Description: By the end of World War II, hundreds of thousands of young men in the Japanese colonies, in particular Taiwan and Korea, had expressed their loyalty to the empire by volunteering to join the army. Why and how did so many colonial youth become passionate supporters of Japanese imperial nationalism? And what happened to these youth after the war...
Brief description: Sayaka Chatani is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore.
Review Quotes:
Chatani (history, National Univ. of Singapore) has written a groundbreaking study of how and why young men in rural areas of Japan and its then-colonies, Taiwan and Korea, became emotionally invested in the project of Japanese nationalism and militarism. Providing a new perspective on the emotional attraction of the Japanese Empire and the opportunities it provided to the youth in the colonies, this superb study will be required reading for those interested in modern Japanese history, Japanese empire-building, and imperialism and colonialism.
-- "Choice"