GHOSTS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD - WALTER HATCH

My favorite thing about this book is probably the format and set-up. The author set out a very interesting yet specific question, gives important background and set-up before answering it with a well-considered theory in about 150 pages. I wish more books would be set up this way, a sort of long essay with a real opinion and point of view. I don’t mean that as a backhanded compliment, to say my favorite thing about the book is the format, this book was genuinely interesting and Hatch seems like a smart guy, just that I liked how focused it was. This book seeks to explain why Germany is integrated into Europe and seems well-liked, according to polls in Poland and France, while Japan is not thought of this way by Korea and China, despite both countries having committed horrendous crimes within living memory in these places. As someone who lives in Japan, and doesn’t really care about Europe or Germany, I’m more interested in the Japanese part of this equation, though the question as a whole is interesting. Hatch puts the emphasis on institutions like NATO and the EU for integrating Germany back into the greater Euro-sphere, while the lack of such institutions in NE Asia has hindered Japan. He points out the fact that this is the result of the cold war and America’s racism, in that they care more about a YT Europe than Asia. I obviously think he could have gone harder on the USA. In the aftermath of the war, we managed to effectively build the 4th reich and create the actual East Asia Co-Prosperity sphere. What happened to all countries in this book is all in service of that goal. Likewise, I think he downplays the isolationist instinct in Japanese society. True, they did try to build an empire in the early 20th century. Before that they tried in the late 1500’s, but otherwise, their history is very isolated and places a great deal of emphasis on local matters. Even now they have the strongest passport in the world and one of the lowest rates of passport ownership. It’s also true that most Japanese, at least when I speak to them, so take this with a huge grain of salt, don’t really understand or accept the extent of the atrocities they committed. Now, this is also true of Americans and the British, to name two non-Asian examples, but the Germans are very big on apologizing for the Holocaust (which has its own function in on-going genocide machine, tho this is a topic for another time) and I think Hatch underplays how much that matters. Anyway, an interesting little book to think about, I’ll be in Korea next week so I’ll see how this dynamic feels on the ground.