Takeyama Michio, the author of Harp of Burma, was thirty-seven in 1941, the year of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Husband, father of children born during the war, and teacher at Japan's elite school of higher education in Tokyo, he experienced the war on its home front. His essays provide us with a personal record of the bombing of Tokyo, the shortage of food, the inability to get accurate information about the war, the frictions between civilians and military and between his elite students and other civilians, the mobilization of students into factory jobs and the military, and the relocation of civilians out of the Tokyo area.

Translation of selections from Japanese.

Thewar -- Ichiko in 1944 (1946) -- The end of the war (1953) -- White pine and rose (1947) -- Scars (1949) -- Crisis and challenge -- Germany : a new middle ages? (1940) -- The younger generation (1945) -- The Tokyo trial -- The trial of Mr. Hyde (1946) -- Letter to Judge Röling (1949) -- Turn to the right -- The student incident : observations and reflections (1950) -- Those who refuse to enter the gate : thoughts on one contemporary frame of mind (1951).