One Man's Justice - Hardcover

Akira Yoshimura is the prize-winning author of twenty novels and short-story collections, many of them bestsellers in Japan. One Man's Justice is his third novel translated into English.

Mark Ealey translated Yoshimura's Shipwrecks, among other titles. He is a professor of Japanese language and modern history at Christ Church Polytechnic in New Zealand.

The third of Yoshimura's works to be translated into English (see, e.g., On Parole, LJ 2/15/00), this work of historical fiction takes place in Japan shortly after World War II. In it, readers meet Kiyohara Takuya, a man who had served as a Japanese officer in the Imperial Army and is now on the run for his involvement with the death of an American POW. With money from his family, Takuya goes into hiding, creating for himself a new identity in another town. As Higa Seiichi, Takuya finds a job with a kindly employer and slowly begins anew. However, Takuya's mind is never at rest in this predominantly narrative piece, as Yoshimura describes his constant emotional and psychological battles with his past and his ongoing fear of being captured. The novel opens up a bit slowly, though readers interested in detailed descriptions of wartime operations may find it quite riveting. The climactic ending (which sheds light on the title of the work) seems a bit rushed, with Yoshimura covering the span from 1949 to 1957 in the last ten pages of the novel. Nevertheless, this work is a well-written one that pays attention to characterization and detail. Readers enjoying historical war novels and light suspense are likely to appreciate this title. For Asian literature collections and larger public libraries. Shirley N. Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA
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