School Study Guides

10

Japanese Book News

Number 17

He is known for his repeated state-

ments justifying the war. This book

chronicles in a detached style the

make-up of a society that cannot pro-

duce the integrity to recognize re-

sponsibility for the war, as

symbolized in Sejima’s thought and

activities, the record of which lay

“silent” for so many decades.

Ichinichi isshin: Senchi kara tsuma

eno sen-roppyaku-tsû no hagaki [A

Letter a Day: My 1600 Postcards to

My Wife from the Battlefield]. Aoki

Hajime. Ôzorasha, 1996. 188\128

mm. 372 pp. ¥1,800. ISBN 4-7568-

0300-8. 

Every day during his service on the

front line of battle during World War

II, the author (b. 1911) wrote and sent

off a postcard to his wife back in

Japan. His motive in compiling this

book is to examine his own state of

mind at the time of the war on the oc-

casion of the fiftieth anniversary of

its end. 

A school teacher before the war,

and an educator of many years expe-

rience, Aoki says, “From our per-

spective today, the letters show how

thoroughly I was imbued with educa-

tional values of the emperor system

and Japanese militarism.” “Recalling

the way teachers were trained in

those days, I cannot help being pro-

foundly embarrassed.” A valuable

document of history, these letters ex-

press candid feelings, including the

prejudices shared by Japanese during

the war. 

Kessenka no yûtopia [Utopia Under

the All-out War]. Aramata Hiroshi.

Bungei Shunjû, 1996. 194\133 mm.

266 pp. ¥1,600. ISBN 4-16-351920-

3.

Aramata is a multi-talented writer of

scientific reportage, science fiction,

and even natural history. Hypothe-

sizing that Japan under the militarist

regime of World War II was in the

clutches of a sort of utopic fantasy,

he takes up a variety of topics re-

volving around everyday life—

marriage, fashion, babies, science

education, savings, insurance, food,

and theater—and looks at them as

part of the “utopia under the all-out

war.” 

Until now cultural histories of

wartime Japan have tended to follow

a fixed tone portraying all Japanese

as uniformly obedient to national

policy, their thought and intellects

under the strong grip of wartime pro-

paganda. This book overturns all

these stereotypes, recounting the irre-

pressible story of the lives of people

who did not always conform with the

militarists’ rigid controls. This is a

unique history that focuses not on

consciously articulated rhetoric but

on semi-conscious revelations as con-

veyed in magazines, books, and di-

aries written during the war years.

Kôkôsei ga ou nezumi mura to

Nana-san-ichi butai [High School

Students in Pursuit of the Experi-

mental “Rat” Town and the 731st

Regiment]. Saitama-kenritsu Shôwa

Kôkô Chiri Rekishi Kenkyûbu and

Endô Kôji. Kyôiku Shiryô Shuppan-

kai, 1996. 182\128 mm. 212 pp.

¥1,545. ISBN 4-87652-297-9.

In 1938, in the suburbs of Harbin,

Manchuria (northeastern China) was

stationed the 731st Regiment of

Japan’s Guandong Army. This regi-

ment is now known to have engaged

in cruel experiments on humans to

develop bacteriological weapons. It

was there that they produced the fleas

infected with bubonic plague germs

injected into rats. These fleas were to

be used as weapons of final recourse.

The source of supply for the rats

needed for this mass-production of

infested fleas was a village in the

eastern Saitama prefecture. As an ex-

tracurricular club project, students at

Shôwa High School in Saitama de-

cided to undertake a study of the con-

nection between the rats propagated

in this local town and the infamous

regiment. The study began with inter-

views of local farmers and persons

involved with shipping and extended

to interviews with surviving members

of the 731st Regiment as well as

family members of the Chinese who

were the victims of the experiments.

This volume is the result of their

findings.

Most of the people involved in

raising the rats believed that they

were being used for scientific experi-

ments. Here we see the history of

victimization that was going on de-

spite the best intentions of ordinary

citizens.

Cover design: Sakata Masanori

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11

Japanese Book News

Number 17

The significance of the findings of

this survey, carried on by the high

school students despite their studies

for the university examinations, occa-

sional threats from right-wing reac-

tionaries daring them to discredit the

wartime regime, and resistance from

local residents, is tremendous. It is an

important document for considering

the issues of Japan’s war responsi-

bility.

Ôkura Kihachirô no gôkai naru

shôgai [The Grand Life of Ôkura

Kihachirô]. Sunagawa Yukio.

Sôshisha, 1996. 194\135 mm. 286

pp. ¥2,000. ISBN 4-7942-0701-8.

Meiji-period industrialist Ôkura Ki-

hachirô (1837–1928) certainly left his

mark on Japan’s modern history. As

the founder of numerous large corpo-

rations, he was one of the “fathers” 

of Japanese capitalism; as the

founder of schools and the benefactor

of many public welfare enterprises,

he was also a leading philanthropist.

Buildings, businesses, and organiza-

tions bearing his name exist

throughout the country, from the

Ôkura Schanze [Ôkura Ski Jump]

used in the 1972 Sapporo Winter

Olympic Games to the prestigious

Hotel Okura in Tokyo. For all that,

however, Ôkura the man has been

largely forgotten.

His entrepreneurial career began

with a gun shop he opened immedi-

ately before the Meiji Restoration

(1868). As a certified purveyor to the

Meiji government he was able to ex-

pand his business with every flare-up

of war or civil unrest. Brimming with

the spirit of enterprise and innova-

tion, he took fact-finding trips

abroad, sometimes joining members

of the government’s historic Iwakura

mission (1871–73) to the United

States and Europe, and was an ardent

supporter of the development of new

technology for rail transport, commu-

nications, and other industries.

Deeply impressed by Ôkura’s ap-

proach to life, the author offers this

biography in an effort to redeem

Ôkura from his reputation as a villain

whom some have even called “the

merchant of death.” Although his 

account tends to eulogize Ôkura, it

nevertheless makes a fine case for

reevaluating the role such individuals

played in the formative years of

Japanese capitalism.

Zenkyôtô kara ribu e [From the Stu-

dent Movement to Women’s Lib].

Onnatachi no Ima o Tou Kai, ed. Im-

pakuto Shuppankai, 1996. 209\149

mm. 496 pp. ¥3,090. ISBN 4-7554-

0057-0.

This book is the eighth and last

volume in a series called “Jûgoshi

nôto sengo hen 8” [Notes on the His-

tory of the Home Front], which is an

attempt at recording the history of

contemporary Japanese women

arising from the question: “Women

were in fact victims of the war, but

they were also the ‘women on the

home front’ who supported and

backed Japan’s war of aggression.

Why was that all they were able to

do?”

Dealing with events between 1968

and 1975, this volume includes a

round-table discussion, memoires, re-

ports based on interviews, and es-

says. Placed against the global

background of the times, the work re-

views the path of the women’s move-

ment in Japan from the student 

movement of the late 1960s, to rad-

ical women’s liberation, the begin-

ning of women’s studies, and popular

women’s rights activism.

Zoku Nihon no rekishi o yominaosu

[Searching for a New Perspective of

Japanese History]. Amino Yoshihiko.

Chikuma Shobô, 1996. 181\127

mm. 204 pp. ¥1,100. ISBN 4-480-

04196-6.

Attempts to redefine Japan have be-

come common in recent years both in

Japan and abroad. Those efforts,

however, have not significantly al-

tered views of Japanese history and

society, which remain as widely ac-

cepted as before.

Deeply concerned about this state

of affairs, the author, a distinguished

scholar of Japanese medieval history,

presents in this book a new version of

Japanese history that draws widely

from research in several fields in ad-

dition to his own, including archae-

ology and philology. Some of the

most undisputed beliefs about Japan

that come under his sharp scalpel are:

as an island country unaffected by

external influences, it developed an

isolated and closed society and a

unique culture difficult for foreigners

to understand; and Japanese society

is fundamentally agrarian and be-

came industrialized only after the

Meiji Restoration. After dispensing

with such myths, the author proceeds

to piece together a surprising new

picture of Japan’s past.

For international readers familiar

with Japan studies, as for Japanese

themselves, this work represents an

exciting new development in the dis-

course on Japan.

Cover design: Ashizawa Taii

Cover design: Rote Linie

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