Japanese WWII Literature- A Guide to Getting Started

Getting Started in Japanese Literature

Five Great WWII Literary Works

by Japanese Writers

The Reading Life Japanese Literature Project

Japanese Literature Five Reading Challenge

The Japanese Literature 3 challenge opened up a whole new reading world for me.  I think a lot of people would like to read more or even their first Japanese Literary work but they do not know where to start.   If you wander the big chain book stores you will not see much besides the work of Haruki Murakami.    Since I read my first work of Japanese literature back in July 2009 I have read about 100 works.     I am not an academic and make no claims of expertise at all but I want to share my experience a bit.   I  will do, I think, three or four Reading Life Guides to Japanese Literature to help participants in the challenge decide what to read.     The first one will be The Reading Life Guide to Getting Started in Japanese WWII literature.  I have read about 20 novels and shorter works written by Japanese authors about the Japanese experience in WWII.   Some are by Japanese  soldiers, some by victims of the Atom bomb attacks, and some were by Japanese opposed to the war.  I will post briefly on my "Top Five Japanese WWII Works.

1. The Crazy Iris and other Stories of the Atomic Aftermath selected and introduced by Kenzaburo Oe.     Eight stories about the days right after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, some by survivors.    These are some of the very wisest and saddest stories I have ever read.     Some of the writers went on to become big literary stars, some never wrote another story.

2.    One Man's Justice by Akira Yoshimura.    This is an account of the post WWII 

       life of a Japanese soldier who cut the head off an American POW after he and

       his unit knew they  had surrendered.   I think this is a totally brilliant novel that 

       makes us understand what it was like for the Japanese after WWII.   We follow

       the central character as he runs from the Americans, as he spends his time in

       prison and in his years of freedom.   In his mind, he did nothing wrong (as far 

       he was ever told by his leaders the Americans and their allies had attacked

       Japan and killed millions of civilians out of race hatred.) This is a great novel.

3.    Fires on the Plain by Shohei Ooka centers on the experience of a Japanese 

       soldier in the southern Philippines right after the return of the Americans.

       He is too ill to fight so he is turned out of his unit and told to go to the 

       coast and look for a boat home.    In other words he is thrown out as useless

       with the expectation by his superiors that he will be killed.    We see in this

       novel the conman humanity in this soldier as he slowly begins to

       understand his superiors care nothing about him.   Ooka was himself a 

       combat soldier in the Philippines until he was captured by the Americans.

      He carried a copy of The Red and the Black in his rucksack.

4.   The Burmese Harp by Michio Takeyama is a world class treasure.   UNESCO

      sponsored its translation into English.     It is about a soldier in a Japanese

      Army unit stationed in Burma.   The casualty rate among Japanese soldiers 

      was very high and when a soldier was killed his body had to be left 

      where it fell, contrary to all religious tradition.    This powerful book

      is about one man's attempt to live within the strictures of his Buddhist faith

      while serving in the Japanese army in Burma.    This is a great work of art.

5.    The Black Rain by  Masuji Ibuse  takes place in Hiroshima from August 4 to

       August 15, 1945.   The atomic bomb was dropped on the city on August 6,

       1945.     We are there when the residents read the warning leaflets the

       Americans dropped on the city and we are there right after the bomb hits

       and the survivors try to figure out what has happened.   At first a black rain 

       seems to come down on them and they think the Americans are dosing them

       in Kerosene so they can then set them all on fire.   We go through the terrible

       days right after the bomb hits.

       This is a beautiful book about a horrible subject.   As two side notes, as I read
       this I wondered who will be left to write the great novels about it if there is a
       WW III and I was somehow pleased to know Ibuse was also an admirer of
       Stendhal.    Ibuse was drafted into the Japanese army and served as a professor
       of Japanese culture in a Singapore university during the war.
   
     

Please let us know what your favorite Japanese WWII  works are.  I know there are lots of other great Japanese works about WWII but these are some ones I endorse without reservation.

I think I will next write a guide to Japanese Noir literature-The Darker Side of Tokyo

Then Japanese Historical novels-I am aware of some wonderful ones

       Mel u