total of his life experiences, environment, outside influences and other factors. I can't imagine what it would be like to be the parent of a evil, murderous person. Hitler's mother died in 1907 way before her son killed anyone. I'm glad that she never knew what her little boy would grow up to become. And, I'm sorry that little boy ended up the way he did. Nobody is born evil. It's unfortunate that he made the life choices that he did. Not out of concern for him.....but for the millions of people that he had murdered. My family members....and the family of so many, many others. Sad.

Great book! Very well documented. The facts are presented in an interesting fashion without becoming dry, tedious or repetitive as some non-fiction books can be. I'm definitely going to read more non-fiction by this author!

**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Pegasus Books/W.W. Norton via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
… (lisätietoja)
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JuliW | 2 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Nov 22, 2020 |

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Teokset
16
Jäseniä
829
Suosituimmuussija
#30,792
Arvio (tähdet)
3.9
Kirja-arvosteluja
26
ISBN:t
136
Kielet
2

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