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SENSO: The Japanese Remember the Pacific War: Letters to the Editor of Asahi Shimbun, Expanded Edition
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Comments/Reviews
Description: This acclaimed work is an extraordinary collection of letters written by a wide cross-section of Japanese citizens to one of Japan's leading newspapers, expressing their personal reminiscences and opinions of the Pacific war. SENSO provides the general reader and the specialist with moving, disturbing, startling insights on a subject deliberately swept under the rug, both by Japan's citizenry and its government. It is an invaluable index of Japanese public opinion about the war.
For this new and expanded edition, the editor and translator have gone back to the original letters and incorporated new material on "reassessing" the war. All the letters from the previous edition are included, along with additional letters that provide expanded representation of the original collection and new insights on rethinking the war experience.
Selected Contents:
Foreword by Samuel Yamashita
Preface to the Expanded Edition
Introduction
1. The Road to War
2. Life in the Military
3. The China War
4. The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
5. The War in the Pacific
6. The Home Front
7. The Bombing of Japan
8. "We Are All Prisoners"
9. Japan Under Occupation
10. Rethinking the War Experience
11. Reassessment: Causes of War
Index
Comment(s): "In 1986 and 1987 the Asahi Shimbun solicited reminiscences of the war from its readers. The newspaper received over 4,000 letters. The Gibney-Cary translation of a selection has attained the status of a classic. They reveal many things, not least that the Japanese know full well what they did during the war, whether their politicians want to acknowledge it or not." -- Chalmers Johnson, author of MITI and the Japanese Miracle
Review(s): "A timely enhancement. ...an interesting work that offers many insights into the Asia-Pacific War, incorporating recent historical perspectives and indicating relevance to present-day issues." -- Pacific Affairs, Vol.80, No.2
    
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