Rating: 
Summary: They Got away With It!
Review: James Webb's novel is based on the fictional story of one of General Mac Arthur's aids. One Captian Jay Marsh.Based immediatly after the liberation of the Phillipines and then the defeat of Japan. Webb takes us on a journey of mystery and intruge that still surrounds the favourable peace terms offered to Japan. It is known that Mac Arthur favoured a hurriedly established democratic government in Japan, mainly to stave off the threat of Communisim that was slowly overhauling the Asian mainland. Webb deals with this issue in the dramatic style he is known for. I could continue but that would spoil the story.
Rating:
Summary: They Got away With It!
Review: James Webb's novel is based on the fictional story of one of General Mac Arthur's aids. One Captian Jay Marsh. Based immediatly after the liberation of the Phillipines and then the defeat of Japan. Webb takes us on a journey of mystery and intruge that still surrounds the favourable peace terms offered to Japan. It is known that Mac Arthur favoured a hurriedly established democratic government in Japan, mainly to stave off the threat of Communisim that was slowly overhauling the Asian mainland. Webb deals with this issue in the dramatic style he is known for. I could continue but that would spoil the story.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-written historical fiction
Review: Jay Marsh is a young, idealistic, Army Captain who has been assigned to Douglas McArthur's staff. We follow him from the time of McArthur's return to liberate the Phillipines in early 1945 and through the beginning of the peacetime Japanese occupation. Jay is privy to all of McArthur's inside politics and in-fighting, and in the beginning he finds it heady stuff. However Jay finds that the power he weilds in McArthur's name soon disillusion him and threaten to ruin his future with his beautiful Filipina fiancee. Mr. Webb is an excellent writer. His sense of place is very strong and he easily convinces us we're right there as the battle for Leyte is being fought. It's also obvious he knows Japanese culture. The historical background seems to be very well done. If he's taken liberties with history I'm not aware of it. If you like historical fiction, especially as it applies to WWII I'd recommend this book. It will give you insights into an era that's usually not covered in great detail. It's also an entertaining story.
Rating:
Summary: Honor and intrique, a fascinating look at Japan & MacArthur
Review: Jim Webb has weaved a fascinating novel around the real history of the Japanese occupation, MacArthur's brilliance, his vanity, weaknesses, palace intrigues, and within it all gives us a love story that deals with ethics and morals and touches the heart. But the greatest gift that Webb delivers in this book is to return honor to Japannese General Yamishita, The Tiger of Malaya, whose "murder" by a MacArthur controlled kangaroo court has laid in the backwash of American history for 50 years. This story alone is worth the price and the time to read it. The Emperor's General should be required reading in every high school in America and in every law school ethics course. The story told is outstanding. And Jim Webb's Marine's sense of Honor is at the root. Ray L. Walker
Rating:
Summary: Honor, Duty -- Power
Review: Look! I am only a reader, not a critic, but this book is a real page turner, an actual pot boiler, a true story that you can't put down until you finish it. Okay, that's my critique of the book as a novel. Now, for the history side: the reader is going to learn a lot about the Pacific campaign, the Occupation of Japan, Douglas MacArthur as General and as Supreme Commander, and General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the Tiger of Malaysia. About twenty years ago I had heard this rarely told story from a friend, Cap't Milton Sandberg, who played a part in the trial of Yamashita as one of the defense counsel. I can report that James Webb's account of the trial and what appeared to be MacArthur's motives follows what Milton Sandberg told me. This is a side of MacArthur that teaches the reader a lot about leadership and powerful authority.
Rating:
Summary: A novel that reads like history
Review: Not everyone went home to the USA from the Pacific when World War II ended. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur went on to become the virtual ruler of Japan from 1945 until the Korean War broke out and focused his attention on other areas of Asia. This story is the story of Jay Marsh, a minor member of MacArthur's staff at the invasion of the Philippines and his rise in the pecking order that was MacArthur's staff. Marsh begins a relationship with a woman he meets in the Philippines and while professing love for her goes on to Japan and gradually becomes immersed in the politics and history of being at the right hand of MacArthur. Mr. Webb offers us an exceptional book that is hard to detect fiction from fact, the two are so seamlessly meshed. Marsh finds himself, through his ability to speak Japanese, a companion of Emperor Hirohito's closest advisor and a witness to the dramatic meeting between MacArthur and the Emperor of Japan. There is a price that is exacted from Marsh for his close proximity to the unfolding of the drama that was the American occupation of Japan in 1945-46. Mr. Webb's treatment of the trial of General Yamashita is absorbing and sobering and gives a rather different picture of MacArthur. This is a book that I didn't want to put down. I heartily recommend it to anyone with an interest in Japanese-American relations following World War II.
Rating: 
Summary: A historical novel atypical of James Webb
Review: Not his best work to date. Slow uneventful story profiling the life of one of Macarthur's aides during WWII. Military actions, a love story and lessons learned for the main character. Don't start reading Webb with this - try A Sense of Honor.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece which propels the reader back in time.
Review: Not only does Mr. Webb accurately portray MacArthur's historically documented megalomania in the book, he masterfully transports the reader back through time and gently sets him or her down in the Republic of the Philippines and Japan at the close of World War II, where they then observe the making of history. Rather than being merely a reader of this novel, one who absorbs its pages becomes a participant in the recapture of the Philippine Islands and Japan's defeat. A must-read for all!
Rating:
Summary: The Emperor's General
Review: Outstanding. I listened to the audio version as I was driving through the mid-west this week. I was often spell bound. Many passages are profound. I got choked up two or three times. Best book I've read/heard since Memoirs of a Geisha. Can't wait to get my next James Webb book.
Rating:
Summary: Ha! Surprised I liked it so much
Review: Seems to me that the people who would read this book are white, middle-class conservative men with some link to the military--sorry about the generalization if it seems unfair. Moreover, the book is written in that unsophisticated prose style that I usually associate with popular consumer fiction, not "real" literature. But I thoroughly enjoyed this work and was surprised at Webb's historical accuracy and addressing of themes in US-Japan relationships--unpleasant facts that have only been written about in recent scholarly books about collusive ties between the US and post-War Japan (cf. Dower's "Embracing Defeat" and the new Hirohito biography). Well, seems like Webb and others in the US military are well aware of MacArthur's personal and political faults as well (or maybe just the Marines). Happened to run across an obituary in the New York Times of one of the US defense attorneys of the wrongfully indicted Japanese general, which verified every one of Webb's narrative details! Gen. MacArthur's character comes to life and his arrogance is inextricably linked to the way he established US military policy toward East Asia's Pacific Crescent, a restructuring of Japan's own WWII Economic Co-Prosperity Sphere imperialism, but this time American style. The prose is smoothly-paced and highly readable; I whipped through this book in no time. As someone who has no connection to the world of men like Webb (whom I assumed represents the military elite who served in Vietnam and came to public attention in the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal), I was not only pleasantly surprised, but extremely impressed. I think this is an engaging, intriguing piece of work. Webb should be commended for producing a fascinating narrative that will stimulate and satisfy the minds of both lay reader and history buff alike.
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