Changing Lives: The ‘Postwar’ in Japanese Women’s Autobiographies and Memoirs (Asia Past & Present)

CHANGING LIVES: The 'Postwar' in Japanese Women's Autobiographies and Memoirs presents the reader with substantial translations from memoirs and autobiographies by Japanese women. The women who appear in the book are far from household names in Japan: Okabe Itsuko (nonfiction writer and cultural critic), Shinya Eiko (stage and screen actress), Yoshitake Teruko (activist, historian), Kishino Junko (newspaper reporter, adjunct professor of African-American literature), and Kanamori Toshie (reporter, Kanagawa Prefecture grass roots activist) to name but a few. The voices found in Changing Lives touch upon key moments in a dynamic and tumultuous era in Japanese history as witnessed by these women. These events include the emperor's radio address at the end of World War II, the first Japanese election in which women could vote, the Ampo Movement, and the Women's Lib Movement of the 1970s where we encounter two of the women speaking directly about the process of developing their "feminine consciousness." Changing Lives will be of interest to students and teachers in multiple disciplines, including history, anthropology, sociology, gender studies, and women's self-writing.