Books from the Japanese Perspective

[ijnfleetadmiral]

Colonel Yahara Hiromichi wrote Battle for Okinawa. He was the Senior Staff Officer of 32nd Army, and was ordered to survive by LTG Ushijima so that the Japanese side of the battle could be told.

[DrG]

Ryuji Nagatsuka, "I Was a Kamikaze"
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/165 ... A_Kamikaze

[ijnfleetadmiral]

Shinano! by Capt. (Ret.) Joseph Enright tells the story of the very-short-lived third Yamato-class battleship-turned-carrier. Probably the best book on the ship out there today.

I-Boat Captain by Capt. (Ret.) Zenji Orita showcases the war from a Japanese submarine commander's prospective. There hasn't been a recent reprint, but copies are usually available on eBay.

[Ken S.]

Leaves from an autumn of emergencies: selections from the wartime diaries of ordinary Japanese

Table Of Contents:
Acknowledgments ix
Map xii
Introduction
ONE The Pacific War and Ordinary Japanese
3 (48)
Japanese Wartime Diaries
TWO ITABASHI YASUO
The Diary of a Navy Special-Attack Pilot
51 (30)
THREE TAMURA TSUNEJIRO
Bittersweet: The Wartime and Postwar Diary of an Ordinary Kyoto Person
81 (50)
FOUR NOMURA SEIKI
The Diary of a Defeated Japanese Soldier
131 (30)
FIVE TAKAHASHI AIKO
From the Start of the War
161 (30)
SIX YOSHIZAWA HISAKO
Until the War Ended
191 (30)
SEVEN MAEDA SHOKO
The Diary of a Labor Service Corps Girl
221 (14)
EIGHT MANABE ICHIRO
The Diary of an Evacuated Schoolboy
235 (32)
NINE NAKANE MIHOKO
The Diary of an Evacuated Schoolgirl
267 (42)
Glossary 309 (6)
Bibliography 315 (6)
Index 321


Masanobu Tsuji's 'underground escape' from Siam after the Japanese surrender
"First published in translation from the Japanese in 1952, and long out of print, Colonel Tsuji’s account of his escape into Thailand from the Japanese surrender in Bangkok in 1945, and then finding his way into China before returning to Japan in 1948, is a remarkable story, which has its place in the military history of the period."

Terraced hell; a Japanese memoir of defeat & death in Northern Luzon, Philippines
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/483 ... earch=true

Prisoner of the British: a Japanese soldier's experiences in Burma
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/362 ... earch=true