A VOYAGE TO THE AMERICAN SOUL TIMELESS .... Granted, in US OF paranoia IS NORMAL about Japan OR THE BRITISH ARE COMING was probably sane, but he wrote this before Pearl Harbour. His premise is that America has been invaded and conquered by "panasia," a vast and sprawling empire bent on conquest. Only six men, scientists, who have just made an amazing scientific discovery, stand in its way. They use their amazing, not to say magical, scientific discovery to organize a resistance under the guise of a religion. This plan mostly works. Specific problems: * Frank Mitsui in the book is a man whose grandmother was "half-Chinese and half wahini," and his mother is "part Chinese but mostly Caucasian." Somehow he acquired the name Mitsui from this ancestry, and finds himself adrift in a country that reviles him, as do the invaders. He appears early on, is consulted as an expert in "Asian thinking" (it's genetic?) and has few speaking parts. * American=white is otherwise unchallenged. * There are no (perhaps one? I don't want to reread to check it out.) speaking parts for women in this book. Only two women are named, and one is dead before the book begins. * He appears to be an advocate of the "flying monkeys and magic" school of military thought. Sufficiently advanced science will assure that we win! And obviously, our science is more advanced. * The American spirit and culture raises America above other nations. Granted, in 1941 this must have seemed like an attractive message, but the book often focuses on the ways in which the "Asiatic" culture is deficient. * The, "OMG my plan is brilliant, really brilliant, would you like to hear about it? Too bad! But it's really brilliant. Okay, I'll tell this guy over here and he'll react in awe and amazement! See how brilliant my plan is?" gambit has never endeared me to anyone. * The magical weapon has whatever abilities the plot requires. Kill a man? Check. Stun a man? Check. Forcefield? Check. Cure the common cold? Check. Cure Cancer? Check.The premise of this book is that the US was taken over by the "Pan Asians". The last remaining vestige of the US military consists of a few scientists and an advertising writer. Rather than give up, the ad guy decides to use the time honored military tactic of making up a fake religion and using the newly invented "Ledbetter Effect*" to beat back the yellow menace once and for all. The book is just absurd wish fulfillment. Utterly goofy and filled with racial pejoratives that might have been acceptable NOW ...KILL THE LOUSY PANASIATIC GUYS AND THE PANASIATIC GAYS TOO....THE ANTI-JAP ANTI-YELLOWMEN ANTI-CHINAMEN BOOK THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW 1941 An honest politician is one that stays bought.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Sixth Column THE ONLY GOOD LINE IN THE BOOK

 The dialogue is proto-Heinlein, veering between lengthy exposition (such as his explanation of the differences between a tramp and a hobo) and Heinlein’s later more overt lecturing, whilst combined with gung-ho phrases of the “Go get ‘em, Whitey!” type. Women have a decidedly low role in the plot, with women priests not allowed and their roles mainly consigned to the office typing and telephony.Washington destroyed completely before the government could escape. With Manhattan in ruins, that leaves no -". There was a click as the television receiver was turned off. "That's that," said the man near it. "The United States is washed up."
The whole of Asia - that's about four hundred million people - is in grave danger of defeat by the whole of America - that's exactly six men

Modern-day America tends toward self-loathing. HEILEIN AMERICA IS TAKED BY SURPRISE AND THE PAN-ASIANS ATOMICS ARE SNEAKY AND THE 1000 ATOMIC WEAPONS IN AMERICAN STOCK FAILED TO BE USED ....AND THE SNEAKY BASTARDS TINHAM MELHORES SERVIÇOS DE ESPIONAGEM
 I often wonder if we could survive in the face of a persistent enemy with moral conviction. It is virtually impossible to find an intellectual that doesn't somewhere between apologize for America or just outright regard it as a villain -- inside or outside of the country. The attitude increasingly permeates through the rest of our culture.

It is often one of the underlying things in Heinlein's work that I enjoy that both his personal values and the time in which he wrote were violently opposed to this trend. Perhaps Sixth Column is the best instance of placing that attitude at center stage. In the novel, America has just been taken over by Pan Asians. Their victory is complete and they're strangling the country and running it as a nation of slaves. We open with our hero delivering orders to a small military organization -- one that is exploring applying advanced science to the application of war. The military has essentially ceased to exist. This particular installation is unknown to the invaders. They are to prosecute the war independently in a last ditch effort.

Our hero discovers that a breakthrough has been made, but coupled with a terrible accident. Most of the staff at the installation has died in the accident. Nobody knows exactly the nature of the breakthrough or what killed them all. Every line officer was among those who were killed. Though only a major himself, this leaves it to him to assume command of the couple dozen scientists remaining, fight an occupying major world power and to restore the United States.

There is never a moment's hesitation at whether it is the right thing to do. There is never a question of not doing it. The only question is how. Heinlein highlights bravery, fortitude in the face of insurmountable odds, patriotism and overall spirit sadly missing from most of our culture. He never fails to spin a good story, but this work is inspiring as well.

 The idea is that the PanAsian (THE OPRESSORS THE KILLERS OF A PEOPLE FORMELY KNOWN AS A FREE PEOPLE) government BASTA MUDAR PANASIANS AND PUT IN RUSSIANS ENGLISH WHATSOEVER DÁ PER TUTTI FRUTI(based upon "all the bad and none of the good" combined characteristics of the Chinese and Japanese governments in the '40's and '50's) has conquered and utterly subjugated the American people. A hidden enclave of scientists comes up with a discriminate weapon that targets specific hemoglobin types, allowing them to target based on race alone. They are too few in number to launch a military assault, so they form a new religion whereby they gain recruits. They set up sanctuaries that kill any PanAsians who cross their threshold while preserving Americans.


The Pan-Asian countries had maintained a strict isolation from the west and vise versa. This had become enshrined in law preventing any contact between the peoples of these countries for two generations. Knowledge of each other's culture, languages and religion became virtually non-existent and so this explains why the people (on both sides) had strong pre-conceptions and prejudices about the other side.

It comes across quite strongly that the racist sentiments expressed are only that of the characters and not of the author. Indeed, there was one character, an anarchist hobo, who sees the Pan-Asians as just people, induced to hate, kill and conquer by their state just as the Americans were themselves induced by their state. In the eyes of this character, it is the respective governments that were the real criminals, not the people themselves. And I feel that the views of this character are probably closer to the personal views of Heinlein than any of the others.

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A quick word about the science in this story. It's a bit fanciful to say the least. According to general field theory, there are three types of forces: Electrical, Magnetic and Gravitic. The "Ledbetter" effect, utilised by the protagonists in thist story, involves tapping into the spectra (besides the electro-magnetic) that general field theory predicts should exist: electro-gravitic, gravitic-magnetic and the three-phase electro-magnetic-gravitic. I suppose field theory was quite new when this book was written but still, Heinlein's grip of it seems to be quite weak. Even with my very limited understanding of it.

This isn't really a negative for me at all. I have no problem suspending belief and just running with it but I imagine that for some people it may prove problematic.

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At 140 pages, the story unfolds at a breakneck speed, never pausing for breath. The advantages of this is that you never get bored, are always on the edge of your seat. The disadvantage is that the author never really had time to develop the characters. They were this way one moment and another way the next. Virtually no time for narrative that didn't develop the plot.

All in all, it is a barmy story with barmy ideas (see above) but it is an engaging read. If you can overlook it's shortcomings, you will.....Facing an invading force of four hundred million, the surviving men of The Citadel have a secret weapon: the Ledbetter Effect, a newly-discovered magneto-gravitic or electro-gravitic spectra, which, with development and refinement, seems able to focus on and kill selected people.

Using a newly created religion to cover up their work, the team begin the fight-back necessary to rid the United States of her oppressors. Rather like a secret alliance between the French Resistance and the Roman Catholic Church in World War Two, the men become Priests of Mota and establish churches throughout the nation, whilst simultaneously training and enlisting support from loyal Americans. They are not the mythical ‘fifth-column’ of warfare, but a sixth column of resistance: as Heinlein puts it,

‘this would not be a fifth column of traitors, bent on paralysing a free country; but the antithesis of that, a sixth column of patriots whose privilege it would be to destroy the morale of invaders, make them afraid, unsure of themselves.‘ (page 36)
As stated, I was heartily enjoying this book...until it was explicitly stated that the weapon and sanctuaries would only preserve whites. "Don't worry, boys, shoot at anything that moves; there's no way for you to kill a Caucasian. Shoot first and ask questions later."