He writes in gripping detail about increasing poverty, crime, and disorder. He laments the rise of hysterical propaganda and relates his own and his friends' struggles to avoid arrest. Kiyosawa pours scorn on such leaders as Premiers Tojo and Koiso. It chronicles growing bureaucratic control over everything from the press to people's clothing. He began the diary as notes for a history of the war, but it soon became an "inadvertent autobiography" and a refuge for the bitter criticism of Japanese authoritarianism that he had to repress publicly. This is the first time it has appeared in English." "Kiyosawa was an American-educated commentator on politics and foreign affairs who became increasingly isolated in Japan as militant nationalists rose to power.
The diary caused a sensation when it was published in Japan in 1948 and is today regarded as a classic. Between 19, the liberal journalist Kiyosawa Kiyoshi (1890-1945) kept at great personal risk a diary of his often subversive social and political observations and his personal struggles. "A Diary of Darkness is one of the most important and compelling documents of wartime Japan.
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