Prolific awardwinning translator of classical and modern Japanese poetry Hiroaki Sato recorded his thoughts on American society in mainly two columns across 30plus years collected here for the first time.amp10This anthology of over 60 of Satos commentaries reflect the writeramp8217s wideranging erudition and his unsentimental views of both his native Japan and his adopted American homeland. Broadly he looks at the Pacific War and its aftermath and at war and our love of it in general at the quirks and curiosities of the natural world exhibited by birds and other creatures at friends and mentors who surprised and inspired and finally at other writers and their works many of them familiarthe Beats and John Ashbery for example and Mishimaamp8212but many others whose introduction is welcome.amp10Sato is neither cheerleader nor angry expatriate. Remarkably cleareyed and engaged with American culture he is in the business of critical appraisal and translation of taking words seriously and of observing how well others write and speak to convey their own truths and ambitions.