AUNG SAN OF BURMA by Aung...

AUNG SAN OF BURMA by Aung San Suu Kyi (Kiscadale/Seven Hills: $12, illustrated). The only book in print by Aung San Suu Kyi, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in October for her efforts to establish democracy in Myanmar, is this brief biography of her father. During the late 1930s, Aung San became a leader in the struggle to end British colonial rule in Burma. To aid his cause, he accepted assistance from the Japanese military, but later fought against their brutal, de facto occupation of the country. His prominence as a resistance leader enabled Aung San to play an important role in the postwar Anglo-Burmese negotiations until he was assassinated by a rival politician’s henchmen in 1947. Not surprisingly, the author’s portrait of her father is highly flattering, but she has trouble coming to grips with his ties to Japan during World War II. Although portrayed as an opponent of the Japanese policies that included “disappearances, torture and forced labour conscription,” Aung San served Gen. Suzuki and even went to Japan to be decorated by the emperor. As little Asian history is taught in the United States, American readers may find it difficult to follow a narrative that involves so many unusual-sounding names, shifting acronyms and unfamiliar events.