The gods left first [[electronic resource] ] : the captivity and repatriation of Japanese POWs in northeast Asia, 1945-56 / / Andrew E. Barshay

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910452550003321
• Autore: Barshay Andrew E
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Berkley, California, : University of California Press, 2013
• ISBN: 0-520-95657-5
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (256 p.)
• Disciplina: 940.53/1450952
• Soggetti: Japanese - Russia (Federation) - Siberia - History - 20th century; Internment camps - Russia (Federation) - Siberia - History - 20th century; Japanese - Russia (Federation) - Siberia; Prisoners of war - Russia (Federation) - Siberia; Japanese - East Asia - History - 20th century; Repatriation - Japan - History - 20th century; Imperialism - Social aspects - East Asia - History - 20th century; Electronic books.; Manchuria (China) Emigration and immigration History 20th century; Korea Emigration and immigration History 20th century; Japan Emigration and immigration History 20th century
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Contents -- Maps and Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Note on Names and Terms -- Prologue: The Gods Left First -- The Siberian Internment in History -- Kazuki Yasuo and the Profane World of the Gulag -- Knowledge Painfully Acquired: Takasugi Ichiro and the "Democratic Movement" in Siberia -- Ishihara Yoshiro: "My Best Self Did Not Return" -- Coda -- Appendix: How Many? -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: At the time of Japan's surrender to Allied forces on August 15, 1945, some six million Japanese were left stranded across the vast expanse of a vanquished Asian empire. Half civilian and half military, they faced the prospect of returning somehow to a Japan that lay prostrate, its ; cities destroyed, after years of warfare and Allied bombing campaigns. Among them were more than 600,000 soldiers of Japan's army in Manchuria, who had surrendered to the Red Army only to be transported to Soviet labor camps, mainly in Siberia. Held for between two and four years, and some far longer, amid forced labor and reeducation campaigns, they waited for return, never knowing when or if it would come. Drawing on a wide range of memoirs, art, poetry, and contemporary records, The Gods Left First reconstructs their experience of captivity, return, and encounter with a postwar Japan that now seemed as alien as it had once been familiar. In a broader sense, this study is a meditation on the meaning of survival for Japan's continental repatriates, showing that their memories of involvement in Japan's imperial project were both a burden and the basis for a new way of life.