Soldiers Alive – A Novel of the Japanese in China, 1937
For century upon century, from the time of the stories of Gilgamesh (18th BCE), stories of war have been told …
Author Archives: Will Kirkland
Red Cavalry — Isaac Babel; Russia at War
In between wars are other wars. Men fight in them all, whatever is available. Between World War I and …
War Resistance in Japan, WWII
Avoidance of conscription in Japan during WWII was the most heinous of crimes: worse than rape, or murder. Those …
Resistance and Subversion in Literature and Movies
We like our stories of resistance to great evil to include bold cunning, great daring and a good complement …
The Return of the Soldier – Rebecca West
The Return of the Soldier was Rebecca West‘s (later, Dame Rebecca West) first novel. Though considered slight against her later …
Dominance and Dishonesty
“Men will not cease to be dishonest, merely because their dishonesties have been revealed or because they have discovered their …
The Silent Angel — Heinrich Boll
In his first novel, The Train Was on Time (1949), Heinrich Böll (1917 – 1985), wrote of soldiers going …
War / Shame: Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman‘s films are not generally thought of among war films: couples down and apart, landscapes severe and forbidding, …
Stalingrad, a Novel – Theodore Plievier
War
Fleeing War — Walter Kempowski: All for Nothing
War stories since The Iliad ( 8th century BCE) have been told to fascinate and celebrate physical courage, mental …
An Artist of the Floating World — Kazuo Ishiguro and War Guilt
“The Floating World” (ukiyo) as a Japanese expression has traditionally referred to evening pleasure activities, for men, during a …
Barbs on War
“They were in the jelly of youth, and this learned Professor poured into their susceptible hearts all the gentle …