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Collection of WWII Japanese Diaries Offers Powerful
Accounts of the Impacts of War
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Historian Samuel Yamashita has spent more than a decade
collecting, reading and translating the diaries of Japanese
citizens during World War II. His book Leaves from an
Autumn of Emergencies: Selections from the Wartime Diaries
of Ordinary Japanese (University of Hawaii Press,
September 2005) is the first English compilation of Japanese
personal diaries.
For most Americans, especially those who remember the war,
excerpts from the WWII diaries present a more nuanced and
unfamiliar view of the "Japanese enemy.” This, Yamashita
notes, “says a lot about the wartime need to dehumanize the
enemy and to portray even enemy civilians as barbaric,
inhumane, foreign, etc. It also echoes what has been going
on over the past two years with our Middle Eastern enemies.
It’s pretty clear that most Americans, except those in Pearl
Harbor, don’t know what it’s like to be bombed.”
The book’s eight selected diaries contain a range of WWII
experience. The authors include: a special attack (kamikaze)
pilot; a 75-year-old Kyoto businessman; the wife of a Tokyo
physician; an 11-year-old boy trained to kill the enemy; a
straggling private who hid for a month after the war because
he didn’t believe rumors of the war’s end; and a 9-year-old
girl evacuated from Tokyo before the bombings.
Hisako Yoshizawa, a 27-year-old working woman in western
Tokyo:
February 26, 1945 - Two days after 172 B-29s attacked Tokyo:
I was deeply moved as I gazed at the expanse of burned
out buildings. It was an area that bore the imprint of the
many years that countless numbers of people had spent there.
I was sad, too, because the coffee shop we used to go to
burned down. Living each day amidst this destruction has
become unbearable. Is this natural selection?
Takamashi Aiko, a 51-year-old Tokyo housewife:
April 15, 1945, Sunday
It appeared the area being bombed was growing. The sky
was enveloped in black smoke, and the fires on the ground
were reflected in the sky, painting it red and black, an
indescribable color. Although we couldn’t see the enemy
planes, we could hear them, and their tremendous roar
intensified our fear. Was it safer to go right or to dodge
to the left? We couldn’t decide even that. I slid down into
a hollow clutching Emii to me, and we made ourselves as
small as possible and prayed to God. Where had all the
people come from? The top of Kume’s mountain was crowded
with people fleeing the fires….We weren’t able to hear
anything but the thunderous roar behind us.
Pvt. Seiki Nomura, 23-years-old:
August 10, 1945 (Fri) Rain, then clear and windy
I heard stories about officers and men who shouted, "Long
live the emperor!" and then went off to their deaths, and I
felt even more than before how futile this was.... This I
could never imitate.
If people say that we as citizens of Japan never cease to
benefit from the emperor's generosity, had the emperor's
power and virtue really been that sort of thing up to that
point? I wasn’t persuaded.... The emperor was too distant, a
presence that had nothing to do with me. Somehow I just
couldn’t get used to the idea of shouting "banzai!" and
dying for this emperor. I have fought, not for the emperor,
but for the homeland where more familiar parents and
siblings, relatives, and friends live and for the ancestral
country. And even now my thoughts on the emperor haven't
changed. Nor was this view mine alone. Except for the
officers and men who shout "Long live the emperor!"--isn't
this how most officers and men think?
Takamashi Aiko, a 51-year-old Tokyo housewife:
August 9, 1945, Thursday
“The same sort of strange bomb that was dropped on
Hiroshima three days ago was dropped on Nagasaki today, and
it was wiped out. This bomb possesses extraordinary power.
Photographs showed that Chinese ideographs written in black
on signs at train stations had burned, and it was explained
that white things wouldn’t burn. Up to now, we’ve been
ordered not to wear white garments, not even when t was hot,
because they were easy for the enemy planes to see. Now
we’re warned not to wear black garments because they burn
easily. So what in the world is safe for us to wear? We
don’t know anymore. The thought of a single aircraft
destroying a large city in an instant is driving us to
nervous breakdowns, and I feel as though as we have no
choice but to die or go crazy.”
Yamashita is the Henry E. Sheffield Professor of History at
Pomona College. During his research on the war’s impact on
ordinary Japanese citizens, he read more than 50 WWII
Japanese diaries and more than 100 “last letters” of
kamikaze pilots.
“What’s particularly striking about the diaries,” says
Yamashita, “is how clearly you can feel the authors’
desperation as the bombing progresses. [American’s]
systematic bombing of Japan completely undermined home-front
morale, bringing Japan close to surrender even before the
atomic bombs were dropped! The diaries I’ve read reveal very
clearly that the war had been lost before the atomic bombing
of Japan, and that this was obvious to everyone--the
military top-brass, civilian leaders, intellectuals, and the
general population.”
Pomona College is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts
institutions, offering a comprehensive program in the arts,
humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Its
hallmarks include small classes, close relationships between
students and faculty, and a range of opportunities for
student research. Visit Pomona College on the web at
www.pomona.edu.
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