Empire of the Sun

Taking into consideration of some of his own wartime experiences, Ballard tells the story of privileged Jamie (“Jim”) Graham, a Brit living in Shanghai when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour in the Second World War. The book takes a look at the tragedy and ultimate sickness of armed conflict through t......more

Hundreds of book were written about WWII, every one describing horrors of war and human tragedies in its own way. And yet, no matter how many of them I've read, it shocks me every time. And this heartbreaking story of a prisoner camp survivor was emotionally devastating. Author managed to show how s......more

A few days ago, I learned a new Japanese word. Nijuuhibakusha means literally "twice radiation-sick individual", and refers to the few people who, through staggering bad luck, managed to be present both at Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and then at Nagasaki three days later. The article I read was an......more

This was an enjoyable read in my opinion. The plot followed the life of Jim, a young British boy living in the opening outbreak of the Japanese invasion of Shanghai and eastern China during World War II. Jim was the son of a British diplomat living in a foreign settlement sector co-oping with the Ch......more

Re-Read 8/2/23 I don't know what it is about this novel that lets me positively want to re-read it. On the surface, it's utterly tragic and devastating. Ballard himself experienced the Japanese war camp in Shanghai for the entire span of WWII. Starvation and desperate moves to survive and the breatht......more