The Burning Mountain, Alfred Coppel

"BASED ON ACTUAL U.S. AND JAPANESE WAR PLANS, ONE OF THE MOST UNUSUAL AND POWERFUL WAR NOVELS EVER WRITTEN AN UNFORGETTABLE DRAMA OF HEROISM,LOVE AND SACRIFICE!"
















The Burning Mountain is a 'novel of the invasion of Japan', probably the least written about alternate World War Two strand. It's well researched, manages to portray at least one convincingly complex relationship between people from the two cultures, and teeters throughout on whether it wants to make this a full blown Jingoistic take on World War Two.

It's constantly in danger of over extending itself in its portrayal of Japanese culture and warfare. When this is used as a tool to show the superiority of the Allies over the NAZIs it's understandable. But the double standard meted out to the Japanese sits less comfortably. Whilst their war crimes were equally egregious, the overall storyarc of the book is that, disgusted by the use of civilians in defending their homeland, the US has no choice but to use Atomic weapons on Hiroshima.

Which is fine, except for the squeamishness about the way in which prisoner of war are treated, that the Japanese defend their home islands, the very fact that they choose to fight at all,  all of it is treated as though it's an alien concept, creating the idea that the Japanse are barbarians and that the bombing is a righteous one. It's an odd point to reach, when the moral highground is taken by the people murdering an entire city, in the name of preventing the civilians who will otherwise be forced to fight and die against the invading Americans.

There's a real sense of Allied superiority, whether in terms of the quantity or quality of arms and men they can throw at Japan, which is treated by the Japanese characters as growing evidence of their own inadequateness in the face of the American invaders.

Its sub-Turtledove dialogue, and introduction of characters to be killed a page later, add up to an unsatisfying novel, which short cuts to the end before any defining land battles can take place, and mostly skips over the wider conflicts in favour of small, guerrilla squad tactics and air battles between two totally outmatched forces.

Interesting for its use of Operation Coronet and Ketsugo only, stick with Turtledove for characterisation and description.

Also Try:
Harry Turtledove, Days of Infamy
Robert Conroy, 1945