Children We Have Lost: Diaries, Memoirs, and Museum Displays of Childhood and Youth in Wartime Japan

Abstract

ABSTRACT By analysing diaries, memoirs, and material objects used in WWII memorial museum spaces, Moore discusses how the ‘lost child’ and ‘lost youth’ can encourage reconsiderations of the wartime past. Texts by young people and objects that were part of their lives inspire a desire to engage with children ‘lost’ to the war years, even if it is one’s own youth. The ‘war’ they recorded and experienced was very different than the one recorded by adult leaders. Our desire to engage with lost youth is an opportunity to review what we think we know about WWII.