{"product_id":"the-gods-left-first-andrew-e-barshay-9780520276154","title":"The Gods Left First: The Captivity and Repatriation of Japanese POWs in Northeast Asia, 1945-1956","description":"At the time of Japan's surrender to Allied forces on August 15, 1945, some six million Japanese were left stranded across the vast expanse of a vanquished Asian empire. Half civilian and half military, they faced the prospect of returning somehow to a Japan that lay prostrate, its cities destroyed, after years of warfare and Allied bombing campaigns. Among them were more than 600,000 soldiers of Japan's army in Manchuria, who had surrendered to the Red Army only to be transported to Soviet labor camps, mainly in Siberia. Held for between two and four years, and some far longer, amid forced labor and reeducation campaigns, they waited for return, never knowing when or if it would come. Drawing on a wide range of memoirs, art, poetry, and contemporary records, \u003ci\u003eThe Gods Left First\u003c\/i\u003e reconstructs their experience of captivity, return, and encounter with a postwar Japan that now seemed as alien as it had once been familiar. In a broader sense, this study is a meditation on the meaning of survival for Japan's continental repatriates, showing that their memories of involvement in Japan's imperial project were both a burden and the basis for a new way of life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Andrew E. Barshay\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0520276159\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780520276154\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of California Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/16\/2013\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.10lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.00w x 1.00d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/01\/2014","brand":"Andrew E. Barshay","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":45481716809983,"sku":"9780520276154","price":65.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_891cfc71-b184-4ef4-bfb8-d4e0108690ab.jpg?v=1715987462","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-gods-left-first-andrew-e-barshay-9780520276154","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}