The population of wartime Japan (1940–1945) has remained a largely faceless enemy to most Americans thanks to the distortions of US wartime propaganda, popular culture, and news reports. At a time when this country’s wartime experiences are slowly and belatedly coming into focus, this remarkable book by Samuel Yamashita offers an intimate picture of what life was like for ordinary Japanese during the war. Drawing upon diaries and letters written by servicemen, kamikaze pilots, evacuated children, and teenagers and adults mobilized for war work in the big cities, provincial towns, and rural communities, Yamashita lets us hear for the first time the rich mix of voices speaking in every register during the course of the war. Daily Life in Wartime Japan, 1940–1945 is also a glimpse of a now-vanished world.
ISBN: | 9780700621903 |
Publication date: | 30th January 2016 |
Author: | Samuel Hideo Yamashita |
Publisher: | University Press of Kansas |
Format: | Hardback |
Pagination: | 256 pages |
Series: | Modern War Studies |
Genres: |
Second World War Modern warfare The Holocaust Social groups: religious groups and communities |