The Typist by Michael Knight
This is an unusual story about Van, a GI from the south who is stationed in Japan at the very end of WWII. Because of his unique ability to type as fast as 100 words per minute, he has captured the attention of General MacArthur and therefore has been promoted to work as part of his typing team. From this perspective, the reader learns about the politics and chaos of Japan at this time and the efforts made by MacArthur to build a democracy and resist Communism.
The story is unusual in my mind in that it is a WWII story that does not focus on Europe or on the Holocaust. There is, at least in my view, very little written about this period in Japan’s history and about the relationship between the U.S. and Japan in the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is a little piece of historical fiction that fills in some of that era.
It is a simply-told, well-written story, with solid characters. For anyone who likes historical fiction, this is a solid read.
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