Actually I have not read this book; I went through some reviews on Amazon, and it sounds like a very bleak read. One of the reviewers, a historian, says that the book is full of filler and would have made a good paper, not a full length book; I might use this particular opportunity to get back into my husband’s subscription to JSTOR, which has a plethora of otherwise hard-to-access academic papers on historical subjects. It does pique my interest though, about the analysis of the prior histories of Japan and America to figure the “national” character and why such an abomination might have happened. Thanks!