1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910463933803321

Autore

Pennington Lee <1972->

Titolo

Casualties of history : wounded Japanese servicemen and the Second World War / / Lee Pennington ; cover design, David Baldeosingh Rotstein

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca, [New York] ; ; London, [England] : , : Cornell University Press, , 2015

©2015

ISBN

0-8014-5561-8

0-8014-5562-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (311 p.)

Collana

Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

Disciplina

940.54/7552

Soggetti

Disabled veterans - Japan - History - 20th century

World War, 1939-1945 - Veterans - Japan

World War, 1939-1945 - Casualties - Japan

World War, 1939-1945 - Medical care - Japan

War and society - Japan - History - 20th century

Electronic books.

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

Front matter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Notes for the Reader -- Introduction -- 1. Fundamentals of Military Support in Prewar Japan -- 2. Medical Treatment across the Sea -- 3. Comprehensive Care behind the Guns -- 4. Protecting Disabled Veterans during Wartime -- 5. "White-Robed Heroes" in Wartime Mass Culture -- 6. Occupational Rehabilitation -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Thousands of wounded servicemen returned to Japan following the escalation of Japanese military aggression in China in July 1937. Tens of thousands would return home after Japan widened its war effort in 1939. In Casualties of History, Lee K. Pennington relates for the first time in English the experiences of Japanese wounded soldiers and disabled veterans of Japan's "long" Second World War (from 1937 to 1945). He maps the terrain of Japanese military medicine and social



welfare practices and establishes the similarities and differences that existed between Japanese and Western physical, occupational, and spiritual rehabilitation programs for war-wounded servicemen, notably amputees. To exemplify the experience of these wounded soldiers, Pennington draws on the memoir of a Japanese soldier who describes in gripping detail his medical evacuation from a casualty clearing station on the front lines and his medical convalescence at a military hospital. Moving from the hospital to the home front, Pennington documents the prominent roles adopted by disabled veterans in mobilization campaigns designed to rally popular support for the war effort. Following Japan's defeat in August 1945, U.S. Occupation forces dismantled the social welfare services designed specifically for disabled military personnel, which brought profound consequences for veterans and their dependents. Using a wide array of written and visual historical sources, Pennington tells a tale that until now has been neglected by English-language scholarship on Japanese society. He gives us a uniquely Japanese version of the all-too-familiar story of soldiers who return home to find their lives (and bodies) remade by combat.