Introduction & Overview of A Boy Called H by Kappa Senoh

A Boy Called H Introduction

A Boy Called H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan (Japanese, 1997; English, 1999), by Kappa Senoh, is an autobiographical novel. Senoh describes his life growing up in the port city of Kobe, Japan, from the 1930s until a few years after the end of World War II. In fifty short chapters, each focusing on a few incidents, some minor and amusing, others tragic and moving, the novel gives a remarkable picture, through the eyes of a young boy, of a society at war. H describes how life in Kobe gradually changes as the war with China, and later with the United States, drags on. There is an increasingly authoritarian atmosphere, marked by excessive nationalism that no one dares to question openly. H learns there is a difference between official versions of events, as reported in the newspapers, and what is really happening. He also goes through some harrowing experiences. In...
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