Product Description
This groundbreaking work of oral history captures for the first time ever the remarkable story of ordinary Japanese people during World War II. In a sweeping panorama, Haruko Taya and Theodore Cook take us from the Japanese attacks on China in the 1930s to the Japanese homefront during the inhuman raids on Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, offering the first glimpses of how this century’s most violent conflict affected the lives of the Japanese population. Japan At Wa… More >>
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I thought it was VERY detailed. Some books just have the basics, But this book has everything you’d ever want to know about Japan and the atomic bomb. I’m a middle school student and I had to do a report for one of my classes. On the star rating, I gave it 5 Stars!
Rating: 5 / 5
The Cooks have done an excellent job in capturing the experience of the Pacific War. It’s refreshing to find oral history and primary resources at the heart of this book. The stories are moving, the images are vivid, and the language is simplified. Thank you
Rating: 5 / 5
As an American Nisei (2nd generation) Japanese american, my parents experienced the terror of the civilian firebombing at the end of World War II. Since they, as many, are reluctant to talk about it, this book helped me to capture some of their experiences and come to a greater understanding of an extremely difficult time. The irrefutability of oral history as the direct retelling of recollection and experience creates a context for telling these heretofore untold stories. It provides a sense of the greater story in a way that documentary and narrative historiographic contexts told from the perspective of the “winner” are unable to capture.
Rating: 5 / 5
How do I describe in words the emotion this book evokes. It simply can’t be done. Of all the books I have read on this era of Japanese history, this one had the most impact by far. Oral histories are valuable because they reveal the side of history you don’t hear about in dry history books, they reveal the human side of tragic events in this case. Anyone interested in learning about Wartime Japan must read this book.
Rating: 5 / 5
Pacific War experiences related by those who lived it on the Japanese side. Excellent and moving accounts of what the disastrous war was like “on the other side.” Helps us see that all people are human beings, not the caricatures and stereotypes portrayed in propaganda of either side.
Rating: 5 / 5