The Emperor's General
   James Webb
  1999 Broadway Books, NY USA
   ISBN: 0767900766


As a naive aide-de-camp, Jay Marsh basked in the reflected glory of MacArthur's return to the Philippines & his rule over Japan. Old Jay Marsh is back in Manila to remember & atone for his cowardice when that war-torn world of treachery & arrogance opened before his young eyes.

What an amazing vision of the Pacific Theater recoupment is this fictional memoir of America's advance on Japan & the ensuing peacetime transformation. Seen through the memories of a non-combatant go-between of the upper echelons of military & cultural power this novel was both breathtaking & predictable.

I found myself rivetted, absorbing page after page, chapter after chapter of this deeply satisfying underbelly view of great men, great cultures, great deceit & great gullibility.

For some reason we Occidentals have been unwilling to fathom the Oriental mind & how it views life. Thus a Japanese ambassador placates an American President hours before Pearl Harbor is attacked. In The Emperor's General we have the Lord Privy Seal indulging, inveigling & corrupting the young ears of an American general.

It does, somehow, make MacArthur all the more human that he too was hoodwinked, betrayed & thwarted - after all he did grow up along the Pacific Rim & counted the Philippines as the home of his heart & soul, prided himself on knowing the Oriental mind. We all know what pride preceeds.

That the general's way of looking at life & of treating people rubs off on his young aide didn't surprise me at all. It is the way of things. Naturally Jay Marsh, while appalled & incredulous at the behavior he witnesses by men at the seat of power, will be lured into the same expediency, when push comes to shove.

That Jay Marsh survived & went on to prosper in a rich & patriotic life makes his return to the place of his greatest bliss & moral morass, all the more poignant, maybe. He finally gets to redeem all the wonder, the joy & the loyalty he discarded when his hero's star imploded. Except, like mentor - like student, he ultimately loses his heart while gaining his soul.

A rich, demanding & vivid inside view of a pivotal era! Well done!

More from James Webb: Fields of Fire; A Country Such as This; A Sense of Honor & Something to Die For.
(11/07/99)

Rebecca