The Other Hundred Years War: Japan's Bid for Supremacy 1941-2041

by Russell Braddon

The Other Hundred Years War

Hardcover

Published August 8, 1983

About the author

Russell Reading Braddon was an Australian writer of novels, biographies and TV scripts. His chronicle of his four years as a prisoner of war, The Naked Island, sold more than a million copies.

Braddon was born in Sydney, Australia, the son of a barrister. He served in the Malayan campaign during World War II. He was held as a prisoner of war by the Japanese in Pudu and Changi prisons and on the Thailand-Burma Railway between 1942 and 1945.

In 1949, Braddon moved to England. He described his writing career as "beginning by chance". The Naked Island, published in 1952, was one of the first accounts of a Japanese prisoner of war's experience.

Braddon went on to produce a wide range of works, including novels, biographies, histories, TV scripts and newspaper articles. He was also a broadcaster on radio and television.

Proud Australian Boy: A Biography of Russell Braddon by Nigel Starck was published in Australia in 2011.

Reviews

[Lisa Marie Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

As neither an historian, nor an economist, Russell Braddon’s The Other 100 Years War was a surprising book for me to choose to read – let alone buy – but I am glad I did. It is an easy read, despite its complex content, and that is due to the author’s total immersion in the subject. Braddon was a combatant in Malaya and a prisoner of the Japanese for a large part of the Second World War. His survival was largely a matter of luck as treatment of prisoners was both vicious and capricious. It is from that standpoint that he proceeds to analyse historical events from the 19th century up to the alliance with Hitler, a man whose arrogance, strident speech and blatant rudeness would have been anathema to the Japanese code of politeness. He describes the war from a prisoner’s point of view and also as a military analyst. Through this honest description we come to understand how and why the Japanese were able to behave as they did; what drove them to what we consider terrifying and insane actions like kamikase attacks or seppuku; how difficult it was, despite the atomic bombs, to negotiate an end to hostilities; how Hirohito, despite being Divine Emperor, was in fact thwarted in his wishes by an aggressive military junta and had to fight to obtain peace against an undertow of coups, counter-coups and assassinations that gave Tojo control - and a lot more I never realised.
The second part of the book deals with Japan’s recovery after the war and the way it rebuilt its entire industrial complex and infrastructure, with American assistance, to become the most successful exporting nation in the world. This provides details up to 1983 and speculates as to a future we now find ourselves living. Braddon has open and frank discussions with the leading Japanese industrialists of his age and presents those in an imaginative “conference” format. He also does not hold out much hope for the USA, Britain or Europe’s positions in international trade unless they can rethink their attitude and become less strident in their dealings with the Japanese.
I came to this book because of the similarity in title to another book about Japan’s culture and success which I found disappointing. I would not have found it otherwise. I was motivated to see if there were similarities in content and approach and I found there were none. This book stands alone and, as an intelligent lay person (I hope), I found it was excellent. Yes, history and economics can be heavy but Braddon’s account, though factual, is not. I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in understanding the psychology and sociology of the Japanese people in the face of adversity and as a dispassionate account of what can happen when we disrespect other cultures.