"Covering almost a century of Japanese poetry in a thoughtful, sentisive manner, this book is a valuable contribution to the field not only of modern Japanese literature, but of comparative literature between Japan and the West."
--Yoshiko Yokochi Samuel in The Journal of Asian Studies

"[Rabson's] careful examination of the poetry and gunka (military ballads) published in the Japanese popular press . . . [and analysis of specific authors] makes a significant contribution."
--Joan Ericson in Monumenta Nipponica

"Provocative and stimulating. War poetry, whether Eastern or Western, has rarely been probed so skillfully. Rabson shatters preconceptions as he shows how Japanese poets (some proclaimed by critics as 'antiwar poets') often wrote both 'antiwar' and 'prowar' poetry. Righteous Cause or Tragic Folly may well become a model for future literary studies."
--John Bradley, Northern Illinois University and editor of Atomic Ghost: Poets Respond to the Nuclear Age

"[a] provocative, well-researched, often iconoclastic study . . . the challenge of cultural criticism is not merely to engage authors and texts as timeless artifacts but also to situate them in timeful context: both theirs when produced and all subsequent times when recaptured. Righteous Cause or Tragic Folly is a commendable step in this direction."
--Tom Havens in the Journal of Japanese Studies

"Eschewing the one-dimensional myths of the Japanese as either inherently bellicose or inveterately pacifistic, Steve Rabson has written a nuanced but nonetheless provocative account of fluctuating Japanese attitudes toward war as evidenced in their modern poetry. This painstakingly researched but highly readable book is a must for anyone interested in modern Japan, war in the twentieth century, or the problematic role of writers in dark times."
--David G. Goodman, author of After Apocalypse: Four Japanese Plays of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Long, Long Autumn Nights: Selected Poems of Oguma Hideo, 1901-1940

The subject of modern Japanese poetry written in support of the nation's wars, long considered a taboo in postwar literary circles, is explored here in historical and cultural context. Steve Rabson presents translations and explications of works by poets who wrote both for and against war, and provides background esential for understanding why some of Japan's most famous writers swung 180 degrees to support or oppose war at different times in their careers. Through examples from American and British poetry, Rabson also shows that this phenomenon of poets changing their views is by no means exclusive to Japan. Exposing the efforts of some Japanese writers after 1945 to conceal or revise their poetry written during World War II, the author discusses assertions by literary critics and historians that poets bear a special "war responsibility."