What do you think?
Rate this book
The Path of Infinite Sorrow: The Japanese on the Kokoda Track
The story of the bloody Kokoda campaign, told for the first time through the personal experiences of the Japanese soldiers.
'We were all skin and bone, as if our stomachs were stuck to the inside wall of our back.'
Two armies, Japanese and Australian, each in turn pushing the other back along a muddy, precipitous track over the mountainous spine of New Guinea. Few prisoners were taken, most were shot. War conventions were routinely flouted, by both sides. Troops were reduced to a primal level, such were the inhuman conditions in which battles were waged. This was the Kokoda campaign of 1942.
The Australian experience of Kokoda has been told often and told well. The Japanese, however, remain the shadowy enemy lurking in the dense undergrowth, better known for atrocities than their participation in battle. The Path of Infinite Sorrow tells for the first time the story of the campaign from the Japanese point of view. Based on personal accounts and the recollections of six Japanese soldiers, captured diaries and unit, this powerful re-examination of Kokoda brings a new perspective to one of the most brutal conflicts in Australian war history.
Craig Collie has been a television producer for over 35 years. Hajime Marutani is a translator-interpreter and was a researcher for the Australian War Memorial's Australia-Japan Research Project. They met when working on the production team of Beyond Kokoda, the award-winning documentary series screened on The History Channel in Australia. Craig and Hajime live with their families in Sydney and Tokyo respectively.
'We were all skin and bone, as if our stomachs were stuck to the inside wall of our back.'
Two armies, Japanese and Australian, each in turn pushing the other back along a muddy, precipitous track over the mountainous spine of New Guinea. Few prisoners were taken, most were shot. War conventions were routinely flouted, by both sides. Troops were reduced to a primal level, such were the inhuman conditions in which battles were waged. This was the Kokoda campaign of 1942.
The Australian experience of Kokoda has been told often and told well. The Japanese, however, remain the shadowy enemy lurking in the dense undergrowth, better known for atrocities than their participation in battle. The Path of Infinite Sorrow tells for the first time the story of the campaign from the Japanese point of view. Based on personal accounts and the recollections of six Japanese soldiers, captured diaries and unit, this powerful re-examination of Kokoda brings a new perspective to one of the most brutal conflicts in Australian war history.
Craig Collie has been a television producer for over 35 years. Hajime Marutani is a translator-interpreter and was a researcher for the Australian War Memorial's Australia-Japan Research Project. They met when working on the production team of Beyond Kokoda, the award-winning documentary series screened on The History Channel in Australia. Craig and Hajime live with their families in Sydney and Tokyo respectively.
350 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2009
6 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 11, 2018
I’ve tried to read this one several times and failed. I’ve just made it about as deep as I can and have to say Mr’s Collie and Marutani have a terrible historical book here. The words of the veterans are worth reading, the problem becomes the writing of these two gentlemen. Fact check was not strong on their list of things to do.
I’ll open with Mr Collie and Mr. Marutan are extremely biased in my opinion using. Many times in this book they use limited Western abuses to justify/whitewash abuses by Japanese Forces. Gentlemen, get over it. They did abuses on a grander scale than what Australian or American forces did.
I mentioned fact checking, here’s a few examples from the book.
Page 26: One hundred and eighty-nine bombers, torpedo planes, and fighters from the carrier Akagi wrecked havoc on America’s Pacific Fleet as it lay in the harbour at Pearl City, Hawaii.
Page 26.: this was followed an hour later by a second wave from the carrier Zuikaku.
Pages 44-46 describe the atrocities committed on the retreating Australians from Rabaul whitewashing/minimizing the atrocities and why they were done.
Page 49-50 describes the Japanese landing at Lae/Salamaua. The writers claim 10 aircraft lost by allies also that airstrips in Lae, Salamaua, and Wau were used to bomb Rabaul earlier. 1 US Navy aircraft was lost countering the invasion. Wau was used later in the war by the allies, same for Salamaua.
Page 52, authors claim raids on Lae and Rabaul by B-26s highly limited capability. The B-26s had just started operations during the dates the authors cite and for raids to Rabaul were limited to 6 aircraft.
Page 64: authors make claim of 100 Australian warplanes attacked the Gona anchorage on 21 July 1942. Cross checking on Pacific Wrecks.com you can see that 16 P400s attacked, 8 of them staffing. This was followed some B-17s, P-40s escorted by Aircobras and a Hudson.
The sadness is the writing of Mr. Collie and Mr. Marutani destroy anything the veterans from either side add to this book. Their story is lost by story tellers who either don’t know how to tell a historical story or were focused on telling what they wanted. If instead this book had focused on expressing the soldiers stories of what they lived through as Guy Sajer did, this could have been a good book to read.
I’ll open with Mr Collie and Mr. Marutan are extremely biased in my opinion using. Many times in this book they use limited Western abuses to justify/whitewash abuses by Japanese Forces. Gentlemen, get over it. They did abuses on a grander scale than what Australian or American forces did.
I mentioned fact checking, here’s a few examples from the book.
Page 26: One hundred and eighty-nine bombers, torpedo planes, and fighters from the carrier Akagi wrecked havoc on America’s Pacific Fleet as it lay in the harbour at Pearl City, Hawaii.
Page 26.: this was followed an hour later by a second wave from the carrier Zuikaku.
Pages 44-46 describe the atrocities committed on the retreating Australians from Rabaul whitewashing/minimizing the atrocities and why they were done.
Page 49-50 describes the Japanese landing at Lae/Salamaua. The writers claim 10 aircraft lost by allies also that airstrips in Lae, Salamaua, and Wau were used to bomb Rabaul earlier. 1 US Navy aircraft was lost countering the invasion. Wau was used later in the war by the allies, same for Salamaua.
Page 52, authors claim raids on Lae and Rabaul by B-26s highly limited capability. The B-26s had just started operations during the dates the authors cite and for raids to Rabaul were limited to 6 aircraft.
Page 64: authors make claim of 100 Australian warplanes attacked the Gona anchorage on 21 July 1942. Cross checking on Pacific Wrecks.com you can see that 16 P400s attacked, 8 of them staffing. This was followed some B-17s, P-40s escorted by Aircobras and a Hudson.
The sadness is the writing of Mr. Collie and Mr. Marutani destroy anything the veterans from either side add to this book. Their story is lost by story tellers who either don’t know how to tell a historical story or were focused on telling what they wanted. If instead this book had focused on expressing the soldiers stories of what they lived through as Guy Sajer did, this could have been a good book to read.
May 24, 2019
The campaign along the Kokoda Track (or Trail, as my Father’s generation would have it), is an icon of Australian military achievement. Pushed back over the Owen Stanleys by a superior Japanese force, the militia forces of Australia eventually halted the attack at Ioribaiwa and Imita Ridge, and then with the help of AIF forces returned from North Africa, they pushed the Japanese back to the Northern coast of New Guinea and destroyed them in the battles around Buna, Gona and Sanananda. There have been many Australian treatments of the campaign, with Peter Brune’s Those Ragged Bloody Heroes one of the best, along with the Official History.
The Path of Infinite Sorrow is that altogether rarer thing, a history of the Kokoda campaign from the Japanese viewpoint. Collie and Marutani have written the Japanese side of the story using, as a base, interviews conducted in the early 2000s with some Japanese survivors of the campaign. The result is an interesting and enlightening book.
Many Australian accounts of the campaign emphasise the terrible conditions and the fear of an unseen enemy, portraying the Japanese as supermen, with the jungle being their natural habitat. It is enlightening to read that the Japanese struggled just as much with the conditions, and saw the Australians as dangerous enemies, who were rarely seen owing to their natural ability to fight in the jungle – and brave beyond compare because they wore hats rather than helmets in battle!
The authors give a good account of the leadup to Kokoda, describing Japanese attempts to reach Port Moresby by ship failing after the Battle of the Coral Sea. When a force was landed on the coast, its task was not to reach Moresby, but merely to reconnoitre the track leading to Kokoda to see if it was suitable for an army to campaign along. Instilled with martial spirit, the over-enthusiastic officers of the South Seas Detachment turned their reconnoitring mission into a full-scale assault, and soon overwhelmed the Australian force holding Kokoda.
As the Australians dropped back, the problem of supplying an attacking force over a precipitous walking track became more acute, and by the time the Japanese reached Ioribaiwa they were at the end of their tether logistically and physically. The troops could see the lights of Moresby at night, but neither had the strength or the numbers to take the next ridge, let alone face the Allied troops that would have awaited them closer to the town. Supply was not only a problem along the Track itself, but also to the rear bases at Buna and Gona, as the combination of Allied air attacks and the prioritising by the Japanese of the assault on Guadalcanal meant that few supplies were getting onshore in New Guinea.
The Japanese withdrawal back to the Northern coast became a rout, with troops falling out of line with disease or hunger, to be left to die or make a futile final stand when the Australians came down the track. When the retreat had been completed, the coastal beach-heads were defended by a force that consisted of some infantry, engineering and other non-combatant forces, and those ill or wounded troops that could hold a rifle.
Despite an ingenious and deadly system of interlocking bunkers, it was only a matter of time before the Allied troops (the U.S. Army had now joined the fray) over-ran the Japanese defences, leaving only a few able to escape death or imprisonment. It was a complete defeat for the South Seas Detachment
.
This book is a well-written account, easy to follow for those unfamiliar with the battles of the campaign and - by using interviews as the basis for the narrative – brings the reader right into the misery and pain of soldiering in New Guinea in 1942. There is some discussion of grander strategy, but as this book is focusing on the soldier’s experience, it is always in the background.
While there is an acknowledgement in the text of the brutality and cannibalism of the Japanese soldiers during the campaign, it is rather lightly brushed over, perhaps in deference to the feelings of the Japanese who were interviewed. While there can be some argument that the instances of cannibalism were driven by the extreme circumstances of the Japanese troops, who were literally dying of hunger by the end of the campaign, to excuse the bayoneting of bound prisoners in cold blood with the lines “This is not inconsistent with Japanese military training….Military training is not for the squeamish; he who hesitates in hand-to-hand fighting is lost.” is a very cheap way out of looking at the issue. It’s clear in the book that the Australians were just as proficient in hand-to-hand fighting as the Japanese, and yet their superiors didn’t find it necessary to make them kill defenceless people. A greater insight into why the Japanese felt the need to kill like this would have been a welcome addition to the book. Not many prisoners were taken by the Australians, as most of the Japanese fought to the death, and after a few instances of Australians being killed by wounded Japanese, they “took no chances.” The New Guinea Campaign was war at its cruelest, of that there is little doubt.
While there is no doubt of the courage of the soldiers on both sides of this campaign, we can question the strategic and tactical nous of the officers on both sides. That the Japanese could have ever thought they could attack Moresby in any sensible way via the track was wrong thinking, and each step beyond Kokoda made the idea more absurd – they were just wasting men and material for no good purpose. The Allied tactics of island fighting had yet to be perfected, and the continued frontal assaults of the bunkers at Buna and Gona without adequate artillery or tank support were for the most part futile and wasteful as well.
In the end it was the overwhelming technological and numerical advantage of Allied ‘planes, artillery and tanks that ensured not only the end of the New Guinea campaigns, but the defeat of the Japanese Empire. After the war, veterans of Kokoda from both sides struggled to make sense of their experiences: those few Japanese veterans who made it back to Japan mostly did not want to relive what had been a terrifyingly traumatic experience. My great-uncles who fought with the AIF in the campaign also suffered for the rest of their lives, but at least they were on the winning side.
Given this is an Australian trade publication, the apparatus of the book is good – useful maps and notes, and a reasonable bibliography and index. For the student of the Pacific War, especially of the New Guinea Campaigns, The path of infinite sorrow is required reading.
Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/
The Path of Infinite Sorrow is that altogether rarer thing, a history of the Kokoda campaign from the Japanese viewpoint. Collie and Marutani have written the Japanese side of the story using, as a base, interviews conducted in the early 2000s with some Japanese survivors of the campaign. The result is an interesting and enlightening book.
Many Australian accounts of the campaign emphasise the terrible conditions and the fear of an unseen enemy, portraying the Japanese as supermen, with the jungle being their natural habitat. It is enlightening to read that the Japanese struggled just as much with the conditions, and saw the Australians as dangerous enemies, who were rarely seen owing to their natural ability to fight in the jungle – and brave beyond compare because they wore hats rather than helmets in battle!
The authors give a good account of the leadup to Kokoda, describing Japanese attempts to reach Port Moresby by ship failing after the Battle of the Coral Sea. When a force was landed on the coast, its task was not to reach Moresby, but merely to reconnoitre the track leading to Kokoda to see if it was suitable for an army to campaign along. Instilled with martial spirit, the over-enthusiastic officers of the South Seas Detachment turned their reconnoitring mission into a full-scale assault, and soon overwhelmed the Australian force holding Kokoda.
As the Australians dropped back, the problem of supplying an attacking force over a precipitous walking track became more acute, and by the time the Japanese reached Ioribaiwa they were at the end of their tether logistically and physically. The troops could see the lights of Moresby at night, but neither had the strength or the numbers to take the next ridge, let alone face the Allied troops that would have awaited them closer to the town. Supply was not only a problem along the Track itself, but also to the rear bases at Buna and Gona, as the combination of Allied air attacks and the prioritising by the Japanese of the assault on Guadalcanal meant that few supplies were getting onshore in New Guinea.
The Japanese withdrawal back to the Northern coast became a rout, with troops falling out of line with disease or hunger, to be left to die or make a futile final stand when the Australians came down the track. When the retreat had been completed, the coastal beach-heads were defended by a force that consisted of some infantry, engineering and other non-combatant forces, and those ill or wounded troops that could hold a rifle.
Despite an ingenious and deadly system of interlocking bunkers, it was only a matter of time before the Allied troops (the U.S. Army had now joined the fray) over-ran the Japanese defences, leaving only a few able to escape death or imprisonment. It was a complete defeat for the South Seas Detachment
.
This book is a well-written account, easy to follow for those unfamiliar with the battles of the campaign and - by using interviews as the basis for the narrative – brings the reader right into the misery and pain of soldiering in New Guinea in 1942. There is some discussion of grander strategy, but as this book is focusing on the soldier’s experience, it is always in the background.
While there is an acknowledgement in the text of the brutality and cannibalism of the Japanese soldiers during the campaign, it is rather lightly brushed over, perhaps in deference to the feelings of the Japanese who were interviewed. While there can be some argument that the instances of cannibalism were driven by the extreme circumstances of the Japanese troops, who were literally dying of hunger by the end of the campaign, to excuse the bayoneting of bound prisoners in cold blood with the lines “This is not inconsistent with Japanese military training….Military training is not for the squeamish; he who hesitates in hand-to-hand fighting is lost.” is a very cheap way out of looking at the issue. It’s clear in the book that the Australians were just as proficient in hand-to-hand fighting as the Japanese, and yet their superiors didn’t find it necessary to make them kill defenceless people. A greater insight into why the Japanese felt the need to kill like this would have been a welcome addition to the book. Not many prisoners were taken by the Australians, as most of the Japanese fought to the death, and after a few instances of Australians being killed by wounded Japanese, they “took no chances.” The New Guinea Campaign was war at its cruelest, of that there is little doubt.
While there is no doubt of the courage of the soldiers on both sides of this campaign, we can question the strategic and tactical nous of the officers on both sides. That the Japanese could have ever thought they could attack Moresby in any sensible way via the track was wrong thinking, and each step beyond Kokoda made the idea more absurd – they were just wasting men and material for no good purpose. The Allied tactics of island fighting had yet to be perfected, and the continued frontal assaults of the bunkers at Buna and Gona without adequate artillery or tank support were for the most part futile and wasteful as well.
In the end it was the overwhelming technological and numerical advantage of Allied ‘planes, artillery and tanks that ensured not only the end of the New Guinea campaigns, but the defeat of the Japanese Empire. After the war, veterans of Kokoda from both sides struggled to make sense of their experiences: those few Japanese veterans who made it back to Japan mostly did not want to relive what had been a terrifyingly traumatic experience. My great-uncles who fought with the AIF in the campaign also suffered for the rest of their lives, but at least they were on the winning side.
Given this is an Australian trade publication, the apparatus of the book is good – useful maps and notes, and a reasonable bibliography and index. For the student of the Pacific War, especially of the New Guinea Campaigns, The path of infinite sorrow is required reading.
Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/
November 5, 2012
I have read most of the accounts of the Kokoda campaign, which are all from the Australian perspective, and they occasionally and tantalisingly allude to Japanese sources. I was looking forward in this book to a fuller account from the Japanese side but find I’m disappointed.
Although there is a lot of interest, and for me some new information, the reference base is quite narrow and anecdotal rather than extensively researched. ‘The Kokoda Campaign’ by Peter Williams, which I read recently and will soon review, gives far better and more coherent information about the Japanese and while not concentrating on the Australians sets their actions far more clearly in relation to the Japanese than does this book. Also, if William’s extensively researched and referenced work is believed this book perpetuates a number of inaccurate opinions and myths about the campaign.
While not shying away from Japanese atrocities the book treats them as understandable in a cultural and militaristic context. This ignores the fact that by any standards of world society at the time of these events these acts were reprehensible and represented a barbaric military cult; it would have been abhorrent to most Japanese had they known the details. Of course the Japanese were not alone in committing atrocities but this book should not pass over this so lightly.
For me the greatest strength of this book is in the personal details about the soldiers. Gleaned from interviews and dairies a human face is put on the ordinary Japanese soldier and their experience of the Kokoda Track. This allows comparison with the many things that have been written about the Australian experience. Soldiers are soldiers and the Japanese suffered the same ravages of poor supply, disease, and combat as the Australians and their performance was every bit as heroic.
There is an excellent review of this book by Donald Lawie.
Although there is a lot of interest, and for me some new information, the reference base is quite narrow and anecdotal rather than extensively researched. ‘The Kokoda Campaign’ by Peter Williams, which I read recently and will soon review, gives far better and more coherent information about the Japanese and while not concentrating on the Australians sets their actions far more clearly in relation to the Japanese than does this book. Also, if William’s extensively researched and referenced work is believed this book perpetuates a number of inaccurate opinions and myths about the campaign.
While not shying away from Japanese atrocities the book treats them as understandable in a cultural and militaristic context. This ignores the fact that by any standards of world society at the time of these events these acts were reprehensible and represented a barbaric military cult; it would have been abhorrent to most Japanese had they known the details. Of course the Japanese were not alone in committing atrocities but this book should not pass over this so lightly.
For me the greatest strength of this book is in the personal details about the soldiers. Gleaned from interviews and dairies a human face is put on the ordinary Japanese soldier and their experience of the Kokoda Track. This allows comparison with the many things that have been written about the Australian experience. Soldiers are soldiers and the Japanese suffered the same ravages of poor supply, disease, and combat as the Australians and their performance was every bit as heroic.
There is an excellent review of this book by Donald Lawie.
August 18, 2016
The battle for the Kokoda Track is well known in Australian military lore as one of the toughest battles fought in the Pacific War. The Japanese landed on the northeastern shores of New Guinea with the aim of crossing the Owen-Stanley Range to capture Port Moresby from which they would be able to assault Australia.
The first-hand accounts in this book provided by the Japanese soldiers who fought on the track bring to life the realities of the campaign, one that was expected to be simple, but degenerated into a fight against hunger, disease and the ever encroaching enemy, with some so desperate to survive that they resorted to cannibalism.
The authors have done an excellent job of researching the major battles of the campaign (including detailed maps of each), looking at the various mistakes that doomed the campaign from the get go. But most importantly, it relives the struggles of these men through first-hand accounts - facing a numerically superior enemy, disease and hunger, knowing very well that their chance of escaping alive was slim at best. It is one of the most chilling accounts of what desperate men are capable of in times of war.
The first-hand accounts in this book provided by the Japanese soldiers who fought on the track bring to life the realities of the campaign, one that was expected to be simple, but degenerated into a fight against hunger, disease and the ever encroaching enemy, with some so desperate to survive that they resorted to cannibalism.
The authors have done an excellent job of researching the major battles of the campaign (including detailed maps of each), looking at the various mistakes that doomed the campaign from the get go. But most importantly, it relives the struggles of these men through first-hand accounts - facing a numerically superior enemy, disease and hunger, knowing very well that their chance of escaping alive was slim at best. It is one of the most chilling accounts of what desperate men are capable of in times of war.
January 21, 2024
The Kokoda Campaign is etched into Australian legend in the same way the campaign in Gallipoli and the Siege of Tobruk are. Most of what I have read however, is largely from the perspective of the allied campaign and so it is refreshing to find a book that is about the battle from the Japanese perspective.
The only hiccup for me is that I did find the narrative a little meandering, but never less did still gain a whole new perspective.
The only hiccup for me is that I did find the narrative a little meandering, but never less did still gain a whole new perspective.
March 26, 2021
Some interesting information on the Japanese experience of kokoda.
However the constant narrative in this book justifying the Japanese brutal behaviour, the mass murder of POW's, civilians. I found disgusting. Attempting to suggest Australian and other allied forces did the same, to justify this Grose narrative is a disgrace.
However the constant narrative in this book justifying the Japanese brutal behaviour, the mass murder of POW's, civilians. I found disgusting. Attempting to suggest Australian and other allied forces did the same, to justify this Grose narrative is a disgrace.
August 8, 2024
Quite rare view of the Kokoda campaign from the Japanese perspective: records from survivors and diaries of those who died.
Covers not only Kokoda track but also following fights in Buna-Gona area.
Covers not only Kokoda track but also following fights in Buna-Gona area.
April 24, 2016
A detailed history of the battle of the island of New Guinea as told from the Japanese perspective. A wart's and all story that chronicles the stories of units and individuals who fought in one of the most inhospitable areas in the world.
As I said, it's a story mostly from the Japanese side with extensive use of letters, diaries and interviews with survivors. It is hard to understand just how miserable their experiences were, but this book comes darn close - not for the faint of heart.
Interestingly, the Japanese had the utmost respect for the Aussies, their primary foes during this long-fought battle but very little for the American forces they encountered.
The very real threat of starvation and cannibalism as the only alternative are discussed with frightening honesty. The jungle environment was just as bad an adversary as any armed belligerent. definitely well worth the time to find it and read.
As I said, it's a story mostly from the Japanese side with extensive use of letters, diaries and interviews with survivors. It is hard to understand just how miserable their experiences were, but this book comes darn close - not for the faint of heart.
Interestingly, the Japanese had the utmost respect for the Aussies, their primary foes during this long-fought battle but very little for the American forces they encountered.
The very real threat of starvation and cannibalism as the only alternative are discussed with frightening honesty. The jungle environment was just as bad an adversary as any armed belligerent. definitely well worth the time to find it and read.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews