BOOK REVIEWS
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has been discussed a number of times previously by historians of this epoch, notably Louis Allen.
The strategic importance of the India National Army is intriguing but subject to controversy. Typically, one might say, the Japanese conquerors did not completely trust their protégés; in fact, Bose's recall from Nazi Germany was delayed until 1943, after Fujiwara had been relieved of his command of the Kikan. Moreover, in 1945, the time of settlement for displaced loyalties from the British Raj to Independent India had come in the shape of the famous Red Fort trials at Delhi of some 14,000 of the 19,500 strong members of the National Army. Then, the British were forced to recognize the claims of loyalty to one's country and so these Japanese collaborators were acquitted of charges of mutiny or treason.
Fujiwara's own account, then, of this far from clear-cut ideological conflict, conducted partly through the F. Kikan, is a valuable addition to the materials for the discussion of this important topic; even if, as its translator and editor admits, it is subjective and uncritical.
@X
ALAN BIRCH
(A Cultural Geography of China) Chen Cheng-siang, Joint Publishing Co. Hong Kong, 1981.
This is a collection of nine papers by Professor Chen, most published previously, some as early as the 1950's, and an address given by him to introduce his newly completed Historical and Cultural Atlas of China. The book bears a misleading title: X (literal translation: A Cultural Geography of China). Instead of being a comprehensive geographic treatment of China from the cultural perspective, it is rather a selection of loosely connected topics.
The book opens with a chapter on the migration of the cultural core of China from north to south, which includes disappointingly simplistic statements about the way it has followed the shifting of political and economic centres. Methodologically, Chen employs mainly straightforward cartographic analysis (a total of 18 maps) of the distribution of population, eminent