A Diary of Darkness is a perceptive and courageous account of wartime Japan and a revealing record of the devastation wrought by total war. And all the while he traces the gradual disintegration of Japan's war effort and the looming certainty of defeat. He writes in gripping detail about increasing poverty, crime, and disorder.He records the sentiments of the local barber as faithfully as those of senior politicians. He laments the rise of hysterical propaganda and relates his own and his friends' struggles to avoid arrest. The diary caused a sensation when it was published in. 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. Kiyosawa pours scorn on such leaders as Premiers Tojo and Koiso. A Diary of Darkness is one of the most important and compelling documents of wartime Japan. 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. Kiyosawa was an American-educated commentator on politics and foreign affairs who became increasingly isolated in Japan as militant nationalists rose to power. This is the first time it has appeared in English.

The diary caused a sensation when it was published in Japan in 1948 and is today regarded as a classic.

A Diary of Darkness is one of the most important and compelling documents of wartime Japan.

A Diary of Darkness by Kiyoshi Kiyosawa