Writing War: Soldiers Record the Japanese Empire
Aaron William Moore
Language: English
Pages: 388
ISBN: 0674059069
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Historians have made widespread use of diaries to tell the story of the Second World War in Europe but have paid little attention to personal accounts from the Asia-Pacific Theater. Writing War seeks to remedy this imbalance by examining over two hundred diaries, and many more letters, postcards, and memoirs, written by Chinese, Japanese, and American servicemen from 1937 to 1945, the period of total war in Asia and the Pacific. As he describes conflicts that have often been overlooked in the history of World War II, Aaron William Moore reflects on diaries as tools in the construction of modern identity, which is important to our understanding of history.
Any discussion of war responsibility, Moore contends, requires us first to establish individuals as reasonably responsible for their actions. Diaries, in which men develop and assert their identities, prove immensely useful for this task. Tracing the evolution of diarists’ personal identities in conjunction with their battlefield experience, Moore explores how the language of the state, mass media, and military affected attitudes toward war, without determining them entirely. He looks at how propaganda worked to mobilize soldiers, and where it failed. And his comparison of the diaries of Japanese and American servicemen allows him to challenge the assumption that East Asian societies of this era were especially prone to totalitarianism. Moore follows the experience of soldiering into the postwar period as well, and considers how the continuing use of wartime language among veterans made their reintegration into society more difficult.
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designed to ensure mutual observation and adherence to the “true” account of the war. Thus, U.S. war diaries employed TA L K A B O U T H E R O E S factual information to reinforce their claims to representing the “truth” of battle experience just like their counterparts in East Asia. Second, the war diary in the United States was a didactic tool that, like in East Asia, served to extend the disciplinary gaze of the state. Conveniently for readers today, Guam Island commander Larsen
scars, as seen through the diaries of Chinese Nationalist and Japanese ser vicemen during the first few months of “total war” in East Asia. Although experience consists primarily F RO M 7 J U LY M O B I L I Z AT I O N A N D T H E B AT T L E F I E L D of silence—that is, things ultimately beyond expression such as sensation and thought—soldiers tried to capture “what war was like” in diaries. Records of combat experience would later become the foundations for personal conclusions about self
country dies.” Also, we’re going to deal with the traitors and the cowards [lianzuofa]. W R I T I N G WA R There may have been more to the officers’ resolve than mere guts— after all, those who turned and fled too easily before the Japa nese were dealt with harshly: “Perhaps because Li Fuying will face the firing squad, all of the high ranking commanders in Shanxi are very committed.” Nevertheless, the possibility that failure would result in death was a very real one, indeed, and GMD
American firebombing campaigns to support the Japanese government’s official renunciation of war; indeed, despite claims that the Japa nese have not faced the wartime past, the country hosts more peace and war museums than any other in the world. Although scholars in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) still lag behind, researchers in Japan have recently taken an interest in narrating the war directly through ser vicemen’s diaries. For example, Fujii Tadatoshi’s recent monograph The Soldiers’ War
on Nanjing, then turned to his diary to sort out his fear and wounded pride: I have no face to show my superiors or the men; there’s no excuse for losing a weapon necessary for battle, and nothing can be done about it, but seppuku is even more unfilial [ fuchū] at this time. How can I fight without a weapon. . . . After losing my sword, I should die on the front line. No matter what method you use, a fatal wound cannot be cleansed. ASSEMBLING THE “NEW ORDER” Hamazaki did “cleanse” himself
