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.