Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies

Selections from the Wartime Diaries of Ordinary Japanese

Samuel Hideo Yamashita author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:University of Hawai'i Press

Published:30th Sep '05

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies cover

The fall of Singapore and the brilliant victories achieved since the start of the war mean we are protected, but I don’t know just how grateful I should be. —Takahashi Aiko, housewife, February 1942

This is my final departure from the home islands. I have paid my respects to those who have helped me. I have no regrets. —Itabashi Yasuo, navy kamikaze pilot, February 1944

We had rice gruel for lunch again. There was no tofu in it, but there were potatoes.... We went through with the closing ceremony and received our report cards. Everyone was there. From now on, I’ll persevere and not fail. —Manabe Ichiro, primary school student, July 1944

This collection of diaries gives readers a powerful, firsthand look at the effects of the Pacific War on eight ordinary Japanese. Immediate, vivid, and at times surprisingly frank, the diaries chronicle the last years of the war and its aftermath as experienced by a navy kamikaze pilot, an army straggler on Okinawa, an elderly Kyoto businessman, a Tokyo housewife, a young working woman in Tokyo, a teenage girl mobilized for war work, and two schoolchildren evacuated to the countryside. Samuel Yamashita’s introduction provides a helpful overview of the historiography on wartime Japan and offers valuable insights into the important, everyday issues that concerned Japanese during a different and disastrously difficult time.

"The diaries reveal a far richer variety of attitudes toward the war than previous works have shown us; they reveal a thoughtfulness and a down-to-earth approach to life that will surprise those reared on wartime stereotypes. They will be of interest to all students, both scholars and general readers of World War II and wartime Japan." - James Huffman, Wittenburg University"

ISBN: 9780824829360

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

344 pages