TIME OF FALLEN BLOSSOMS

A young Australian non-com, stationed in Japan during the first year of occupation, writes a scales-off-the-eyes report of life in post-war, post-A-Bomb Hiroshima and outlying areas. There is the unexpected kindness and docility of the still dazed, impoverished inhabitants, the instances of inevitable brutality among some of the occupation troops, the unchanging beauty of the countryside away from the bombed cities. Far from the tea garden picture of the occupation usually given, this should provoke interest. The writing is superior reportage.