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Title details for Wages of Guilt by Ian Buruma - Available

Wages of Guilt

Memories of War in Germany and Japan

by Ian Buruma
ebook
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In this highly original and now classic text, Ian Buruma explores and compares how Germany and Japan have attempted to come to terms with their violent pasts, and investigates the painful realities of living with guilt, and with its denial. As Buruma travels through both countries, he encounters people whose honesty in confronting their past is strikingly brave, and others who astonish by the ingenuity of their evasions of responsibility. In Auschwitz, Berlin, Hiroshima and Tokyo he explores the contradictory attitudes of scholars, politicians and survivors towards World War II and visits the contrasting monuments that commemorate the atrocities of the war. Buruma allows these opposing voices to reveal how an obsession with the past, especially distorted versions of it, continually causes us to question who should indeed pay the wages of guilt.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 6, 2015

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781782398356
      • File size: 2125 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781782398356
      • File size: 2125 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 30, 1994
      This thought-provoking inquiry has a powerful theme: people must be held accountable for the society in which they live. To learn why the collective German memory of WW II is so different from the Japanese, Buruma ( Playing the Game ) traveled extensively in Europe and Asia, visiting war museums, viewing films about the war and interviewing citizens from all walks of life. He discovered that most Japanese soldiers believed slaughtering ``inferior races'' such as the Chinese and Koreans not only accorded with the emperor's will but demonstrated loyalty. The Christian mayor of Nagasaki made the stunning observation to the author that because his compatriots worship nature only, the question of individual responsibility rarely arises in Japan. As for the Germans, it is Buruma's perception that they need to unburden their wartime guilt and receive forgiveness, whereas the Japanese prefer to remain silent and are puzzled by German preoccupation with the war. If the former Axis partners have anything in common, according to Buruma, it is the fear of their own resurgent militarism.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 29, 1995
      Buruma examines how Germany and Japan have separately dealt with the guilt they bear for acts committed during WWII.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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