Customer Reviews

A Diary of Darkness

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This diary is aptly named. The mood is somber, and the images are distorted, like those in a nightmare. I used to be skeptical about claims that the Japanese people would have fought an American invasion in the streets, and that millions could have been killed in the carnage. After reading this journal, I'm inclined to believe it could have happened. Patriotism and solidarity hijacked by fools and fanatics took Japan down a long tunnel, chronicled by Kiyoshi. Many Japanese were lost in a haze of self-deception. Kiyoshi contemporaneously describes the conflict between the Japanese Army and Navy - Japan was certainly not united, though few would speak this truth out loud. Kiyoshi documents the capacity of bureaucrats bent on impressing their higher-ups to speak silly nonsense; his disgust is palpable. He reveals the extent of famine in the final years, when his own most precious resource is a garden plot. Kiyoshi's description of the April 16, 1945, bombing of Tokyo captures facts and a mood: "The newly built factories of Shimomaruko had become nothing more than burned fields. In some places we heard thumps and the explosions of time-delayed bombs. ... I saw the burning of the Kawasaki industrial area and Shimomaruko and was astonished at the totality of the destructive power of modern war. Now I see its burned remains. This all happened in a period of less than ten hours. The electric trains stop, and electricity no longer flows. The water system and gas are halted. According to Akita's account, people who fled to the riverbank of the Tama were killed by bombs, and corpses without heads and trunks were transported away." Also startling are his simple sentences announcing major events. (Fri, April 13):"There is a report that President Roosevelt has died of a cerebral hemorrhage." (Mon, April 23): "The Red Army is invading Berlin. The Nazis will die in suicidal stand to the bitter end. Is such a style of warfare to be praised?" (Wed, May 2): "There is a report that Hitler is dead. It has been communicated that Mussolini has also been murdered." Kiyoshi (who lived for several years in the U.S. before the end of World War I), never saw the end of the Second World War. The last entry in his diary was May 5, 1945. He died that month of pneumonia, caused by malnutrition. This book is rightly seen as a classic. It is a powerful warning about the consequences of arrogance and self-delusion.

This is the only book that I've read that gives an uncensored account of the war from a Japanese citizen. He brings up a lot of questions about the Japanese government and their extreme stupidity. He also tells of what it's like to live in a war torn country.

What I found quite intriguing was his predictions early in the war that eventually came true. It's too bad he did not live to see the end of the war.