RIDING ‘SHOGUN’

I sometimes wonder how thoroughly critics read the books that they review. Recently, one newspaper critic told me, in all sincerity: “I’ve already written the review of your book, but I’d like to have a copy so that I can read it anyway.�

This incident came to mind when I read Leslie Helm’s review of my book, “Shogun’s Ghost: The Dark Side of Japanese Education� (Dec. 2).

Helm said the book contained little independent research. Thus she overlooked at least five chapters of personal surveys and interviews of teachers, parents, acquaintances and a couple of hundred students.

Piously, Helm even discounted press reports that came, as she put it, “from Japan’s semi-literate English-language dailies.� Would she so disparage The Los Angeles Times if it attempted a daily translation into Japanese?

Helm said my analysis of Japanese schools was “juvenile� for expecting teachers to abide by the same rules of behavior as are applied to their students. Is it unreasonable for teachers to practice what they preach?

KEN SCHOOLLAND, HONOLULU