An anthology with a wide selection of very personal and intense experiences of World War II from a variety of perspectives-some “controversial” and from a marginal point of view.

Essays by Donald Richie and Ishii Shinpei, last letters of kamikaze pilots (first-time in translation), testimonials from Taiwanese Comfort Women, voices of student nurses from Okinawa ordered to commit suicide, and war-related fiction and essays, including a never-before published short story about the war by master Mishima Yukio, Hayashi Kyoko, Dazai Osamu, Kijima Hajime and a first-time English translation of fiction by Yoko Ogawa, who has since been published in English regularly in the New Yorker.

This selection also contains manga from Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa (translated by Frederik Schodt et al.), poetry by Tamura Ryuichi, Ayukawa Nobuo, Ko Un, Sagawa Aki, Ishigaki Choko, and war-related fiction by Mary Yukari Waters and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston.

Leza is the Editor of this work.