A cyclostyled World War II playbook.

According to Peter Francis Kornicki FBA, a English Japanologist and Emeritus Professor of Japanese at Cambridge University and Deputy Warden of Robinson College, Cambridge, “This is a cyclostyled playbook. The title is ‘Otoko no hana’ (the last character is a variant of 華) – could perhaps be translated ‘The men who fell like cherry blossom’. The smaller characters on the right read ‘Nan’engumi (or Minamitoragumi) Volunteer Corps’.

I have been unable to find anything more about this, but on 21 December 1943 there is an intriguing reference to the souls of the ‘Nan’engumi (or Minamitoragumi) Volunteer Corps’ returning home – does that mean their corpses? At any rate, the preface mentions that this Volunteer Corps was supposed to open up a road in New Guinea but were all killed by the enemy. This seems to be a play based on this story, probably written during the war and then cyclostyled. This may be the only surviving copy.”