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Chargement... So Lovely a Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers (2010)par Donald Keene
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. This book provides a fascinating perspective on the social and political attitudes of prominent Japanese writers from the start of the Pacific War to the end of the Allied Occupation. Donald Keene was a 23-year-old American naval officer at the time, translating Japanese communiques and interrogating prisoners of war for intelligence purposes. He was on one side of the conflict, while the writers here, some of whom would later become friends and associates, were on the other. Keene is professor emeritus at Columbia University and éminence grise in the west on matters of Japanese literature. A scholar of considerable breadth of inquiry, in SO LOVELY A COUNTRY he has chosen diary entries that reveal the full range of responses to Japan's course of action. These include the rabid jingoism of the day, how many writers were all but forced to write propaganda by a censoring military clique as a means of feeding their families, while for others the war cry was genuine, and what attitudes were during the Occupation. Keene wants the immediate response to events, so all diary entries are contemporaneous. There is no long reassessing view. The book is particular articulate on the vast sense of shame and loss of face most Japanese felt on surrender. The book is rich and moving in so many unexpected ways, especially on aspects of the day to day life ordinary Japanese. I'm a general reader of nonfiction with an interest in wartime Japan, but by no means a specialist, and the book held me spellbound. Highly recommended. ( ) aucune critique | ajouter une critique
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The attack on Pearl Harbor, which precipitated the Greater East Asia War and its initial triumphs, aroused pride and a host of other emotions among the Japanese people. Yet the single year in which Japanese forces occupied territory from Alaska to Indonesia was followed by three years of terrible defeat. Nevertheless, until the shattering end of the war, many Japanese continued to believe in the invincibility of their country. But in the diaries of well-known writers?including Nagai Kafu, Takami Jun, Yamada Futaru, and Hirabayashi Taiko?and the scholar Watanabe Kazuo, varying doubts were vividly, though privately, expressed.Donald Keene, renowned scholar of Japan, selects from these diaries, some written by authors he knew well. Their revelations were sometimes poignant, sometimes shocking to Keene. Ito Sei's fervent patriotism and even claims of racial superiority stand in stark contrast to the soft-spoken, kindly man Keene knew. Weaving archival materials with personal recollections and the intimate accounts themselves, Keene reproduces the passions aroused during the war and the sharply contrasting reactions in the year following Japan's surrender. Whether detailed or fragmentary, these entries communicate the reality of false victory and all-too-real defeat. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)940.53History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- World War IIClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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