ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS LISTING:
This is about a Japanese civilian teacher assigned to the Japanese Army in the Philippines in 1942. The book really begins in 1944 when the American Army returns to the area the author was in , the Northern Luzon area.. I skimmed the book and the civilian was no longer needed to teach and was reassigned to help procure food for the army.
From a book review: This illustrated war memoir is intensely interesting, if somewhat gruesome reading, and is a valuable and important contribution to the literature of World War II Ogawa was a teacher of Nippongo assigned to the Philippines in 1942, and who stayed till the end of the war. His memoir focuses on the last year of war, starting in 1945 in Bauang, La Union, on the eve of the American landing there. He narrates the difficulties faced by Japanese civilians and his own experiences in seeking shelter from the American onslaught while evading Filipino guerrillas. One of the very few books in English depicting the Japanese side of the war, Ogawa’s book is straightforward, honest and intensely personal. He does not justify Japanese misdeeds, and is critical of some of the Japanese officers. He also tries to understand the Filipino side and is quite perceptive. He presents the point of view of a civilian Japanese originally teaching English being assigned to a food procurement unit; he takes pains to show how his unit tried to trade fairly with the Igorots of the Mountain Province.
Originally written in Japanese, Ogawa translated his memoir into English to make the Japanese side known; he was aided in the translation by Fr. Michael Healy. The title comes from the fact that Ogawa and his unit were stationed in the area of the rice terraces in the mountains; beautiful in peacetime but hell for him and his comrades.