Peter Wynn

Apart from the technical issues of calling the Japanese Prime Minister from 1929 until 1932 Inukai Takeshi when his name was Inukai Tsuyoshi, and calling John Curtin's successor in Australia Benjamin Chifley when his name was Joseph Benedict Chifley, and what could have been a typographical error, of Ipachi Miyamoto and Ipachi Mayamoto, and confusion as to whether he was a civilian or a warrant officer, reliance upon documents that do not support its cause (James McKay's book was actually written for a group of POWs seeking compensation from the Japanese Government for the war, rather than exonerating an innocent man) and a suggestion that James Godwin was writing after the fact, rather than at the time, this book attempts to legitimately cast doubt on the soundness of Takuma Nishimura's conviction and the justice of his hanging. As is often the case, however, some senior figures escape justice, the allusions to Unit 731 spring to mind here, because those in higher authority view them as more useful to the reforms that they want than they would be punished. One thing that this book fails to mention, in fairness to James Godwin, is that, yes, I've heard him talk about his time as a POW in less than savoury terms regarding the Japanese, BUT James Godwin not only worked in Asia after he left the New Zealand Armed Forces, but, in 1962, he married a Chinese-Malaysian woman, and that marriage ended with his death in May, 1995, which for a man who supposedly still carried hatred that he planned to enact revenge from 40 years later, would have been impossible. Furthermore, another thing that causes the book to lose some credibility is the author claiming to have no position on the war crimes trials, and attempting to prove that Takuma Nishimura was innocent, yet refers to all the executed Japanese by the N word that rhymes with dip. I do believe that there would have been dissenting opinions, as the author alludes to, and that the soundness of Nishimura's conviction is questionable in that Ben Hackney supposedly wasn't in court to identify Nishimura, and the fact that Seizaburo Fujita's fate was unknown (well, you would have thought that if he'd confessed to it, the authorities would have placed him under arrest for further questioning).

I had the pleasure of being taught by Dr Nagata when I was a university student and she was a lecturer I gelled with as she was an historian as well. I really enjoyed reading the book and it showed the injustices being meted out at that time and should serve as a lesson for today with Australia having failed to learn from the lessons of the past and the worst of human nature.