A Boy Called H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan (Kan Yamaguchi Series) [Paperback]

Kappa Senoh (Author), John Bester (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2003 | Series: Kan Yamaguchi Series

This is the fascinating true story of a Japanese boy's growing disillusionment with the conduct of a patriotic war.

Boy H's father was a tailor, his mother a tambourine-banging Christian in a country of very few Christians. His childhood unfolded in the 1930s, when militarism was steadily strengthening its grip on Japan; it ended when the nation lay in ruins. What set H apart from other kids, despite the shared preoccupation with schoolmates, movies, and sex, was an unusually sharp eye and a precociously skeptical attitude that made him a bit of a loner in a conformist society.

Though at times dark, his anecdotes are arranged with the lightest of touches and a sharp sense of humor. The total effect is of a rich, varied, and intensely readable novel, but one that involves real lives, actual events.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A bestseller in Japan, Senoh's memoir (written effectively if unusually in the third person) of his childhood in wartime Kobe is refreshing in the honesty with which it faces some ugly realities in Japan before and during WWII. Senoh describes in meticulous detail the Orwellian nature of wartime Japan, with its secret police, its press censorship and its suffocating atmosphere of enforced conformity. Senoh and his family were suspected of disloyalty because they were practicing Christians and had friends in the U.S. What's most shocking about Senoh's account, however, is that despite his inner rebellion against the war, he consistently did his "public duty." In the book's most revealing episode, Senoh gives a passionate speech to a school admissions board about "smash[ing] the American and British fiends." Again and again, Senoh robotically mouths the party line when the situation requires it. He even assists an army officer in capturing a downed American pilot. How does Senoh resolve the breathtaking inconsistency between his doubting private self and his gung-ho public self? He doesn't. Senoh seems more comfortable hinting at, rather than directly confronting, big questions about personal responsibility and collective guilt. Maybe these questions remain too painful, both for himself and the entire Japanese nation, but failing to ask them leaves a gaping hole at the center of this narrative. At times, the book reads more like a detailed historical account and less like a personal story of survival; readers expecting an intimate memoir might be disappointed by Senoh's choice to tell his story from the distance of an emotionally detached third person. Nonetheless, this book is engaging, well-crafted and original. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Once in a blue moon, a book comes along that makes you want to put the world on hold. A Boy Called H is such a book. This fictionalized autobiography by a leading Japanese stage designer, essayist, and illustrator re-creates the boyhood years of the eponymous H or Hajime Senoh. The Senohs, a Kobe family of modest means, were distinguished by their Christian faith and their extensive contact with foreigners. (H's father was a tailor.) Precocious, inquisitive, and irreverent, H came of age during the dark years of Japan's descent into the abyss of war and was a middle-school student during the conflict. The 50 vignettes that comprise this book provide an accessible, unforgettable, and intimate introduction to the effects of the war upon Japanese family life, friendships, school, and society. A Boy Called H ranks with a handful of classics about children in wartime. It belongs in multiple copies in all libraries.
-Steven I. Levine, Univ. of Montana, Missoula
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 536 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha USA; First Trade edition (February 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770029357
• ISBN-13: 978-4770029355
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,401,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful insight into life in wartime Japan, December 20, 2000

By 

manfarang (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Boy Called H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan (Kan Yamaguchi Series) (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book so much that after reading a public library copy I ordered a copy for my personal library. (Although the book is self-described as autobiographical fiction, the library had it housed in the biography section.) The 50 chapters are very short, perfect for pre-bedtime reading, and the writing is simply enough that I would imagine that many young teens could enjoy it as well. H is not always a likeable character - he can be obnoxious and quite selfish at times. But he is also bright, perceptive, and frequently winds up doing the right thing in spite of himself.

Written from the viewpoint of a young boy growing up in wartime Japan, criticism that the book doesn't address the atrocities committed by the Japanese military throughout Asia doesn't make much sense as the Japanese government hid these events (as well as its military defeats and appalling casualty rates) from its people even more than it tried to hide them from the world. The book is obviously critical of the leadership that persisted in pursuing a war that could have resulted in the virtual annihilation of the Japanese people and amazingly forgiving of an enemy that intentionally killed, at a minimum, hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians through strafings, fire-bombings and, of course, the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"A Boy Called H" is an entertaining companion piece to Kiyoshi Kiyosawa's "A Diary of Darkness" and Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook's "Japan At War: An Oral History." (I would also recommend Yukio Mishima's classic "Confessions of a Mask" - a superb novel about a schoolage boy in wartime Japan.) Books like these help us to remember to put a human face on our enemies, past and present. When we bomb civilian centers we are not killing a faceless entity called "the enemy" - we are killing men, women and children, most of whom are just going about their daily lives trying to survive.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fictionalized, but educational, June 2, 2007

By 

Linda Austin "Moonbridge" (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Boy Called H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan (Kan Yamaguchi Series) (Paperback)

"A Boy Called H" may just be fiction based on author Senoh's life, but it carries a revealing look at what was going on in Japan during WWII. It is an engaging story of an adventurous, curious and intelligent young boy doing his best to survive, and it is much more enjoyable to read than a dry scholarly publication. It is best read knowingly, understanding that there are truths within the fiction - truths that I would venture many people are unaware of. Even today it is important for all of us to understand how a government can take its people into a war that they never voted for and persuade them to believe it is for a just cause.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A highly credible book, July 10, 2000

By 

James W. Hawkins (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Boy Called H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan (Kan Yamaguchi Series) (Hardcover)

"This is a riveting account of a boy who saw through the propaganda of his government and remained true to himself throughout a very difficult time in his nation's history. It is a very personal account of the war years in Japan and the author limits himself to what a boy could have known in Japan at the time. He doesn't go far afield and try to write a history of the entire war in Asia, which, had he done that, would have detracted from the credibility of his story. The translator takes some liberties with language and includes a few idiomatic phrases in English, which were probably not spoken during the 1938-45 period but this may make it more understandable for the younger reader while only mildly annoying the older reader (myself). I had trouble putting the book down and I was sad when it ended--the best recommendation I can give for a book. I long for a sequel written in the same interesting style; each chapter is a self-contained story but intimately connected with the preceding ones. The author also includes many charming details such as the taking of drops of blood from the ear lobe rather than from finger tips (much more painful), a medical practice issue only now being scientifically examined in the West. I hope my U.S. friends read this book and I certainly have recommended it to my Japanese friends. I plan to buy copies for gifts especially when it becomes available in paperback."