A Diary of Darkness: The Wartime Diary of Kiyosawa Kiyoshi

By Kiyoshi Kiyosawa and Kiyosawa Kiyoshi

Book Overview

A Diary of Darkness is one of the most important and compelling documents of wartime Japan. Between 1942 and 1945, the liberal journalist Kiyosawa Kiyoshi (1890-1945) kept at great personal risk a diary of his often subversive social and political observations and his personal struggles. The diary caused a sensation when it was published in Japan in 1948 and is today regarded as a classic. This is the first time it has appeared in English.

Kiyosawa was an American-educated commentator on politics and foreign affairs who became increasingly isolated in Japan as militant nationalists rose to power. He began the diary as notes for a history of the war, but it soon became an "inadvertent autobiography" and a refuge for the bitter criticism of Japanese authoritarianism that he had to repress publicly. It chronicles growing bureaucratic control over everything from the press to people's clothing. Kiyosawa pours scorn on such leaders as Premiers Tojo and Koiso. He laments the rise of hysterical propaganda and relates his own and his friends' struggles to avoid arrest. He writes in gripping detail about increasing poverty, crime, and disorder. He records the sentiments of the local barber as faithfully as those of senior politicians. And all the while he traces the gradual disintegration of Japan's war effort and the looming certainty of defeat.

A Diary of Darkness is a perceptive and courageous account of wartime Japan and a revealing record of the devastation wrought by total war.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691140308
• ISBN13: 9780691140308
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Reading

This is the only book that I've read that gives an uncensored account of the war from a Japanese citizen. He brings up a lot of questions about the Japanese government and their extreme stupidity. He also tells of what it's like to live in a war torn country. What I found quite intriguing was his predictions early in the war that eventually came true. It's too bad he did not live to see the end of the war.

Within the gloomy anthill, Kiyoshi documents its decline....

This diary is aptly named. The mood is somber, and the images are distorted, like those in a nightmare. I used to be skeptical about claims that the Japanese people would have fought an American invasion in the streets, and that millions could have been killed in the carnage. After reading this journal, I'm inclined to believe it could have happened. Patriotism and solidarity hijacked by fools and fanatics took Japan...