Hi my name is Martha Weeka. I'm from the Zuni tribe in New Mexico and I really enjoyed your book and I hope to read more books about my people.

A few good, solid poems here. Is it just me, however, or does anyone else out there feel the emperor is wearing increasingly fewer clothes? The technical control is masterful, yes, but I miss the greater vision of AN EXPLANATION OF AMERICA and Pinsky's other earlier works.

In what turns out to be quite an interesting collection of Poems, Robert Pinsky uses his stripped down style to convey his messages clearly, but with a sense of symbolism. In each writing, the point is introduced pretty early in the reading, and then expounded upon in ways that few poets I have encountered are able to. In addition, the length of each one is nearly perfect, keeping the reader's attention while still expressing exactly what Pinsky wants to say. I certainly recommend this book to anyone who has read poetry before and is interested in a slight change of pace.

First got cued to this book by Shawn Penn who took an extensive amount of time on Charlie Rose to explain the significance of "Sweet Time Unafflicted" from Pinsky's ABC in his own life. It is a simple, accesible beauty that Pinksy strives for and delivers, many of his poems focusing on contemporary themes and keeping their lexicon to the modern. As in ABC Pinsky builds several stanzas throughout the book on 26 word strings in alphabetical order. If as a reader you are interested in expanding your present interests into contemporary poetry the work of this Poet Laureate may be a sublimely fufilling place to begin.

This slim volume contains little useful information related to the subject of the title, and much speculation.

There are many descriptions and outline drawings of American and Japanese aircraft from old sources, but many important types are not covered. Much better coverage of Japanese weaponry is provided by Suicide Squads by Richard O'Neill (Ballantine, 1981). There are also a number of distracting factual and technical errors. For example, a Japanese high-speed transport ship designed to launch landing craft over its sloped rear deck is labeled a destroyer modified to launch suicide submarines, and a German submarine that surrendered to the USN in May, 1944 is misidentified as the U-235. (The cargo was unrefined non-fissionable U 235 powder which if laboriously refined would have provided less than 1/5 the amount of fissionable material for a low-tech device).

Much is made of the Japanese nuclear program, and the authors assert that the Japanese had exploded a nuclear weapon and infer that they posessed light-weight, low-yield tactical nuclear weapons to use against the DOWNFALL invasion forces. (Paradoxically, a low-yield tactical weapon requires more sophisticated technology that the US and USSR would not develop for another decade). This rumor was thoroughly investigated by Robert Wilcox (Japan's Secret War: Japan's Race Against Time To Build Its Own Atomic Bomb; Marlowe & Co, revised and reprinted 1995). Wilcox, though the original and most authoritative advocate of this hypothesis, readily admitted that he could find no proof. The closest supposed documentation is a statement (not in this or Wilcox's book) that an American naval officer ...talked to a Japanese officer... whom he refused to identify. The authors of this book cite only an article in a veteran's group publication (I do not disparage these as such; they can be excellent sources) which apparently derived either from Wilcox or an article by Richard Benke in the San Diego Union-Tribune (Benke apparently also based his work on Wilcox).

Approximately ten per cent of the book deals with U. S. transport aircraft that could have been used in a hypothetical airlift from Europe to an airhead in northernmost Japan, with emphasis on feeding (packaged rations), toilet facilities (buckets), and potential refueling stops (the home town of one author) en route.

The United States was nearly ready to invade Japan when the Japanese suddenly surrendered after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and nagazaki.
If the U. S. invaded Japan, the Japanese had their own atomic bomb and they were ready to use it against American troops.
America would have to accept over one million casualties. The Japanese would probably suffer 3-million casualties. The invasion would have been a holocaust for both sides.
Book has maps, shows all the invasion beaches and names the American outfits that would have landed.
Authors point out that "In war one does what one has to do."
Colonel Christian P. Hald, USA-ret, also a retired M.D., wrote (page 67): "An infantryman can say, 'I have been there.' The infantrymen that I know also say 'Once is enough.' For the final assault on Japan, I was to command Company I, 361st Infantry, a first wave rifle company. What would my chances of survival have been? No one knows. But I believe they they would not have been good. Must we continue to apologize to ourselves and to the Japanese for saving millions of lives by our use of the A-bombs? I think not." (Col. Hald earned two Purple Hearts for his duty in Italy and was ready to be transfered, with his command, to the invasion of Japan
Bert Webber, the co-author declares for consideration today: "Preserve the peace, So we don't have to pick up the pieces."
The co-authors, James Martin Davis, an Omaha Attorney at Law, developed the material on "Operation Downfall" the invasion of Japan, and Bert Webber, a published author on World War II in the Pacific, knew about the Japanese A-bomb and other data including having flown many of the air routes detailed in this book.
Included are 84 rare pictures and drawings, maps, an excellent bibliography and an Index.

The book was published in April 2000, which means it was probably written during late 1999 and early 2000, when the NASDAQ was soaring to 5000 and tech had no boundaries. Its tone of breathless enthusiasm is very representative of that time. The book does accurately state the e-potential, but like NASDAQ investors in March 2000 did, it extrapolates unsustainable trends into a ceaseless upswing. The Web is here, and it is a true revolution, but ultimately it is simply another communication channel for insurers and their stakeholders. This is a great read, but only to help understand what kind of carried-away thinking created the tech bubble.