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In 1939 the painter Iwamatsu Jun (1908–1994) and his artist wife, Tomoe, arrived in the U.S. as political refugees. During World War II, Iwamatsu used his artistic talents for the U.S. war effort, and he adopted a pseudonym, Taro Yashima, to protect his young son, whom he left behind in Japan. The New Sun, which was published in the U.S. in 1943, is an account of his life in prewar Japan.
In its depiction of ordinary Japanese, The New Sun is both an indictment of Japanese militarism and a plea for American understanding of "the enemy." Told mainly though Yashima’s powerful artwork, it is a personal and political text of a rural doctor’s son who becomes an anti-imperialist artist-activist. Yashima recounts how his wife and their peers were imprisoned and brutalized by the Tokkoka, Japan’s secret police, often for months without being formally charged or knowing when they would be released. Despite the arbitrary deprivations and cruelties of life in prison and in Imperial Japan, Yashima retains faith in the regenerative possibilities of art and in a future without tyranny.
This work of quiet conscience and protest is now as relevant as when it first appeared more than sixty years ago.
In its depiction of ordinary Japanese, The New Sun is both an indictment of Japanese militarism and a plea for American understanding of "the enemy." Told mainly though Yashima’s powerful artwork, it is a personal and political text of a rural doctor’s son who becomes an anti-imperialist artist-activist. Yashima recounts how his wife and their peers were imprisoned and brutalized by the Tokkoka, Japan’s secret police, often for months without being formally charged or knowing when they would be released. Despite the arbitrary deprivations and cruelties of life in prison and in Imperial Japan, Yashima retains faith in the regenerative possibilities of art and in a future without tyranny.
This work of quiet conscience and protest is now as relevant as when it first appeared more than sixty years ago.
320 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 20, 2016
This book is the first of two memoirs written by Yashima (pseudonym) about his efforts to organize resistance - through art and propaganda- to militarism and imperialism in Japan in the years leading up to WW2 as well as the early years of the war itself. This memoir depicts Yashima's childhood, his development as an artist and an activist and his disillusionment with and subsequent work against the Japanese state and its imperialist expansion into Asia and the militarization of the Japanese population. Yashima recounts his imprisonment by the dreaded Tokkoka or "Thought police" as well as his personal family tragedies. Yashima paints a grim picture of life in prison, without being charged and being beaten, denied basic necessities including food and medicine. Yet out of these hardships, Yashima shows the solidarity and community the prisoners form- he says they became "like brothers." This will be familiar if you've read anything about politicization in prison, such as the Vietnamese anti-colonialism under French colonial rule. For an example see Ngo Van's memoir In the Crossfire. At one point, Yashima is also forced to join the army and train, under a dreadfully cruel commander. The memoir is a scathing critique of the Japanese military and government of the time. The images in the book are sparse, dark and extremely evocative.
The New Sun was originally published in 1943 in America, after the author and his wife escaped to America (an ironic reverse journey traversed by Issei and Nisei in America who were labeled traitors and either sent to prison camps or "back" to Japan, in the biggest mislabeling in American history) around 1943 or so. Here Yashima and his wife, also an activist and artist, joined the OSS and worked to create propaganda to urge Japanese to resist the war, in an effort to bring peace. Yashima himself even served in the American military in the China-Burma theaters, as a propagandist!
Naoko Shibusawa, an American academic, recounts her rediscovery of Yashima and his work as well as his background in the extremely useful preface to the book. She also does a good job of exploring how Yashima and his wife were viewed in Japan, how they fared after the war and how they were able to stay in the U.S., against the odds. I'll give a hint: "Wild" Bill Donovan was involved.
I am eager to find and read Yashima's second memoir "Horizon is Calling" (1947).
Taro Yashima's The New Sun provides insight into Japan in the 1930s, and gives an alternative view to the common notion that all Japanese people at that time supported Japan's expansion and attempted conquest of Asia, showing rather an underground movement against those aims. Interesting and useful for anyone interested in East Asia, World War 2, resistance and art, etc. I will be using it in my Modern East Asia class.
*Update: This book actually takes place in the 1930s, not quite 1940s.
The New Sun was originally published in 1943 in America, after the author and his wife escaped to America (an ironic reverse journey traversed by Issei and Nisei in America who were labeled traitors and either sent to prison camps or "back" to Japan, in the biggest mislabeling in American history) around 1943 or so. Here Yashima and his wife, also an activist and artist, joined the OSS and worked to create propaganda to urge Japanese to resist the war, in an effort to bring peace. Yashima himself even served in the American military in the China-Burma theaters, as a propagandist!
Naoko Shibusawa, an American academic, recounts her rediscovery of Yashima and his work as well as his background in the extremely useful preface to the book. She also does a good job of exploring how Yashima and his wife were viewed in Japan, how they fared after the war and how they were able to stay in the U.S., against the odds. I'll give a hint: "Wild" Bill Donovan was involved.
I am eager to find and read Yashima's second memoir "Horizon is Calling" (1947).
Taro Yashima's The New Sun provides insight into Japan in the 1930s, and gives an alternative view to the common notion that all Japanese people at that time supported Japan's expansion and attempted conquest of Asia, showing rather an underground movement against those aims. Interesting and useful for anyone interested in East Asia, World War 2, resistance and art, etc. I will be using it in my Modern East Asia class.
*Update: This book actually takes place in the 1930s, not quite 1940s.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 21, 2024
written by iwamatsu jun and published in the US in 1943. this is an interesting and complicated text. iwamatsu and his wife iwamatsu tomoe (both artists) fled japan and came to the US as political refugees because of their anti-imperialist activism and their time incarcerated by the tokkōka, the japanese secret police.
this text is like CITIZEN 13660 in form, illustrations accompanied by text. it’s autobiographical, covering iwamatsu’s early life and incarceration. it is a sharp indictment of japanese militarism and imperialism, but as a product of its time, it expresses a kind of pro-US sentiment and was written “for the US war effort,” as the jacket says. at the same time it critiques japanese militarism’s impact abroad and on the home front, it does subtly implicated US racism against japanese in the way it advocates for a U.S. recognition of japanese humanity.
the illustrations are compelling and chapter 15 entitled “people of tomorrow” is particularly moving and is probably the part of the text that will stay with me. the author’s journey into consciousness and the way he depicts the communal bonds formed by political prisoners was memorable too though. i would assign this in undergrad courses.
this text is like CITIZEN 13660 in form, illustrations accompanied by text. it’s autobiographical, covering iwamatsu’s early life and incarceration. it is a sharp indictment of japanese militarism and imperialism, but as a product of its time, it expresses a kind of pro-US sentiment and was written “for the US war effort,” as the jacket says. at the same time it critiques japanese militarism’s impact abroad and on the home front, it does subtly implicated US racism against japanese in the way it advocates for a U.S. recognition of japanese humanity.
the illustrations are compelling and chapter 15 entitled “people of tomorrow” is particularly moving and is probably the part of the text that will stay with me. the author’s journey into consciousness and the way he depicts the communal bonds formed by political prisoners was memorable too though. i would assign this in undergrad courses.
February 12, 2016
I thought this was quite beautiful. The story, the illustrations. It was enlightening and frightening and joyful.
December 21, 2017
Published in the United States in 1943, Yashima (a pseudonym for Iwamatsu Jun) recounts primarily in powerful black-and-white illustrations how his wife and their peers were imprisoned and brutalized by the Tokkoka, Japan’s secret police, without being formally charged or knowing when they would be released. He and his wife came to the United States as political refugees in 1939, and Yashima later became well-known as a creator of children's picture books.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews