Year Zero: 1945 – In Asia as well as everywhere

It is gratifying to see Asia’s history being increasingly told as part of major global histories – it hasn’t always been the way of course. Among the best of the new BIG history books that does include a wealth of good detail about Asia is Ian Buruma’s Year Zero: A History of 1945, a great read, though perhaps not the most uplifting account of human treatment of humans! None of us come out of it particularly well. Buruma is, of course, a great writer on China (think The China Lover), Japan (numerous books) and South East Asia and a scholar of the region so his inclusion and detail on China and Japan as well as coverage of the immediate post-war situation in the Dutch East Indies, Indo-China and Malaya, are all interesting.

And I do particularly love Buruma’s description of Tsingtao (Qingdao) in 1945 as, “a place of seedy carpet baggers, gangsters, spies with shifting loyalties and Japanese who still behaved like a master race.” Sounds like perfect fodder for a book to me!!