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danslimmon 's review for:
Year Zero: A History of 1945
by Ian Buruma
At first, I felt this book was exploitive. It read as a long list of tenuously connected shocking stories about sex and violence in postwar Germany and Japan.
But it opens up after a few chapters. The book is brutally honest and doesn't glamorize or flatter the Allies, making it clear that war is Hell no matter who wins. And it challenges the simplistic but popular narrative that all Nazi collaborators were intrinsically bad.
I especially enjoyed the use of Japanese literature to show the subtlety of postwar Japan's self-image.
But it opens up after a few chapters. The book is brutally honest and doesn't glamorize or flatter the Allies, making it clear that war is Hell no matter who wins. And it challenges the simplistic but popular narrative that all Nazi collaborators were intrinsically bad.
I especially enjoyed the use of Japanese literature to show the subtlety of postwar Japan's self-image.