What is the main lesson the book teaches? Best answer on the web
Posted in: darrelrussell.com edit
07 Jan 2009
The Harp of Burma is a book about a group of Japanese soldiers during the Second World War.
During that war, the Japanese army committed horrible war-crimes, but the book insists on describing the world of the individual soldiers - this is its strength and its weakness: every individual, even the Japanese soldiers, has a heart, and feels the horrors of the war.
One of the study guides write "Although the story takes place amidst the chaos and aftermath of war, the hatred, brutality, and suffering of men in war are present only in one battle scene and in the unburied corpses of Japanese soldiers scattered throughout the jungles, fields, and river banks of Burma. The focus of the story is on the soldiers of "the Singing Company," as they are known. They are tired of the war, tired of running, hiding, killing, and being killed, yet they have maintained their morale and their sense of humanity by singing songs from various countries: France, Italy, Germany, and England, as well as Japan. While many of the men carry homemade musical instruments, Corporal Mizushima's homemade Burmese harp is the soul of the group. Although he has had no formal training in music, he is a natural talent, arranging pieces for the men and accompanying their singing. The Harp of Burma is finally his story, his struggle as a soldier and then as a disguised Buddhist monk to understand the causes of war and of human suffering." (Source: The Harp of Burma (The Burmese Harp),
The main lesson of the book, to sum up, is an anti-war message: the horrors of the war are described, as well as the soldiers' conflicts and problems during the war.
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Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0804802327/102-4376583-8276967?v=glance - reviews and summary (including opinions on this book).
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