The Men Guilty for World War II are Still Walking Free

There is a keen sense of generational tension between Suichi and Kuroda and the younger generation—even Masuji Ono’s daughters—and Masuji Ono and Matsuda and theirs. There is an expectation that the parties guilty of bringing Japan into World War II were guilty of betraying their younger compatriots, and sending them off to disaster and death. Mr. Miyake had told Masuji Ono the president of his company had committed suicide in order to apologize to the families his decisions affected. Late in the novel, Masuji Ono says he has not considered taking this step, and his daughter assures him he should not have. But the implication is there nonetheless, that the good men died in battle, and the instigators stayed alive, like cowards, in safety.

In fact, the book takes a surprising but subtle turn in...