NEW YORK — What were the Japanese saying when their country plunged into a war in 1937 that would last eight years and end in utter defeat?
The question came to mind when I stumbled on "Showa 12 Nen no 'Shukan Bunshun' " (Bungei Shunju, 2007), an anthology of excerpts from a popular periodical from that turning point that includes opinions of its readers. There was little surprise in what I found: the Japanese reacted just as Americans did when, say, President George W. Bush took his country to war with Iraq in 2003.
To refresh our memory, in early July 1937 the Japanese and Chinese armies clashed near the Marco Polo (Lugou) Bridge southwest of Beijing. Toward the end of the month the Japanese Army started a general attack in North China — territory immediately south of Manchukuo, the country Japan had established just a few years earlier. In mid-August Japan opened a front in Shanghai, landing its forces in the international city. The year ended with the Japanese Army rampaging in the Chinese capital, Nanjing.