This is such a powerful and important book.

First off, it cuts against the common lie that all Japanese people banded together to support Japan's imperialist ambitions during WWII. Instead it shows that many Japanese workers, even under conditions of brutal and stifling repression, continued to struggle against the war, and against their bosses.

Secondly, it is a record of the absolute bravery, heroism determination of left-wing activists managing to evade the watchful eyes of the political police and use every trick in the book, and some that had not been thought of before, to continue covert activism in a period of absolute repression, despite knowing they could be captured and tortured to death. It was because of these activists that trade unionism was able to be rapidly rebuilt immediately after the end of the war, so the Japanese working class could continue to fight back in the class war in the new era or bourgeois 'democracy'.

Lastly it is a window into the war as seen through the eyes of working class Japanese people, caught between their own government's barbarism, and the barbarism of the allied forces who mercilessly firebombed industrial and residential areas of Japan, murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese workers.

I cannot recommend this book enough.