The themes found in a newly uncovered collection of traditional Japanese verse would be familiar to any reader here: the melancholy passing of the seasons, fleeting beauty, the inevitability of death.
The poets, however, are an unlikely bunch - war criminals imprisoned for Japanese atrocities during World War II.
The 30 poems are assembled in two booklets that came to light this month after a historian obtained them from the family of a prisoner who served with other suspected war criminals held by U.S. authorities in the 1940s and early '50s.
The bards include several Japanese officials who were convicted of war crimes and hanged - particularly wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and wartime air-force commander Kenji Doihara.
Japanese poems rise from depths of prison....***More complete story:
Unveiled in Tokyo collection of poems by war criminals
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