At last, a simple but moving book about the violent soul of America that almost any educated Japanese can read in the original English. This is a war story full of short tales told in short sentences. The writing is plain, the vocabulary as undemanding as the people it tells us about. There is even a dictionary of '60s' slang.
This book pulls no punches because the American military didn't. Not in the 1960s. "I was beaten up by two drill instructors one night while everybody was asleep. They took me into their room and beat me up, for what I don't know; they did it routinely." This was how the U.S. Marine Corps welcomed David Hakata to boot camp on his way to Vietnam.
If you are teacher and looking for a "real" book to set your favorite class on fire, Toshio Whelchel has written a textbook for you and your students. This is an oral history about drugs and music, war and hate, race and silence. It is all as simple and direct as a fist thrust in your mouth.