Customer Reviews

Literacy and Script Reform in Occupation Japan: Reading between the Lines

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This short work has wider implications than its title suggests. While a SCAP-sponsored education experiment on language reform is the centerpiece of the book, J. Marshall Unger has broadened the scope of his piece to include short but interesting write-ups on literacy in the Tokugawa, Meiji, and pre-war periods as well as Japanese indigenous efforts to reform their script during that same time frame.

This work might appeal to you even if you have no interest in what SCAP was doing during the occupation. An interest in the romanization of East Asian scripts or literacy issues would be enough. Unger writes well and has a certain fiery opinionatedness to him that belies what most people would consider his dull subject matter. He is passionate about the topic, and takes sides, but always with evidence and arguments.