War Resistance in Japan, WWII
Avoidance of conscription in Japan during WWII was the most heinous of crimes: worse than rape, or murder. Those …
Category Archives: Books
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 …
The Silent Angel — Heinrich Boll
In his first novel, The Train Was on Time (1949), Heinrich Böll (1917 – 1985), wrote of soldiers going …
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 …
The Doomsday Machine: Daniel Ellsberg — This is Not Fiction
So, you like scary stories? Something to keep you awake and afraid? Here’s one for you: not thieves in the …
The Damned Days of August: 6th and 9th
Today is August 6, 73 years after the first use of a nuclear explosion in a war in human …
The Sea and Poison — Shūsaku Endō, confronting War Crimes
Pride in our ancestors, and countrymen is common in stories we tell each other, of their hard work, sacrifice …
All The Kings Men: Old Templates for New Demagogues
After recent study and due consideration I can say with certainty that to call President Trump the reincarnation of …
J.D.Salinger – War Troubled
Combing through the archives for my proposed magnum hopus, “What We Talk About When We Talk About War,” I came …