Human Bullets (Niku-Dan) A Soldier's Story of Port Arthur. With an Introduction by Count Okuma. Translated from the Japanese by Masujiro Honda and Alice M. Bacon
Tokyo: Teibi Publishing, 1907. First Edition in English. Hardcover. 8vo. Pp. iv, ii, 250, [4]. Frontis. illustration with tissue guard. Quarter ivory cloth over gray boards, gilt lettering and red chop on front board. Light soiling and wear, with a vertical scuff on the front board; front hinge starting. Bookplate on front pastedown. Very Good-. Item #5902
The true first English language edition, predating the Houghton, Mifflin edition published later the same year. The stature of Sukarai's narrative? A fixture in the canon of modern warfare literature. His accounts of sieges following interminable preparations, of infantry being mowed down as if by massive scythe, of futility and boredom being displaced by surges of adrenalin - all are a harbinger of the celebrated WWI narratives that followed. Indeed, Sukarai's accounts are eerily similar to those documenting the Western Front and the Somme described by Sassoon, Graves, Dunn, et al. Scarce. Now protected with a removable, clear archival jacket.
Price: $175.00