- Hardcover: 160 pages
- Publisher: Constable; First Edition First Printing edition (5 July 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0094797803
- ISBN-13: 978-0094797802
- Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.8 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 537,257 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The name "Yamato" is synonymous with a cartoon space craft on television to most young Japanese today. They are blithely unaware of the huge super-battleship that sunk, along with the majority of its crew and its nation's hopes, in April 1945 under heavy American fire off Okinawa in the Pacific Ocean. Among the few survivors was Mitsuru Yoshida, ensign, assistant radar officer on the ship. His first-hand account of the battle, and the preparation of the ship's company for it, is a startling piece of literature, quite without precedent, a minor classic in Japan but here published unabridged in English for the first time. It takes the form of a log or journal, mostly in the present tense, but with a free attitude to perspective when the occasion demands. The style is elliptical, often without verb or even subject, lending an urgency to sentences which often constitute dehydrated paragraphs. Best described as a prose-poem, it is worked in a style of Japanese used for military documents, which gives the writing the air of a despatch as well as suggesting the staccato rhythm of conflict.
The narrative rolls with the lurching inevitability of classical tragedy, absorbing in its stifled, sparse tone, though at times the going can be hard for all concerned. It brings to mind Saint-Exupéry's Flight to Arras, interspersing action with contemplation, giving potted biographies of people who die before we reach the end of the sentence. Yoshida's vivid descriptions resonate with every shell as what simultaneously detonates within him is the realisation of the arbitrariness of death, something common in survivor literature, how a fraction of circumstance can make the most crucial difference, and how banal it actually is. That the task force headed by "Yamato" was kamikaze merely adds to the futility, but from such tragedy has come this curious, original account that deserves to be accorded minor classic status wherever it is read. --David Vincent
Product Description
Yoshida Mitsuru''s first-hand account of the Second World War battle leading to the destruction of Japan''s battleship Yamato is a classic of war literature'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Great book, the Requiem. A first hand account of a tragic mission of history, yet a piece of literature as well. I have never read anything so personal on history and it indeed reads like a unique verse. It reaches its peak when Yamato is capsizing. So dramatic and realistic, I felt as if I got grabbed by the enormous whirlpool of the sinking ship myself, too. Full of action and melancholic, excellent!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Although perhaps unsurprising given the scale of Japan's losses and the bitterness of defeat, the fact remains that there are relatively few accounts of the war by those who fought with the Imperial Forces, and even fewer available in English.
For this reason alone `Requiem for Battleship Yamato' would command attention even if it were only an average work. But it is not an average work; it is a classic in the truest sense of this much abused word, which must be placed alongside books such as `The Last Enemy' by Richard Hillary.
Written in a spare, almost poetic style, `Requiem' tells the story of the Yamato's last doomed sortie from the viewpoint of one of her junior officers. Alongside glimpses of life on board the great battleship, we gain an insight into the thoughts and personal lives of her crew as they prepare for what most realise will be a mission from which there will be no return.
As the tension mounts and enemy forces close in for the inevitable kill, Yoshida provides a moving commentary on the Yamato's last days and hours, with poignant vignettes of such figures as the force commander Vice Admiral Ito, who had correctly appreciated the futility of the mission yet carried out his task with calm resolution.
With the Yamato entering her final death agony, Yoshida gives us harrowing descriptions of the effects of explosives and steel on human flesh - a timely reminder in this age of glossy propaganda of the true face of battle. Then there is the homecoming, with Yoshida's personal struggle to come to terms with the meaning of his survival while so many of his comrades are dead.
No review of this book would be complete without acknowledging the outstanding work of its translator, Richard Minear, who has also provided an excellent introduction. Thanks to his efforts, this work will not only be read with profit by the military historian, but anyone who seeks to broaden his understanding of the human condition.
For this reason alone `Requiem for Battleship Yamato' would command attention even if it were only an average work. But it is not an average work; it is a classic in the truest sense of this much abused word, which must be placed alongside books such as `The Last Enemy' by Richard Hillary.
Written in a spare, almost poetic style, `Requiem' tells the story of the Yamato's last doomed sortie from the viewpoint of one of her junior officers. Alongside glimpses of life on board the great battleship, we gain an insight into the thoughts and personal lives of her crew as they prepare for what most realise will be a mission from which there will be no return.
As the tension mounts and enemy forces close in for the inevitable kill, Yoshida provides a moving commentary on the Yamato's last days and hours, with poignant vignettes of such figures as the force commander Vice Admiral Ito, who had correctly appreciated the futility of the mission yet carried out his task with calm resolution.
With the Yamato entering her final death agony, Yoshida gives us harrowing descriptions of the effects of explosives and steel on human flesh - a timely reminder in this age of glossy propaganda of the true face of battle. Then there is the homecoming, with Yoshida's personal struggle to come to terms with the meaning of his survival while so many of his comrades are dead.
No review of this book would be complete without acknowledging the outstanding work of its translator, Richard Minear, who has also provided an excellent introduction. Thanks to his efforts, this work will not only be read with profit by the military historian, but anyone who seeks to broaden his understanding of the human condition.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
My husband was very pleased to receive this book and although secondhand, was in very good condition and good value for money.
Helen Few
Helen Few
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