Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful, thought-provoking insight into a Japanese family, 16 Jan 2001
By A Customer
This book provided an interesting, thought-provoking insight into Japanese life, one that I would know nothing about if I hadn't read it. The changes in lifestyle from late Victorian (from our European point of view) to the mid-fifties, in Japanese society are enormous. The book is written predominantly about the female family members and their lives, and this made the book all the more interesting to me. History is so often taken from the male point of view. The characters came to life for me, and although some parts of the book were deeply upsetting (one mother describing the death of her children), I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone. It was, to me at least, interesting to hear the viewpoints of some of the Japanese people about extremely difficult times in their history. This book isn't a history of Japan, but is a charming and interesting story of one family's history through the women's eyes.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The upper class Japanese family in the war period, 21 Sep 2008
There are countless episodes related to the Pacific War and based around that time, many of which are sad but can be quite comical. Ruri Pilgrim exactly expressed to the readers as above.
The contents are divided into three; how the Landowner's family lived in the 1930s, how the Pacific War affected Japanese people and Haruko's family, and how dramatically the social climate changed after the defeats in the war.
Haruko's family were living as an upper-class family who were allowed to live elegantly, with a wide variety choices of food, wearing smart kimonos and holding regular tea ceremonies. The plot conveys sound insights of the traditional Japanese family, together with descriptions of pieces of furniture and items of clothing.
The continuous warfare and the Pacific war influenced Haruko's family, as well as the rest of the nation. In 1945, stocks of all commodity goods and food became very limited and rationed. Yet, the military government insisted on fighting against America. The reckless war killed masses of innocent people and destroyed the secluded kingdom of the upper-class family. Unbeknownst to the rich family's upbringing, Haruko's family lost several members of family, and experienced a number of struggles at the end of the period of war and afterwards, as well as the rest of the nation.
It is worth reading a series of criticisms of the social climate, which changed dramatically after 15 August 1945. The author uses the expressions; 'one hundred and eight degrees turn', 'upside down', 'about face'', quoting the incidents of the Bamboo spears, which Japanese were forced to carry and fight against the Americans, and the Kamikaze air force - young people were ordered to ride on poorly made airplanes and attack enemy's ships. Those tactics are not logical and sound, but the people were very restricted with the freedom of the expression. People who showed the hint of disloyalty and criticism for the Emperor, a living God, or the state were taken to the prisons and tortured at that time. Japanese believed that Americans and British were the devils and refused to have the democracy and freedom. However, after 15 August 1945, the enemies turned out to be model nations, despite that some of them might be the people who dropped the bombs throughout the country. It suggests that Japan had no chance of winning against America both spiritually or technically.
Furthermore, the author shares the positive feelings of a new constitution which the rulers would allow to provide genuine democratic parliamentary government for the nations, which was introduced by the American General. Thanks to this, the military systems were outlawed, and thus the government started spending money on education, health and industry.
Ruri Pilgrim gives vivid descriptions of each member of the authentic Japanese family, detailed emotions as a result of the loss and destruction of the family, that were happening in the stressful and monumental period of Japan in the 1940s.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read it!, 4 Oct 2000
By A Customer
A gentle book creating a feeling of Japan and the Japanese. It brings to life a series of characters who are formal but deeply human. The book feels more like a novel than a biography, focussing as it does on a range of characters rather than purely on the central character. If you like Amy Tan you'll love this.
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