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

This book provides a fascinating perspective on the social and political attitudes of prominent Japanese writers from the start of the Pacific War to the end of the Allied Occupation. Donald Keene was a 23-year-old American naval officer at the time, translating Japanese communiques and interrogating prisoners of war for intelligence purposes. He was on one side of the conflict, while the writers here, some of whom would later become friends and associates, were on the other. Keene is professor emeritus at Columbia University and éminence grise in the west on matters of Japanese literature. A scholar of considerable breadth of inquiry, in So Lovely A Country he has chosen diary entries that reveal the full range of responses to Japan's course of action. These include the rabid jingoism of the day, how many writers were all but forced to write propaganda by a censoring military clique as a means of feeding their families, while for others the war cry was genuine, and what attitudes were during the Occupation. Keene wants the immediate response to events, so all diary entries are contemporaneous. There is no long reassessing view. The book is particularly articulate on the vast sense of shame and loss of face most Japanese felt on surrender. The book is rich and moving in so many unexpected ways, especially on aspects of the day to day life ordinary Japanese. I'm a general reader of nonfiction with an interest in wartime Japan, but by no means a specialist, and the book held me spellbound. Highly recommended.