Harp of Burma by Michio Takeyama | Book Review
Japan’s war crimes during the Second World War are well recorded and widely acknowledged, however when thinking about the war, it is easy to overlook the fact that at some levels the Japanese soldiers during the war were human and like all human beings had feelings, knew beauty and desired for peace.
The Harp of Burma by Michio Takeyama is a novella that traces the experiences of a company of Japanese soldiers from the final period of fighting through internment by the British in the south east asian country of Burma (now known as Myanmar). This is no Platoon or Thin Red Line, war is important to the book, but more important is music, and to a lesser extent Buddhism.
This is a moving book. The soldier in the unit documented by The Harp of Burma have taught themselves to sing, to make instruments and to play them to a level that made them famous amongst the occupying Japanese soldiers. Just how “Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast” is clearly delineated.
My own readings about Burma have been limited to George Orwell’s work whilst stationed there, and accounts of the current regimes brutality. The differences between Orwell’s colonialism and the bond that Buddhism provides the Japanese soldiers and the local citizenry are stark. And compared to the current situation in Burma, The Harp of Burma paints a picture of much happier times.
This book is well worth reading, both for another angle on the Second World War, as well as for a peek into what Burma was once like, and hopefully can one day become again.
# Title: The Harp of Burma
# Author: Michio Takeyama
# Translator: Howard Hibbett
# Series: Unesco Collections of Contemporary Works
# Paperback: 136 pages
# Publisher: Tuttle Publishing (June 1968)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0804802327
# ISBN-13: 978-0804802321
You can pick up a copy of Michio Takeyama’s classic The Harp of Burma by clicking here
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
Bryan
I saw the black and white film verson a few years back and really enjoyed it. I’ll have to check out the book now!
Sep 15th, 2007
Heidi
I saw this 1956 b/w film during my childhood, a more than a half decade ago. However, I have never read the original book which was written for children by a Japanese scholar in German literature, shortly after the bloody WWII was lost. I got a feeling that this book symbolizes a remorse of this author who taught at a famous senior highschool and sent off so many young talented students (teens) of his own to the battle field in China and Burma to perish, without protesting against the invasion by the Japanese military government. My own father was also a school teacher in German literature during this war, and protested actively against such an invasion, and inevitably lost his teaching job. He has never mentioned about this book (and its author), although they were at a similar age (with a few years gap) and in the same academic field.That is how I missed this book in my childhood. Now over 65, I got interested in reading this Children book, and compared with a recent book “The Bone Man of Kokoda” by Charles Happell (2008). It is about a Japanese soldier who fought in PNG, and lost all fellow soldiers there, and after the war (and his retirement at age 60) returned to the battle field of PNG, and spent 25 years for digging the bones and remainings of his fellow soldiers who perished in Kokoda Trail, fullfilling his old pledge that he made just before he evacuated PNG during the war. People saw a close resemblance in the bottom of their soul (or heart) between these two remarkable Japanese soldiers (novel and fact).
Apr 18th, 2008
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