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 "The gaijin is always 'It.'" November 20, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The days leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor form the basis of this thriller focused on an American who lived in Japan from birth to his late teens, then returned ten years later--after the Nanking Massacre but before the United States entered the war. The son of missionaries who often left him in the care of others while they traveled, Harry Niles, as an adolescent, always considered himself more Japanese than American, though he was often tormented, and sometimes even tortured, by his Japanese peers for being different. When he embarrasses his parents by flouting their strict morality, he is hauled back to the United States in disgrace.
In the ensuing decade at "home," Harry learns how to manipulate others, becoming successful professionally by bending, if not ignoring, the rules. When he returns to Japan, he is distrusted by his fellow countrymen, while, at the same time, equally distrusted by his Japanese counterparts. Owning a nightclub and living with Michiko, a woman whose self-serving nature matches his own, Harry reconnects with some of his acquaintances from high school, some of whom are now in the Japanese armed forces, and finds himself dealing with powerful yakuza figures, Nazi businessmen, and the confused diplomatic community. When he becomes privy to information which suggests an attack on Pearl Harbor is imminent, Harry tries to prevent war while protecting his own neck.
Filled with realistic details which reflect a great deal of research into the political and cultural background of the period, the novel uses Harry's split loyalties to show Japan's belief that its desire to control the Pacific was no different from England's control of its colonies during the Empire. Showing the Japanese point of view, the author provides action scenes reflecting life in Tokyo for people ranging from Prime Minister Tojo to geishas and prostitutes, and the international colony of businessmen. Scenes of everyday life ring true, not just in terms of physical details but in terms of the cultural milieu of the characters.
Harry is not an admirable character, either to the Americans or to the Japanese, but he, unlike many of the people with whom he associates, makes no pretenses of being anything other than who and what he is. Suspense develops relative to Harry's predicaments, a necessary structural device since readers already know the historical outcome. The final confrontation between Harry and members of the Japanese military, however, is less realistic than one would expect and the introduction of samurai values into the scene seems gratuitous and even trite, an easy way out of a difficult problem of plot. Still, the novel is exciting, well-researched, and imaginative, another one of Cruz Smith's carefully written historical thrillers. Mary Whipple
 Reminded me of 'Casablanca' July 10, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As another review points out, Harry Niles, can be compared to Rick. Another influence might possibly be the true story of Richard Sorge, the Russian spy, who lived in Tokyo and also befriended both Germans and Japanese, but with a hidden agenda. The main adversary of Harry Niles is Colonel Ishigami, another great bad guy created by the author.
For more information about Tokyo around that time, read 'Stalin's Spy', by Robert Whymant.
Harry's run October 2, 2005
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
Harry Niles is rarely at rest. Life has offered too many distractions for him to pause and reflect. Cruz Smith has drawn him as a man seemingly devoid of values - opportunist, womanizer, manipulator. If Harry was truly that simple, we would be unlikely to follow him through his complex life or along the twists of Tokyo's back alleys. The son of Baptist missionaries, his childhood allowed him opportunity to become virtually Japanese. He played "the 47 Ronin" with schoolmates, keeps his living quarters impeccably Japanese, when even his neighbours maintain a "Western" room, has a Japanese lover and is fluent in the language. He even addresses a businessmen's club extolling Japan's desire to oust Western imperialists from Asia. But he knows war is imminent, and he's keen to know the initial target. It's his mission.Smith presents a story deeply researched and fluently expressed. There's never a dull moment, even during the flashbacks to Harry's youth. He becomes a hustler early, attracted to the "floating world" of Tokyo's theatre, art and gambling circles. These many facets of underworld life gain him entrance to a wide cross-section of a society distrustful of "gaijins" - foreign barbarians. Harry encounters Tojo, plays poker with Yamamoto, watches the con of a scientist looking for military support, and money. On the other hand, there's the nagging sensation that Harry has another agenda. He has suffered much at the hands of Japanese, and will endure more if war comes. He tries to maintain his "cool" even at the expense of dignity. The modern "thriller" is only mildly concerned with characterisation or even plot. Harry becomes Cruz Smith's vehicle for showing off his research. That's not a fault, but the unprepared reader can be overwhelmed. Smith has detailed prewar Japanese life, both civilian and military, high and low, to an amazing degree. He understands the theatre, woodblock art production, military attitudes and the impact of America's embargoes on pre-war Japan. In a surprise flash, Cruz Smith even dredges up Archbishop James Ussher's pinpointing the date of the onset of the Biblical Flood. He uses this point to give Harry the edge in a gambling dispute. Now that's research! Books such as this are an escape. You tuck away your reservations about what's plausible and let yourself sink into the narrative. Turning pages to encounter the next episode, you are caught up in events right along with the protagonist. If the writer is skilled, as Cruz Smith certainly is, distractions are rebuffed as you follow the adventure. Only after the last page is closed do you sit back to consider whether the book reflects any level of reality. No matter. If the author has kept your mind captive through his tale, he's accomplished what he set out to do. Sink yourself into this book. Ignore the little quirks of impossibility and enjoy a fine story. It's well written and exciting stuff. Never mind that you know how it will turn out. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Complex and Compelling July 17, 2005
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
On the eve of the Japanese sneak attack against the U.S. at Pearl Harbor, Harry Niles, a roguish expat American adventurer, who had actually been raised in Japan and grown up in a near feral state in the mean streets of the seamy side of Tokyo, finds himself still stuck in that country, angling to get out. All around him the people he knows, both Japanese and foreign, are engaged in an elaborate dance, fearing and expecting war but hoping against hope that they'll be proved wrong. Martin Cruz Smith does a wonderful job of conjuring up this lost pre-war world of depravity, dissolution and Japanese honor, and of creating a sense of what it might have been like to be completely enmeshed in that culture, so alien to us and yet so familiar to his protagonist, Niles. The book actually opens with the young Harry, son of Southern Baptist missionaries and now a Tokyo school boy, fleeing from his schoolmates in an eerie game of 47 Ronin which puts Harry on the receiving end of his friends' relentless blows. As in the best novels, the seeds of the rest of the tale are all found here, for the opening scene will eerily reach its denoument, years later, as Harry struggles for his life amidst a militant Japanese society bent on establishing itself in the modern world. In the meantime, Harry is tied to a lover, a bohemian Japanese woman he barely understands, as he philanders with the British ambassador's wife and struggles to stay afloat amidst the intrigue of competing Japanese factions. The adherents of the Japanese navy and army are in seeming conflict, despite the superficial loyalty to the emperor they share, while the Tokyo police are shadowing him closely. At the same time, a skilled Japanese swordsman, Colonel Ishigami, has returned from the Chinese campaign intent on taking vengeance on Harry for a loss of face he caused him some years before in China where Harry had been doing a little blackmarketeering. There's a secret plan to develop synthetic oil and a question of who may have been stealing oil shipments to the island nation that Harry must decipher for some of the parties and all the while he's got to nail down a way to get out of the country, without giving his exit plans away to a government that wants to keep him there and a lover who threatens to kill him if he goes. This is a deep and complex tale and one that is compelling from beginning to end. For a first class adventure, in the old film noir Humprhey Bogart mold, you won't find better. I don't usually offer glowing praise about the books I read like this, but when they hold me to them and keep calling me back till late in the evening, what else can I do? As an author of a very different sort of adventure, The King of Vinland's Saga, about vikings in North America in the eleventh century, I know how hard it can be to keep a story moving with this kind of power. Martin Cruz Smith is an author with much to teach and well worth reading. SWM
Between Two Times and Two Worlds May 3, 2004
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
Perhaps no American memory is as deeply engraved as the one showing Japanese bombers destroying most of the Pacific fleet in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In the background is a memory of seemingly dishonest negotiations with Japanese diplomats in Washington, D.C. while the Japanese fleet got ready for its sneak attack.But equally strong memories must exist among Japanese who were in Japan at the time, as their nation was in the process of starting the great Pacific war. Martin Cruz Smith does something that's almost impossible. He takes us to the Tokyo of December 6, 1941 and lets us perceive what was going on in the minds of the Japanese as their Imperial expansion began its final, unsuccessful phase. Even more remarkable, he creates a character who's part American (by birth, tradition and family heritage) and part Japanese (by experience, friendship and preference). Inevitably, readers will be reminded of Casablanca's Rick waiting in Paris as the Nazis march in, planning to catch the last train with his new love. But our Harry is planning to get on the last plane out instead, and alone. He's got some complications to deal with . . . including an angry mistress who doesn't want to be left behind, the Japanese authorities looking into irregularities, a samurai with a grudge, and criminal interests on the look out for themselves. Like Rick, he's a saloonkeeper with an eye to the main chance . . . as well as a keen sense of survival. You'll see a seamier side of Tokyo than most tourists did, so the book is not for those with delicate tastes. You probably won't read a book this year that will shift your orientation as much as this one. The story's fascinating, the culture's strange but attractive, and the moment will be burned in your mind . . . just like the Day of Infamy itself. If you liked Gorky Park, you will probably find many of the same sorts of appeal here as we see the all-to-human side of our once bitter enemy . . . and now firm ally. After you finish this story, I suggest that you think about what benefits countries would gain from having more citizens who find themselves able to operate and live comfortably in either land. How can you become one of those citizens? What benefits can you provide? Sayonara.
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