Hey, Fred -
The only book I've really touched so far is "I-Boat Captain" by Orita & Harrington... haven't finished it yet, but so far, it is interesting. I'm not allowing myself to get any other books from Amazon until I am done with the three I am reading so far, but the next one should be "Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway - The Great Naval Battles As Seen Through Japanese Eyes".
One of the things I have found frustrating during my visits to various museum boats is the severe lack of good books and other materials in the gift shops. It is frustrating only in the sense that, as a business, unrelated trinkets sell. I have a hard time, though, accepting the fact that the same stuff people can get at a generic souvenir shop (or even the local Wal-Mart) is more lucrative at a submarine museum, than a good 1:700 class model of an I-400, "Clear the Bridge", or even "Down Periscope". Maybe it is just me, but in my deranged thought process, the people visiting there in the first place, are interested in the slightest in the subject and therefore a "ripe market".
Getting off the ever-present soapbox and back to the original topic, though, the perspective of our one time enemies is becoming more and more interesting. I recently introduced my wife to the old '50's "Duck And Cover" videos of the early days of the "Red Scare" and she thought the whole idea was amusingly silly.
"Duck under the desk? That is what they taught kids in America to do? Did peeple (this is how it sounds with the accent) really worry that much about us bombing them??" This, of course, led to a night's discussion of "McCarthyism", the "Arsenal of Democracy", the Tu-4 (still an amazing feat of reverse-engineering), the views held by most Americans about Soviet technology, and Harvey "Van" Clyburn... and, of course, lots of Russian Standard.
A little while later, I posed the the question of what is taught in Japanese schools about the Second World War to one of her fellow college students. Being quite Japanese, he smiled and proceeded to answer questions with questions and lead me on a mental Jujutsu routine in which nothing was answered fully, but a vague outline was hinted at.
Having lost my original point a bit, what have you and the other readers come across as far as factual readings about our adversaries turned allies (if you can call Russia that, at the moment... Tu-95's? Really? What is this 1974??)?
