Customer Reviews

Harp of Burma (Tuttle Classics)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

At the end of WWII, Corporal Mizushima, the pride of his unit, accepts an assignment to convince another Japanese unit to surrender to British forces. Mizushima's unit goes to a POW camp and spends its days tormented by the fate of their missing comrade, who had become something of a symbol of good luck and hope for them. About this time, they also become aware of a travelling Burmese monk who often wanders through the area and bears a striking resemblance to...could it be? I don't want to reveal too much, but what these soldiers learn will affect them deeply and give them a new understanding of what it means to be faithful to one's countrymen--an understanding that is entirely different from the patriotic nationalism that caused them to go to war in the first place.

Michio Takeyama's novel includes sequences of high adventure as well as beautiful, elegiac passages and meditations on spirituality and responsibility. A highly entertaining and rewarding novel.

One of my favorite books. It contains one of the most brilliant and moving scenes ever written. Far from nationalistic propoganda, I found this to be a moving portrayal of the pacific war and how the Japanese troops felt during the closing stages of it. Rather than faceless, evil minions dominant in American popular culture, this book employs well shaped characters to explore what people do when a war is lost and their country lays in ruins. This book asks important questions about whether war is inherent to materialistic societies and whether human beings can kill each other once their humanity is revealed. The answers to these questions shape this book and form the thoughtful basis of an engaging story.

Some may feel that the Japanese still haven't come to grips with what their nation did in World War 2, and this book will only reinforce that view. If you think that everything Japan does from now until the end of time should, in some way, be an apology for the role Japan played, then you will hate this book, but you'll only be hurting yourself.

I only read the book because I had to for a class, but that didn't keep me from falling in love with it. The way the author describes things like the terror the Japanese soldiers had for the Gurkas, or how the main character convinces his surrounded friends that the war is over and that they can surrender are scenes I will never forget. Most of all, the burning desire of the Japanese to go home and start over will move anyone.

No, these Japanese soldiers aren't the monsters that some think they all were, but that doesn't make it a bad book.

Frankly, I ordered "Harp of Burma" by mistake but it looked interesting when I received it so I kept it. In its' brevity, it didn't take me long to find the time to read it. It is a story of the end of war and one man's discovery that his job is just beginning. It is told through the eyes of a company of Japanese soldiers (serving in Burma, of course) who surrender to the British when told the war has ended. There was a need for a volunteer to go an try to convince another company of Japanese to surrender. Corporal Mizushima volunteers and assurances are made that he will be able to catch up with his company. "Harp of Burma" is the story of what happened to Mizushima and how it challenged and then changed him. There's no need to say more; once you start reading this book, you will likely feel compelled to find out the rest for yourself.

"Harp of Burma" is well written and easy to follow. It is an intentional tale of peace, understanding and perspective. The author's focus on this leaves the brutality of war as something that victimizes the soldiers of both sides. That may be true but the absence of animosity between combatants the moment peace arrives struck me as unnecessarily simplistic. Having said that, I confess that, for the sake of the deserving message presented, I let my reservations take a hike. In "Harp of Burma" everything gets looked at in a different way. This book won't change the world but it may help us appreciate that some individuals just might.

This book challenges your preconceptions, demands that you rethink what war is. More than anything, this book investigates the problem of meaning - what does it mean to be human? Examining the problem of meaning, particularly in the context of war and contrary to many persons preconceptions, this book opens the mind if one lets it. While superficially the story of Japanese soldiers at the end of World War Two, the underlying message should disturb one and all: the "enemy" is often all too human and all too humane. Highly recommended.

Harp of Burma is a tragic and heartbreaking book. The striking originality of the story is a perfect antidote to the overblown and overripe pretentiousness of most of the books as well as films about the causes and effects of the Second World War (Saving Private Ryan, Sophie's Choice, Schindler's List, Diary of Anne Frank, Pearl Harbor, etc. etc.). A very fine work of art to be savored by all. It has been required reading in honors English and History high school classes throughout the United States. One final note: the 1956 film version is excellent.

I saw this 1956 b/w film during my childhood, a more than a half decade ago. However, until recently I have never read the original novel which was written for children by a Japanese scholar in German literature, shortly after the bloody WWII was over. I got a feeling that this book symbolizes a remorse of this author who taught at a famous senior highschool and sent off so many young talented students (teens) of his own to the battle field in China and Burma to perish, without protesting against the invasion by the Japanese military government. My own father was also a school teacher in German literature during this war, and protested actively against such an invasion, and inevitably lost his teaching job. He has never mentioned about this book (and its author), although they were at a similar age (with a few years gap) and in the same academic field.That is how I missed this book in my childhood. Now over 65, I got interested in reading this children book, and compared with a recent non-fiction book "The Bone Man of Kokoda" by Charles Happell (2008). It is about a Japanese soldier who fought in PNG, and lost all fellow soldiers there, and after the war (and his retirement at age 60) returned to the old battle field of PNG, and spent 25 years for digging the bones and remainings of his fellow soldiers who perished in Kokoda Trail, fullfilling his old pledge that he made just before he evacuated PNG during the war. People saw a close resemblance in the bottom of their soul (or heart) between these two remarkable Japanese soldiers (fiction and fact).

Japan was at war with China for nearly a decade. China fought WWII for nearly 4 years. In this book, soldiers are deluded when they are sent to Burma to fight the British. During the later part of the war, thousands of Japanese soldiers died in this conflict. In this fictionous account, a company of soldiers led by a wise captain sings to keep up their morale. Their favorite soldier is lost in a battle between the British and Japanese. The loss of this corporal is felt throughout the unit. After being interned, they see a monk watching them from their place of internment. The monk is the missing corporal who died and reawakened spiritually.

The book details the loss of life and how we honor our dead and life itself. Although written by a Japanese artist, it has a universal meaning to all people. This is classic literature very relevant to our modern age.

This is one of my favorite books of all time. Written in the immediate post-war period, I heard it was intended to give Japanese junior high school students hope to rebuild Japan, after a crushing, empty defeat at the end of such a long war effort filled with self-sacrifice for their no-longer-divine Emperor. The book has a deep Buddhist message that resonated with me, but I think it's a broader spiritual message, not limited to a particular religion. The main character forsakes his identity and citizenship in order to properly dispose of the remains of slaughtered soldiers. He attempts to atone for war, while the rest of his regiment goes about the business of being returned to Japan, via a British POW camp.
I read this book in a university course in which we compared literary aspects of the novel and the film (by Kon Ichikawa). The film is also very good, but I preferred the book. You do get to hear the music in the film, though.

The subtlety of the book's first 2/3s is haunting and gives the reader a glimpse into Japanese soldiers beyond the Westernized kamikaze-type warrior. That said, there is a plot twist which is ludicrous and breaks the entire mood and flow of the piece. Then, in the last few pages, the book regains its composure. The plot twist I refer to, without giving anything away, would be more fitting in one of those horrible B-movies you see.

Want true Eastern writing? Go with The Old Capital. Beauty in all that takes place beneath the surface.