#ww11

Synopsis: San and Mayu are two schoolgirls living in Okinawa during the closing months of the Pacific War. Together with their classmates, the two friends are drafted into the war effort as nurses for wounded soldiers. When ordered to die for their country, the remaining members of the group escape only to face the harsh environment of a tropical paradise that has become a hellish battlefield.

This is such a raw & realistic depiction of the realities that ordinary citizens were forced to endure during WW11. The author also based this on a very real story about the Himeyuri Students. So in fact, the characters are almost all Okinawan who are an indigenous people that were colonized by Japan. This in no way romanticizes Japan's war crimes & in fact does a really good job at exploring the propaganda used to trick their own people into dying for them. The material is intense though & trigger warnings include Gore & SA. I think this is one of those stories that deserves to be read despite how uncomfortable it can be though. It's important.

Post WWII in England, Teddy Girls, sometimes called Judies, voiced their particular brand of personal rebellion by adopting a singularly androgynous look based loosely on Edwardian menswear. They had a smart, well crafted appearance that was quite at odds with the notion of rebellion. They were in fact, more intimidating because they staunchly refused to adhere to societal norms.

Along with their counterparts, the Teddy Boys, they appeared first in the working class areas of East and West London that had been hardest hit during the War. They rejected the austerity of the post war economy and essentially gave the finger to the ruling class by adopting and changing its styles.