Lee K. Pennington

Casualties of History: Wounded Japanese Servicemen and the Second World War - Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University Lee K. Pennington

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Table of Contents: Introduction1. Fundamentals of Military Support in Prewar Japan2. Medical Treatment across the Sea3. Comprehensive Care behind the Guns4. Protecting Disabled Veterans during Wartime5. "White-Robed Heroes" in Wartime Mass Culture6. Occupational RehabilitationNotesBibliographyIndexReview Quotes:"Casualties of History is a terrific book. Lee K. Pennington's wide-ranging social history of Japanese disabled veterans during World War II and its aftermath affords a fresh look at Japan in war and defeat. Pennington focuses his attention on those who were arguably the most immediate victims as well as benefactors of Japan's modern war machine and lived to tell the tale, as far as people cared to listen. With a sensitive, sure hand, Pennington locates Japan's war-injured men at the center of a web of social, political, and cultural relations that informed and were informed by innovative responses to war, especially on the home front." Franziska Seraphim, Boston College, author of War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945 2005"Review Quotes:"Based on a deep immersion in Japanese-language sources and an impressive familiarity with Japanese culture, Lee K. Pennington's book about wounded soldiers and disabled veterans succeeds in bridging the analytical gap between the perspectives of disability studies and the new military history, and brings to life the sufferings of these neglected men and uses to which their sacrifices were put by the Japanese state. It evokes especially convincingly the problems that massive civilian casualties and military defeat caused in making sense of their service." David A. Gerber, University at Buffalo (SUNY), editor of Disabled Veterans in History"Publisher Marketing: Thousands of wounded servicemen returned to Japan following the escalation of Japanese military aggression in China in July 1937. Tens of thousands would return home after Japan widened its war effort in 1939. In Casualties of History, Lee K. Pennington relates for the first time in English the experiences of Japanese wounded soldiers and disabled veterans of Japan's "long" Second World War (from 1937 to 1945). He maps the terrain of Japanese military medicine and social welfare practices and establishes the similarities and differences that existed between Japanese and Western physical, occupational, and spiritual rehabilitation programs for war-wounded servicemen, notably amputees. To exemplify the experience of these wounded soldiers, Pennington draws on the memoir of a Japanese soldier who describes in gripping detail his medical evacuation from a casualty clearing station on the front lines and his medical convalescence at a military hospital. Moving from the hospital to the home front, Pennington documents the prominent roles adopted by disabled veterans in mobilization campaigns designed to rally popular support for the war effort. Following Japan s defeat in August 1945, U. S. Occupation forces dismantled the social welfare services designed specifically for disabled military personnel, which brought profound consequences for veterans and their dependents. Using a wide array of written and visual historical sources, Pennington tells a tale that until now has been neglected by English-language scholarship on Japanese society. He gives us a uniquely Japanese version of the all-too-familiar story of soldiers who return home to find their lives (and bodies) remade by combat." Review Citations:

Chronicle of Higher Education 04/17/2015 pg. 17 (EAN 9780801452574, Hardcover)

Contributor Bio:  Pennington, Lee Pennington grew up in the hill country of Greenup County. He graduated from Berea College and the University of Iowa. He is a professor of English at Jefferson Community College in Louisville.