Typhoon of Steel

An Okinawan Schoolboy's Quest for Martyrdom in the Battle of Okinawa

A Novel

Akira Yoshimura

2009, 244 pages

ISBN 978-1-937385-07-1 Paper $23.00

“Told in Yoshimura’s typically stark, unadorned style, the story resonates as powerful testimony to the poignant saga of the child soldiers caught up in the Battle of Okinawa.”

—Koji Tara, editor of The Ryukyuanist and
Emeritus Professor of Industrial Relations,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Battle of Okinawa was the last great battle of World War II. In terms of casualties, it was a horrific struggle with over 200,000 Japanese military and civilians perishing. This the story of an Okinawan schoolboy conscripted by the Japanese to fight the Americans as a child soldier.
    Prize-winning Japanese author Akira Yoshimura (1927-2006), renowned for his unadorned style and well-researched content, published over twenty novels in the historical genre. Of these, Shipwrecks, On Parole and One Man’s Justice have become internationally known through translations into several languages. Yoshimura often chose to depict events related to Japan’s clash with the West in the tumultuous decades following Japan’s opening to the outside world.

New Zealander Mark Ealey is a freelance translator specializing in Japanese history and foreign relations. Typhoon of Steel is his sixth book-length translation and his third novel by Akira Yoshimura.