I finished reading four books recently that may be of interest to a few members, and which I can recommend.

The Destroying Angel: “The Rifle-Musket as the First Modern Infantry Weapon,” Brett Gibbons (n.p., 2019).

As the description states, it’s a history of the weapon that evolved from the smoothbore musket, but with a rifled barrel that gave it much farther effective range. It’s a somewhat thin volume, evidently self-published by the author and somewhat repetitious in places, but I found its history of the weapon in the 19th century well worth the read. In addition to the discussion of how rifled weapons became adopted by various countries and their effectiveness such as in the Crimean War, the author explains at length why its proper use required effective training programs. The last was evidently prompted as a critical response to other historians’ claims that during the American Civil War the rifle-musket was no more effective than smoothbore weapons would have been.

Social Justice Fallacies, Thomas Sowell (New York: Basic Books, 2023).

Some of us here are familiar with Dr. Sowell as a conservative commentator about economic and social issues. This book explores in more detail many of the issues he has addressed in other venues. What I found particularly interesting was his discussion of the highly elitist and racist roots of so-called “progressive” movements.

Target Tehran: “How Israel is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination—and Secret Diplomacy—to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East,” Yonah Jeremy Bob and Ilan Evyatar (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2023).

As the descriptive title indicates, this is a history of Israel’s efforts to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon by various available means, as well as developing closer ties with Middle Eastern Arab countries. I was expecting (hoping for?) more details about how various military and other actions were carried out against Iran, but of course much of that would be unavailable for disclosure. There is more information about Israel’s diplomatic efforts in the region, including attitudes and actions of the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. Most of all that I was completely unfamiliar with, so even though the narrative was a bit dry at times, I found it very worthwhile.

The Other Nuremberg: “The Untold Story of the Tokyo War Crimes Trials,” Arnold C. Brackman (New York: William Morrow Co., 1987).

This work is one of those unexpected treasures that I sometimes discover by chance, and of this most recent four I’ve finished, it was the most informative and interesting. I have had an abiding interest in World War II, and although I’m more familiar with the war in Europe than in Asia and the Pacific, I’ve still read countless accounts about the latter. This one nevertheless filled in a lot of blanks about a topic that most histories don’t mention at all, much less explore in any detail.

I was initially hesitant about purchasing the book based on its reviews that said it was about the trial of (a tiny fraction of) the Japanese war criminals—albeit the ones at the top. After all, how interesting can an account of a trial be? Fortunately I was wrong and purchased the book used, and am glad I did. The book is indeed about the trial, but it covers much more, including such things as why the emperor Hirohito was never a defendant. As one example, General MacArthur is often identified as the source of the pressure to avoid holding Hirohito responsible for his role in the war, but the book points out that whatever MacArthur’s views were, the decision was not his alone, and was supported by guidance from Washington.

Other tidbits that I had not been aware of were that Pearl Harbor was not the first attack against Western powers in the Pacific area, and that that alone refutes the recurring claim that the Japanese assaults would have okay in accordance with the commonly-accepted rules of war if the famous last minute communique to the US State Department had been delivered before the Pearl assault began. And in a related vein, there was a lot of controversy at the time about the idea first raised at Nürnberg that “waging an aggressive war” was a war crime in itself, and the book discusses that at some length. Although that crime was charged against many defendants in both trials, something else I didn’t know was that Rudolf Hess was the only person who was convicted of just that one charge alone.

The book of course goes into a lot of detail about the trial, down to the attitudes of the eleven judges appointed by the various countries that were victims of Japanese aggression. Another interesting point was that the Indian judge voted to acquit all defendants of all charges, and it was revealed that he actually thought that the war the Japanese started was actually a good thing because it was the first break in the hold of European colonialism over the region.

As noted, the book was published in 1987, and the author stated in the introduction that it had taken a quarter century to write. Most notably, he had attended the trial himself as a young journalist, and later had been able to personally interview many of the principals who were involved. I note that another book about the trial has been published very recently, and it will be interesting to compare it to this one. Although I know a lot about the war, I’m always eager to learn more, and this book did that for me.

Thank you for the reviews. The Other Nuremberg and Target Tehran sound especially interesting to me.