Are there any good English-language sources on dissent in World War II era Japan?
Peasants, Rebels and Outcasts: the Underside of Modern Japan, while covering Japan from the Meiji Restoration to defeat in 1945, has some good stuff about resistance during World War II. It’s a popular book in Pacific and Asian Studies, so check out your local campus used bookstore for a copy. Japan at War: an Oral History covers pretty much everything about Japan at war, including recollections by Koreans recruited as slave labour, and sex trade workers. I also searched Amazon using the keyword kempeitai; there are probably some books connected with that subject that talk about resistance in Japan during the war (although I must say that the word “kempeitai” is almost unknown to contemporary Japanese). No
If you read Japan at War: an Oral History, you’ll probably discover that most of the people opposing the war in Japan were members of the communist party, so it might pay to research that a bit more if you can. While not dissent, an interesting read might be Zen at War examines the supposed close relationship between Zen (although there are at least two different sects in Japan) and the military during the war. I lived in Fukui Prefecture (the birthplace of Soto Zen in Japan) and regularly visited a Buddhist monastery there. An American-born monk I was friends with, however, disputed the claims stated in “Zen at War”… You could always check out the history of
