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Against the Storm: How Japanese printworkers resisted the military regime, 1935-1945
‘In doing what is normal for any trade union activist today – recruiting, arguing and organising – my comrades and I were made to suffer persecution, imprisonment and death’
This inspiring memoir tells how young Japanese print and publishing workers maintained links and sustained organisation between workers during the height of Japanese military aggression before and during World War II. It destroys the myth that all Japanese people supported the war, and provides a thrilling account of worker organising in conditions of repression that has lessons for up-and-coming unionists of today.
This inspiring memoir tells how young Japanese print and publishing workers maintained links and sustained organisation between workers during the height of Japanese military aggression before and during World War II. It destroys the myth that all Japanese people supported the war, and provides a thrilling account of worker organising in conditions of repression that has lessons for up-and-coming unionists of today.
180 pages, Paperback
Published April 19, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 8, 2020
This is such a powerful and important book.
First off, it cuts against the common lie that all Japanese people banded together to support Japan's imperialist ambitions during WWII. Instead it shows that many Japanese workers, even under conditions of brutal and stifling repression, continued to struggle against the war, and against their bosses.
Secondly, it is a record of the absolute bravery, heroism determination of left-wing activists managing to evade the watchful eyes of the political police and use every trick in the book, and some that had not been thought of before, to continue covert activism in a period of absolute repression, despite knowing they could be captured and tortured to death. It was because of these activists that trade unionism was able to be rapidly rebuilt immediately after the end of the war, so the Japanese working class could continue to fight back in the class war in the new era or bourgeois 'democracy'.
Lastly it is a window into the war as seen through the eyes of working class Japanese people, caught between their own government's barbarism, and the barbarism of the allied forces who mercilessly firebombed industrial and residential areas of Japan, murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese workers.
I cannot recommend this book enough.
First off, it cuts against the common lie that all Japanese people banded together to support Japan's imperialist ambitions during WWII. Instead it shows that many Japanese workers, even under conditions of brutal and stifling repression, continued to struggle against the war, and against their bosses.
Secondly, it is a record of the absolute bravery, heroism determination of left-wing activists managing to evade the watchful eyes of the political police and use every trick in the book, and some that had not been thought of before, to continue covert activism in a period of absolute repression, despite knowing they could be captured and tortured to death. It was because of these activists that trade unionism was able to be rapidly rebuilt immediately after the end of the war, so the Japanese working class could continue to fight back in the class war in the new era or bourgeois 'democracy'.
Lastly it is a window into the war as seen through the eyes of working class Japanese people, caught between their own government's barbarism, and the barbarism of the allied forces who mercilessly firebombed industrial and residential areas of Japan, murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese workers.
I cannot recommend this book enough.
July 27, 2020
Great resource on prewar and wartime Japan and the political repression during that time. It's an account of a group of printworkers who tried to maintain solidarity and do antiwar activities during a time when either if these could get you thrown in prison. The Sugiura wrote it to show that, contrary to what is usually portrayed in Japan and abroad, many normal people were against the war and worked in small ways to fight the fascist government. It's important from a Japanese perspective to show that these radical traditions have a long history that the state tries to erase, but also important from an American perspective, where Japanese people's supposed unique devotion to their emperor is still used to justify the firebombings of cities and of course the use of atomic bombs on two cities. Reading this is becomes apparent that the idea that Japanese people would fight to the last man woman and child in the case of invasion is pure propaganda from the Japanese state, which the US state was only too happy to use as an excuse to show off it's military capabilities to the USSR with hundreds of thousands of deaths as a consequence.
I do feel like the translation is a little too stiff or literal. That could also have been Sugiura's writing style but in some places it felt kind of awkward. Still, big respect to the translator for undertaking this.
I do feel like the translation is a little too stiff or literal. That could also have been Sugiura's writing style but in some places it felt kind of awkward. Still, big respect to the translator for undertaking this.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews