The Path of Infinite Sorrow: The Japanese on the Kokoda Track

The book offer rather detailed narration of many battles taken place on the Kokoda Trail. However, there are also a lot of repetitions and sometimes making readers confusing in particular the geography and timeline of events. There is no clear explanation to some crucial events such as why the Japanese has to retreat so close to the target. Reading the book it seems that the Japanese ground soldiers can still go on but was ordered to retreat by the superior command. The book gives the impression of be-littling Australian soldiers. The book describe their retreat and shortcoming without telling the fighting on various stages of defence. On reading the book Allied soldiers seems to have no tactic or are of poor quality and winning only by luck. The epilogue is white-washing of the Japanese military. The hinting of the use of atomic bomb as war crime is appalling. This is equating a tactical act of war to the atrocity of Japanese soldiers and administration on civilian and prisoners of war. This chapter is typical of Japanese denial of war crime committed during the WWII. In all this book is readable especially if the penultimate chapter is omitted.