Book Review: Changing Lives: The ‘Post-war’ in Japanese Women's Autobiographies and Memoirs

Abstract

Introducing some of the "Endings and Beginnings" tiiat these women faced immediately after hearing die "imperial broadcast" (gyokuon hösö), die garbled words of die emperor who explained tiiat Japan must accept defeat, Loftus opens his analytic translation by juxtaposing tiiis important historical moment with an array of personal moments tiiat function as sites of self-discovery within die lives of women: for example, Okabe Itsuko's retrospective embrace of die meaning of her fiance's final words to her, "tiiis war is a mistake" (11) ; and Yoshitake's ability, years after being gang-raped by American GIs during the Occupation, to confront her feelings of hatred and fear tiirough die women's movement.