The attack on Pearl Harbor is familiar history to most Americans, but Pomona College Professor of History Samuel Yamashita has spent years researching aspects of that fateful day that few in the U.S. have ever learned about.
Poring over prefectural, municipal records and personal diaries, Yamashita chronicles how ordinary Japanese responded to news of the attack, not only through mass, orchestrated gatherings but also in individual reflections. While “nearly everyone reacted enthusiastically,” with young men the most enthusiastic, Yamashita discovered exceptions that belie the notion of a monolithic response in Japan to news of war.
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