Readable, fast-paced and a fascinating account. Shows the effect of the Japanese who fuelled the unprecedented property boom on the Gold Coast in the late 1980s. Their high-rises, five-star hotels and golf courses changed the face of the Gold Coast. Joe does not shy away from revealing the xenophobia that the Japanese presence engendered among some local residents. This soon became a debate about Australia’s national identity, viz., the country’s traditional attachment to Europe, especially Britain, versus its fateful geographic proximity to Asia. Six years later the Japanese financial bubble burst and most of the Japanese investors were forced to sell their Gold Coast developments and went home, mightily chastened. This fascinating story is faithfully recounted in Samurai in the Surf.
