Empire of Surrender

Empire of Surrender PDF Author: Michael Schmeltzer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578308418
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
Michael Schmeltzer's Empire of Surrender asks us to look, to feel-deep in the guts-the vibrating aftershocks of war. Each poem powerfully speaks to the ache of what it means to witness war, especially at a young age. Full of visceral lyricism and tender epistolaries, Schmeltzer dives into the intimate depths of war, violence, familial history, empathy, and lineage. This is a book that is not afraid to ask: how and why do we hurt each other? What is lost in such acts of cruelty? And how can we cling to kindness as resistance? In this complexity, Empire of Surrender returns us to the heart: "with each clang I hear the heart//quiet a bit more. In the great war I become cake." -Jane Wong, author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything (Alice James Books) "We have misplaced our gentleness," writes Michael Schmeltzer in his stunning collection, Empire of Surrender, where he brilliantly weaves tenderness, vulnerability, and love into a realm of war and brutality. Rooted in history and family, these poems do not hold back, fearless and poignant, they ache to be read more than once-"We are hostage to sorrow./Lay down. Rest your head./We can be each other's pillow." Schmeltzer is a voice I need and the world needs. I can't remember the last time I have been so taken by a collection; Michael Schmeltzer has written the best poems of his life, make no mistake, this book will open you in the very best ways. -Kelli Russell Agodon, author of Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press) In these harrowing poems, Michael Schmeltzer meditates on the failures of empire, on war and cruelty, on the fragility of goodness. This book is steeped in brutality and horror, yet the voice that speaks these poems is above all humane, tender, filled with wonder. "What weapon," Schmeltzer asks, considering the sharpness of axes, "can be made of me?" It is a complex question in a world that overwhelms anyone who imagines the end of violence as "pushing a pin back into a grenade." At the same time, it elevates the power of our words, rendering them urgent and vital. This is an important book for our age of war and empire, one that discovers in the individual consciousness both truth and the potential for good. -Kevin Prufer, author of The Art of Fiction (Four Way Books)

Empire of Surrender

Empire of Surrender PDF Author: Michael Schmeltzer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578308418
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 98

Get Book Here

Book Description
Michael Schmeltzer's Empire of Surrender asks us to look, to feel-deep in the guts-the vibrating aftershocks of war. Each poem powerfully speaks to the ache of what it means to witness war, especially at a young age. Full of visceral lyricism and tender epistolaries, Schmeltzer dives into the intimate depths of war, violence, familial history, empathy, and lineage. This is a book that is not afraid to ask: how and why do we hurt each other? What is lost in such acts of cruelty? And how can we cling to kindness as resistance? In this complexity, Empire of Surrender returns us to the heart: "with each clang I hear the heart//quiet a bit more. In the great war I become cake." -Jane Wong, author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything (Alice James Books) "We have misplaced our gentleness," writes Michael Schmeltzer in his stunning collection, Empire of Surrender, where he brilliantly weaves tenderness, vulnerability, and love into a realm of war and brutality. Rooted in history and family, these poems do not hold back, fearless and poignant, they ache to be read more than once-"We are hostage to sorrow./Lay down. Rest your head./We can be each other's pillow." Schmeltzer is a voice I need and the world needs. I can't remember the last time I have been so taken by a collection; Michael Schmeltzer has written the best poems of his life, make no mistake, this book will open you in the very best ways. -Kelli Russell Agodon, author of Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press) In these harrowing poems, Michael Schmeltzer meditates on the failures of empire, on war and cruelty, on the fragility of goodness. This book is steeped in brutality and horror, yet the voice that speaks these poems is above all humane, tender, filled with wonder. "What weapon," Schmeltzer asks, considering the sharpness of axes, "can be made of me?" It is a complex question in a world that overwhelms anyone who imagines the end of violence as "pushing a pin back into a grenade." At the same time, it elevates the power of our words, rendering them urgent and vital. This is an important book for our age of war and empire, one that discovers in the individual consciousness both truth and the potential for good. -Kevin Prufer, author of The Art of Fiction (Four Way Books)

In the Ruins of Empire

In the Ruins of Empire PDF Author: Ronald Spector
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0812967321
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 403

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Book Description
The New York Times said of Ronald H. Spector’s classic account of the American struggle against the Japanese in World War II, “No future book on the Pacific War will be written without paying due tribute to Eagle Against the Sun.” Now Spector has returned with a book that is even more revealing. In the Ruins of Empire chronicles the startling aftermath of this crucial twentieth-century conflict. With access to recently available firsthand accounts by Chinese, Japanese, British, and American witnesses and previously top secret U.S. intelligence records, Spector tells for the first time the fascinating story of the deadly confrontations that broke out–or merely continued–in Asia after peace was proclaimed at the end of World War II. Under occupation by the victorious Allies, this part of the world was plunged into new power struggles or back into old feuds that in some ways were worse than the war itself. In the Ruins of Empire also shows how the U.S. and Soviet governments, as they secretly vied for influence in liberated lands, were soon at odds. At the time of the peace declaration, international suspicions were still strong. Joseph Stalin warned that “crazy cutthroats” might disrupt the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay. Die-hard Japanese officers plotted to seize the emperor’s palace to prevent an announcement of surrender, and clandestine relief forces were sent to rescue thousands of Allied POWs to prevent their being massacred. In the Ruins of Empire paints a vivid picture of the postwar intrigues and violence. In Manchuria, Russian “liberators” looted, raped, and killed innocent civilians, and a fratricidal rivalry continued between Chiang Kai-shek’s regime and Mao’s revolutionaries. Communist resistance forces in Malaya settled old scores and terrorized the indigenous population, while mujahideen holy warriors staged reprisals and terror killings against the Chinese–hundreds of innocent civilians were killed on both sides. In Indochina, a nativist political movement rose up to oppose the resumption of French colonial rule; one of the factions that struggled for supremacy was the Communist Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh. Korea became a powder keg with the Russians and Americans entangled in its north and south. And in Java, as the Indonesian novelist Idrus wrote, people brutalized by years of Japanese occupation “worshipped a new God in the form of bombs, submachine guns, and mortars.” Through impeccable research and provocative analysis, as well as compelling accounts of American, British, Indian, and Australian soldiers charged with overseeing the surrender and repatriation of millions of Japanese in the heart of dangerous territory, Spector casts new and startling light on this pivotal time–and sets the record straight about this contested and important period in history.

Behind Japan's Surrender

Behind Japan's Surrender PDF Author: Lester Brooks
Publisher: New York : McGraw-Hill
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
Account of the tragic days between the explosion of the first A-bomb and the surrender of Japan. The author has drawn on captured documents, Allied interrogations, the Tokyo Trials, and interviews. He has gone back into Japanese history to learn the ways of thought and the inner rhythm of the culture that led Japan into World War II and defeat.

The Surrender of an Empire

The Surrender of an Empire PDF Author: Nesta H. Webster
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780849011627
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


No Surrender

No Surrender PDF Author: Hiroo Onoda
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612515649
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
In the spring of 1974, Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda of the Japanese army made world headlines when he emerged from the Philippine jungle after a thirty-year ordeal. Hunted in turn by American troops, the Philippine police, hostile islanders, and successive Japanese search parties, Onoda had skillfully outmaneuvered all his pursuers, convinced that World War II was still being fought and that one day his fellow soldiers would return victorious. This account of those years is an epic tale of the will to survive that offers a rare glimpse of man's invincible spirit, resourcefulness, and ingenuity. A hero to his people, Onoda wrote down his experiences soon after his return to civilization. This book was translated into English the following year and has enjoyed an approving audience ever since.

The Anguish of Surrender

The Anguish of Surrender PDF Author: Ulrich A. Straus
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 9780295802558
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
On December 6, 1941, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki was one of a handful of men selected to skipper midget subs on a suicide mission to breach Pearl Harbor’s defenses. When his equipment malfunctioned, he couldn’t find the entrance to the harbor. He hit several reefs, eventually splitting the sub, and swam to shore some miles from Pearl Harbor. In the early dawn of December 8, he was picked up on the beach by two Japanese American MPs on patrol. Sakamaki became Prisoner No. 1 of the Pacific War. Japan’s no-surrender policy did not permit becoming a POW. Sakamaki and his fellow soldiers and sailors had been indoctrinated to choose between victory and a heroic death. While his comrades had perished, he had survived. By becoming a prisoner of war, Sakamaki believed he had brought shame and dishonor on himself, his family, his community, and his nation, in effect relinquishing his citizenship. Sakamaki fell into despair and, like so many Japanese POWs, begged his captors to kill him. Based on the author’s interviews with dozens of former Japanese POWs along with memoirs only recently coming to light, The Anguish of Surrender tells one of the great unknown stories of World War II. Beginning with an examination of Japan’s prewar ultranationalist climate and the harsh code that precluded the possibility of capture, the author investigates the circumstances of surrender and capture of men like Sakamaki and their experiences in POW camps. Many POWs, ill and starving after days wandering in the jungles or hiding out in caves, were astonished at the superior quality of food and medical treatment they received. Contrary to expectations, most Japanese POWs, psychologically unprepared to deal with interrogations, provided information to their captors. Trained Allied linguists, especially Japanese Americans, learned how to extract intelligence by treating the POWs humanely. Allied intelligence personnel took advantage of lax Japanese security precautions to gain extensive information from captured documents. A few POWs, recognizing Japan’s certain defeat, even assisted the Allied war effort to shorten the war. Far larger numbers staged uprisings in an effort to commit suicide. Most sought to survive, suffered mental anguish, and feared what awaited them in their homeland. These deeply human stories follow Japanese prisoners through their camp experiences to their return to their welcoming families and reintegration into postwar society. These stories are told here for the first time in English.

Surrender to the Will of the Night

Surrender to the Will of the Night PDF Author: Glen Cook
Publisher: Tor Books
ISBN: 1429945141
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 493

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Book Description
Piper Hecht's first and greatest secret is that he knows how to kill gods. What's not a secret is that he knows how to win wars. Hecht's secrets make him dangerous, but his skill and his reputation put him in danger—from his enemies, who fear what he might do or who want revenge for what he has already done; and from his friends, who want to use his military gifts for their own purposes. His sister Heris and his living ancestor Cloven Februaren, the Ninth Unknown, have made Hecht part of their fight against the return of the dark god, Kharoulke the Windwalker. At the same time, the half-mad Empress Katrin wants Hecht to lead the armies of the Grail Empire eastward on a crusade against his old co-religionists the Praman. Meanwhile, the world is changing. The winters are growing longer and harsher every year, and the seas are getting shallower. The far north and the high mountain ranges are going under the ice, fast. The Wells of Power are getting weaker, and the old evils, the Instrumentalities from the Time Before Time, have begun to ooze back into the world. Surrender to the Will of the Night is the third book in Glen Cook's phenomenal Instrumentalities of the Night fantasy series. As ever, the genius of Glen Cook's storytelling lies in his common touch: in soldiers, who are like real soldiers; in men and women, who love and laugh and sweat, with real hopes and real fears, united only in their determination to face the oncoming night. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Surrender Tree

The Surrender Tree PDF Author: Margarita Engle
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780805086744
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
Cuba has fought three wars for independence, and still she is not free. This history in verse creates a lyrical portrait of Cuba.

The Last Thing You Surrender

The Last Thing You Surrender PDF Author: Leonard Pitts
Publisher: Agate Publishing
ISBN: 1572848243
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
Three Americans in the Jim Crow South face enormous changed triggered by World War II in this epic novel by the Pulitzer-winning author of Freeman. Could you find the courage to do what’s right in a world on fire? An affluent white marine survives Pearl Harbor at the cost of a black messman’s life only to be sent, wracked with guilt, to the Pacific and taken prisoner by the Japanese. A young black woman, widowed by the same events at Pearl Harbor, finds unexpected opportunity and a dangerous friendship in a segregated Alabama shipyard feeding the war. Meanwhile, a black man, who as a child saw his parents brutally lynched, is conscripted to fight Nazis for a country he despises and discovers a new kind of patriotism in the all-black 761st Tank Battalion . . . Set against a backdrop of violent racial conflict on both the front lines and the home front, The Last Thing You Surrender explores the powerful moral struggles of individuals from a divided nation. What does it take to change someone’s mind about race? What does it take for a country and a people to move forward, transformed? Praise for The Last Thing You Surrender “A story of our nation at war, with itself as well as tyranny across the globe. It’s an American tapestry of hatred, compassion, fear, courage, and cruelties, leavened with the promise of triumph. A powerful story I will not soon forget.” —James R. Benn, author of the Billy Boyle WWII mysteries “Seamlessly integrates impressive research into a compelling tale of America at war—overseas, at home, and within ourselves, as we struggle to find the better angels of our nature. Pitts poignantly illustrates ongoing racial and class tensions, and offers hope that we can overcome hatred by refusing to sacrifice dignity.” —Booklist, starred review

Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire

Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire PDF Author: Milka Levy-Rubin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139499157
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
The Muslim conquest of the East in the seventh century entailed the subjugation of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and others. Although much has been written about the status of non-Muslims in the Islamic empire, no previous works have examined how the rules applying to minorities were formulated. Milka Levy-Rubin's remarkable book traces the emergence of these regulations from the first surrender agreements in the immediate aftermath of conquest to the formation of the canonic document called the Pact of 'Umar, which was formalized under the early 'Abbasids, in the first half of the ninth century. The study reveals that the conquered peoples themselves played a major role in the creation of these policies and that they were based on long-standing traditions, customs and institutions from earlier pre-Islamic cultures that originated in the worlds of both the conquerors and the conquered. In its connections to Roman, Byzantine and Sasanian traditions, the book will appeal to historians of Europe as well as Arabia and Persia.