I love studying world history and particular the Far East. This DVD has some commendable aspects…primarily the footage. Also, the angle and time taken to show what happen in the immediate aftermath of Japan’s Defeat to the U.S. was very, very good. On the other hand, as a documentary is was average at best Indeed, in its weakness, I almost felt like there was an undercurrent of “Japan bad” and “Great Britain and U.S. good” (why the the title “Japan’s War” even suggests a bias) that I found bothersome and tedious.

War is often far more complex than we realize. Japan, like any nation, was not without fault and failure, but there were other forces in play other than Japanese militarists in Tokyo (i.e., American warships in their inland sea between Shikoku, Kyushu, and Honshu; the oil and steel embargo, and the British model of expanision). The Rape of Nanking, albeit terrible, is nowhere near as exploitive or onerous as what Emperor Chin (Mainland China’s First) did to the 250,000 – 1 million slaves who built and died making that “Great Wall”, or Great Britain’s Opium Wars birthed from purposeful introduction and promotion of the drug to the Chinese, or the U.S. twice-over push on Cherokee land and the eventual Trail of Tears. What I am saying is that a good documentary forces us to recognize that failure, destruction, and tyranny do not happen overnight, and are not exclusive to a particular people. Indeed, there is not a major civilization or people group on the planet that has a perfect record. Stick to the facts, reduce the commentary, and let me as the viewer measure the information out against other records. Overall, the DVD is worth what you pay; it does have merit, and I would still recommend it as part of several different views on the war.

This documentary’s strong appeal is the historical footage it contains but as a documentary, not very much different than the others of the same kind I have seen before.