Defending the Enemy: Justice for the WWII Japanese War Criminals Reviewed By Lois Henderson of Bookpleasures.com
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Lois C. Henderson
Reviewer Lois C. Henderson: Lois is a freelance academic editor and back-of-book indexer, who spends most of her free time compiling word search puzzles for tourism and educative purposes. Her puzzles are available HERE and HERE Her Twitter account (@LoisCHenderson) mainly focusses on the toponymy of British place names. Please feel welcome to contact her with any feedback at LoisCourtenayHenderson@gmail.com.
By Lois C. Henderson
Published on December 13, 2010
Publisher: Bascom Hill Books
ISBN: 978-1-935456-03-2
Defending the Enemy: Justice for the WWII Japanese War Criminals provides insight into the background to trials about which the average American, according to Fischel, knows very little.
Author: Elaine B. Fischel
Publisher: Bascom Hill Books
ISBN: 978-1-935456-03-2
Click Here To Purchase Defending the Enemy: Justice for the WWII Japanese War Criminals
Elaine Fischel is a remarkable woman—not only did she singlehandedly write a memoir of her post-wartime experiences at the age of 90, but she even currently has her eye on writing another about her fifty-seven years in legal practice. As a young woman, she had aspirations to be a lawyer, so when World War II came to a close and she was offered the opportunity to do a six-month stint in Japan, using the skills that she had acquired working as a legal secretary in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, in the Tokyo trials of the deposed leaders of Japan for war crimes, she grabbed at the opportunity to do so. Little did she know that she would land up working for the American Defense Team of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), else she might not have considered going, such was her dislike for the Japanese at the time. After all, most Americans were hell bent at that stage on exacting revenge on a nation that had perpetrated so many cruelties against the Allied forces.
Having to accept whatever role was assigned to her when she arrived in Japan, she had no option but to assume the duties of secretary to the Defense team, a role that she filled for a period five times as long as that anticipated—two-and-a-half years. Acting as a liaison between the accused and the administration of the time, she found herself working at close quarters with those whom she had come to despise during the course of the War. Fischel, with her redoubtable spirit, transformed the experience into a life-changing career move—not only did she come to appreciate that the accused were mainly family men, who had relatives and friends who cared deeply about them, but, in between periods of intense 12- to 14-hour long days, she managed to explore parts of the countryside that left her with a lifelong appreciation for the natural beauty of the country, despite much of the urban landscape having been devastated by precision bombing.
Defending the Enemy: Justice for the WWII Japanese War Criminals provides insight into the background to trials about which the average American, according to Fischel, knows very little. It is a story that deserves very much to be told, and one that can only deepen one’s appreciation for what it means to be an American—as she asks, which other nation would have gone to such extraordinary lengths to defend the rights of those who had done one so much unprovoked harm. The memoir follows the trials as they took place in chronological sequence, providing personal glimpses into the lives of those involved. The work is amply illustrated with black-and-white photos, and contains numerous shots of her letters home to her mother, as well as of newspaper articles from the time. Defending the Enemy should make for interesting reading for any history enthusiast, as well as for anyone who is interested in ongoing Japanese-American relations.
Click Here To Purchase Defending the Enemy: Justice for the WWII Japanese War Criminals
Author: Elaine B. Fischel
ISBN: 978-1-935456-03-2
Defending the Enemy: Justice for the WWII Japanese War Criminals provides insight into the background to trials about which the average American, according to Fischel, knows very little.
Author: Elaine B. Fischel
Publisher: Bascom Hill Books
ISBN: 978-1-935456-03-2
Click Here To Purchase Defending the Enemy: Justice for the WWII Japanese War Criminals
Elaine Fischel is a remarkable woman—not only did she singlehandedly write a memoir of her post-wartime experiences at the age of 90, but she even currently has her eye on writing another about her fifty-seven years in legal practice. As a young woman, she had aspirations to be a lawyer, so when World War II came to a close and she was offered the opportunity to do a six-month stint in Japan, using the skills that she had acquired working as a legal secretary in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, in the Tokyo trials of the deposed leaders of Japan for war crimes, she grabbed at the opportunity to do so. Little did she know that she would land up working for the American Defense Team of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), else she might not have considered going, such was her dislike for the Japanese at the time. After all, most Americans were hell bent at that stage on exacting revenge on a nation that had perpetrated so many cruelties against the Allied forces.
Having to accept whatever role was assigned to her when she arrived in Japan, she had no option but to assume the duties of secretary to the Defense team, a role that she filled for a period five times as long as that anticipated—two-and-a-half years. Acting as a liaison between the accused and the administration of the time, she found herself working at close quarters with those whom she had come to despise during the course of the War. Fischel, with her redoubtable spirit, transformed the experience into a life-changing career move—not only did she come to appreciate that the accused were mainly family men, who had relatives and friends who cared deeply about them, but, in between periods of intense 12- to 14-hour long days, she managed to explore parts of the countryside that left her with a lifelong appreciation for the natural beauty of the country, despite much of the urban landscape having been devastated by precision bombing.
Defending the Enemy: Justice for the WWII Japanese War Criminals provides insight into the background to trials about which the average American, according to Fischel, knows very little. It is a story that deserves very much to be told, and one that can only deepen one’s appreciation for what it means to be an American—as she asks, which other nation would have gone to such extraordinary lengths to defend the rights of those who had done one so much unprovoked harm. The memoir follows the trials as they took place in chronological sequence, providing personal glimpses into the lives of those involved. The work is amply illustrated with black-and-white photos, and contains numerous shots of her letters home to her mother, as well as of newspaper articles from the time. Defending the Enemy should make for interesting reading for any history enthusiast, as well as for anyone who is interested in ongoing Japanese-American relations.
Click Here To Purchase Defending the Enemy: Justice for the WWII Japanese War Criminals