So Lovely a Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers

Donald Keene

Published by Columbia University Press 2010

So Lovely a Country Will Never Perish

Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers

Donald Keene

In the series Asia Perspectives: History, Society, and Culture

https://doi.org/10.7312/keen15146

Overview
Contents

About this book

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 writersincluding Nagai Kafu, Takami Jun, Yamada Futaru, and Hirabayashi Taikoand 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.

Author / Editor information

Donald Keene is Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University. He is the author of more than thirty books, including Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan; Frog in the Well: Portraits of Japan by Watanabe Kazan, 1793-1841; and Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, as well as a definitive multivolume history of Japanese literature.

Reviews

Ian Buruma:
[A] superb little book.

Anthony Head:
Keene has scoured the wartime diaries of numerous Japanese writers and judiciously woven excerpts into an elegant narrative that provides some acute insights into the mentality of the Japanese during the years of their greatest crisis.

Lorien Kaye:
Keene shows the complicated and varied reactions to the war.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction: Wartime Diaries Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Day the War Began Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
2. The Birth of “Greater East Asia” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
3. False Victories and Real Defeats Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
4. A Dismal New Year Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
5. On the Eve Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
6. The Jade Voice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
7. The Days After Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
8. The Revival of Literature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
9. Rejection of the War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
10. Under the Occupation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 192

eBook

Published: April 28, 2010
ISBN: 9780231522724