Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney
Autor(a) de Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers
About the Author
Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney is the William F. Vilas Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin. Her books include illness and Culture in Contemporary Japan (1984), Rice as Self: Japanese Identities Through Time (1994), and Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms and Nationalisms (2002).
Obras de Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Sexo
- female
- Nacionalidade
- Japan (birth)
- Locais de residência
- Madison, WI, USA
- Ocupação
- University Professor, anthropologist
Membros
Resenhas
Prêmios
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Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 11
- Membros
- 218
- Popularidade
- #102,474
- Avaliação
- 3.8
- Resenhas
- 4
- ISBNs
- 27
- Idiomas
- 3
I think one of the most important details to note in regards to this text is that the soldiers whose lives and thoughts the author examines are student soldiers. This means that they were all students at prestigious universities before being drafted into the war. This is something I constantly had to keep remembering because it's easy to fall into the habit of simply taking the experiences of some and applying it to all. Therefore, although the accounts of the student soldiers presented in this book provide a voice and a face for kamikaze pilots as tormented youths, the reader cannot assume that this was the case with all pilots. Doing so would perpetuate the same cycle of misunderstanding that kamikaze pilots have suffered for over 50 years; the stigma that they were all crazy and that everything could be blamed on Japan's "supposed" cultural fear of failure.
Overall, I found the book to be well written and analyzed. The author's notes that explained the symbolism used in the student's writings were helpful and added an extra layer of depth and understanding to the text. Because the pilots were all former students of prestigious universities, they quite often refer to philosophical works or classic novels in their diaries, using them to analyze the dilemma they face. These parts can be difficult to understand unless the reader has studied these same philosophers before. However, I noticed that while the first student soldier continually referenced philosophical texts, it wasn't as prominent in the stories that followed his. By the end of the book, I felt that the author had done an excellent job of giving the student soldiers a voice and on dispelling many of the misunderstandings that surround the kamikaze pilots.… (mais)