Japan: Reflections on postwar “Child's Play”

Debito reproduces a passage from John Dower's famous book “Embracing Defeat” dealing with the games children played in post-WW2 Japan, including “holding a mock black market, playing prostitute and customer, and recreating left-wing political demonstrations.” Debito comments that Dower's account “is something rarely considered in historical accounts: The barometer of social suffering as absorbed and reflected in its children doing what kids do: trying to have fun. ^[1]“