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This week, I'm going to recommend Snow Country slash Yuki Guni by Kawabata Yasunari.

This is the first piece of literature in Japanese history ever to win a Nobel Prize for Literature,

and I think that pretty much says all you need to know about it.

It's justifiably quite famous, and if you're curious to try it for yourself, you can go to audiblet four. Whenever a conversation about Perl. Episode 346, Blackness in Japan, Part 4.

Whenever a conversation about Pearl Harbor and World War II comes up, I can't help but think

of poor Stanley Hornbeck.

Hornbeck was the guy who, in July 1941, sent a memo to U.S. Undersecretary of State Sumner Wells, in which he claimed,

quote, under existing circumstances, it is altogether improbable that Japan would deliberately

take action in response to any action which the United States is likely to take in the Pacific,

which action if taken by Japan, would mean war between

that country and this country, unquote.

Which, as a teacher, I have to say, that's the choppiest sentence I've read in a long

damn time, and also crack open a thesaurus and please find a synonym for action.

But essentially, translated into English instead of memorandum speak,

quote, there's no way in hell that America could do anything to Japan

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