Japan at War: An Oral History

This “deeply moving book” (Studs Terkel) portrays the Japanese experience of WWII. This oral history is the first book to capture – in either Japanese or English – the experience of ordinary Japanese during the war.

In a sweeping panorama, Haruko Taya Cook & Theodore F. Cook go from the Japanese attacks on China in the ’30s to the Japanese home front during the inhuman raids on Tokyo, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, offering the first glimpses of how the 20th century’s most deadly conflict affected the lives of the population. The book “seeks out the true feelings of the wartime generation & illuminates the contradictions between the official views of the war & living testimony”
(Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan).

Acknowledgments
Introduction to a lost war

1 An undeclared war: Battle lines in China: A village boy goes to war/ Nohara Teishin. Pictures of an expedition/ Tanida Isamu. Qualifying as a leader/ Tominaga Shōzō. Gas soldier/ Tanisuga Shizuo; Toward a new order: “War means jobs for machinists”/ Kumagaya Tokuichi. “I wanted to build a greater East Asia”/ Nogi Harumichi. Manchurian days/ Fukushima Yoshie. Dancing into the night/ Hara Kiyoshi. Bringing the liberals to heel/ Hatanaka Shigeo

2 Have “faith in victory”: 12/8/41: “My blood boiled at the news”/ Itabashi Kōshū. “I heard it on the radio”/ Yoshia Toshio. On Admiral Yamamoto’s flagship/ Noda Mitsuharu. In a fighter cockpit on the Soviet border/ Mogami Sadao. Sailing south/ Masuda Reiji. A failure of diplomacy/ Kase Toshikazu; Greater East Asia: Cartoons for the war/ Yokoyama Ryūichi. Building the Burma-Siam Railroad/ Abe Hiroshi. Keeping order in the Indies/ Nogi Harumichi. “Korean guard”/ Kasayama Yoshikichi; The Emperor’s warriors: Maker of soldiers/ Debun Shigenobu. “As long as I don’t fight, I’ll make it home”/ Suzuki Murio. Zero ace/ Sakai Saburō; “Demons from the East”: Army doctor/ Yuasa Ken. Spies & bandits/ Uno Shintarō. Unit 731/ Tamura Yoshio

3 Homeland: Life goes on: The end of a bake shop/ Arakawa Hiroyo. Burdens of a village bride/ Tanaka Toki. Dressmaker/ Koshino Ayako; War work: Making balloon bombs/ Tanaka Tetsuko. Forced labor/ Ahn Juretsu. Poison-gas island/ Nakajima Yoshimi; Wielding pen & camera: Filming the news/ Asai Tatsuzō. War correspondent/ Hata Shōryū. Reporting from Imperial General Headquarters/ Kawachi Uichirō; Against the tide: Thought criminal/ Hatanaka Shigeo. “Isn’t my brother one of the ‘war dead’?”/ Kiga Sumi; Childhood: Playing at war/ Satō Hideo; Art & entertainment: “I loved American movies”/ Hirosawa Ei. Star at the Moulin Rouge/ Sugai Toshiko. “We wouldn’t paint war art”/ Maruki Iri & Maruki Toshi

4 Lost battles: The slaughter of an army: The “green desert” of New Guinea/ Ogawa Masatsugu. Soldiers’ deaths/ Ogawa Tamotsu. “Honorable death” on Saipan/ Yamauchi Takeo; Sunken fleet/ Lifeboat/ Matsunaga Ichirō. Transport war/ Masuda Reiji; “Special attack”: Volunteer/ Yokota Yutaka. Human torpedo/ Kōzu Naoji. Bride of a kamikaze/ Araki Shigeko. Requiem/ Nishihara Wakana

5 “One hundred million die together”: The burning skies/ “Hiroko died because of me”/ Funato Kazuyo. At the telephone exchange/ Tomizawa Kimi & Kobayashi Hiroyasu; The war comes home to Okinawa: Student nurses of the Lily Corps/ Miyagi Kikuko. “Now they call it “group suicide”/ Kinjō Shigeaki. Straggler/ Ōta Masahide; In the enemy’s hands: White flag/ Kojima Kiyofumi; “A new terrible weapon”: 800 meters from the hypocenter/ Yamaoka Michiko. A Korean in Hiroshima/ Shin Bok Su. 5 photographs of Aug. 6/ Matsushige Yoshito. “Forgetting is a blessing”/ Kimura Yasuko

6 The unresolved war: Reversals of fortune: Flight/ Fukushima Yoshi. From Bandung to Starvation Island/ Iitoyo Shōgo. “The army’s been a good life”/ Tanida Isamu; Crimes & punishments: death row at Changi Prison/ Abe Hiroshi. “The didn’t tell me”/ Fujii Shizue; The long shadow of death: The Emperor’s retreat/ Yamane Masako. “My boy never came home”/ Imai Shike; Reflections: Teaching war/ Ienaga Saburō. Meeting at Yasukuni Shrine/ Kiyama Terumichi. Lessons/ Mogami Sadao. A quest for meaning/ Ōta Masahide; Endings: Homecoming/ Tominaga Shōzo. The face of the enemy/ Sasaki Naokata. Imperial gifts for the war dead/ Kawashima Eiko. Royalties/ Yokoyama Ryūichi. “I learned about the war from Grandma”/ Miyagi Harumi. The occupiers/ Kawachi Uichirō. Back to the beginning/ Hayashi Shigeo