The book starts out by going into the history of Tokyo (Edo). It also includes a rather gruesome photo of bodies from the Tokyo earthquake of 1923.
It then discusses the propaganda efforts in Japan and how it made the Japanese people change. It also talks about the wars in Manchuria and China, and how the soldiers were felt to be heroes. The book also talks about Japanese society at that time, and the place of women in it.
A very interesting part is when they talk about the things kids were taught in schools about Americans. Then it goes into the early history of the Pacific war against the U.S., and Dolittle's raid on Tokyo.
Following that, it discusses how living conditions got worse in Tokyo as the war went on. Many schoolchildren were evacuated, but the conditions they still had to live under were very bad.
It then discusses the bombings of Tokyo and how the people tried to survive in shelters.
Something I have not read elsewhere: the book says that, at times, American planes strafed Tokyo, not just bombed it.
The book does make a mistake in talking about the Emperor's message to the people of Japan. It says he made a “tape recording” of the message, but his message was actually made on records like the old 78 rpm records.
The book then talks about the re-building of Tokyo, and the negative images people had of American soldiers before they got there.
The book does have a lot of very good photos, many of which I have not seen in any other book.
Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page
