"Daily Life in Wartime Japan, 1940-1945, " Topic

"Pomona College History Professor Samuel Yamashita's new book Daily Life in Wartime Japan, 1940-1945, draws from a large collection of diaries and letters written by Japanese citizens during World War II— evacuated children, teenagers, adults, servicemen and kamikaze pilots —offering readers revealing details of lives unknown to most Americans until now.

Yamashita believes that his study of wartime life fills a critical void in American knowledge and understanding of the war. In the 1990s, he realized that what was missing from the English-language scholarship on modern Japan were the voices of ordinary Japanese during World War II. So he searched for diaries kept by servicemen, homefront civilians and children and collected more than 200.

Eight of those diaries that he found were published in Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies: Selections from the Wartime Diaries of Ordinary Japanese in 2005, which is now in its third printing. Over the course of more than two dozen trips to Japan over two decades, Yamashita collected more of these accounts…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Thanks for finding that, Armand!

I can't resist. I must have it, must read it.

I find few things more compelling than first-hand accounts of ordinary people during WW2 (or other conflicts). I'm currently finishing Holger Ekherz's second "D-Day through German Eyes" book.

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It is really enlightening to see how the ordinary German (in this case soldiers, not civilians … but not Generals) saw the war, and experienced the events.

Having traveled extensively to and in Japan, evidently even more than the author Yamashita (if I read the description of his work correctly), I have many observations on Japanese culture and the perspectives of many Japanese, including how their own history is portrayed in their media. It will be fascinating to see first hand writings from that period.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Happy you like it my good friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand