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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, December 3, 2005

SATURDAY SCOOPS
Author speaks on life in Japan during war

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Advertiser Staff

What was it like for everyday people in Japan during World War II? Samuel Hideo Yamashita knows, and will speak about his new book, "Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies: Selections from the Wartime Diaries of Ordinary Japanese," from 1 to 2:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i.

Yamashita, a professor of history at Pomona College, translated the letters and diaries of a kamikaze pilot, an army straggler on Okinawa, an elderly Kyoto businessman, a Tokyo housewife, a young working woman in Tokyo, a teenage girl and two school kids who had been evacuated to the countryside.

Admission is free. The book costs $20 ($18 for center members) tomorrow; $27.08 and $24.38 after. 944-1123.