The Harp of Burma was written as a didactic story for youth.

Dear xuesongz, 

The Harp of Burma is a book about a group of Japanese soldiers during
the Second World War.

During that war, the Japanese army committed horrible war-crimes, but
the book insists on describing the world of the individual soldiers -
this is its strength and its weakness: every individual, even the
Japanese soldiers, has a heart, and feels the horrors of the war.

One of the study guides write "Although the story takes place amidst
the chaos and aftermath of war, the hatred, brutality, and suffering
of men in war are present only in one battle scene and in the unburied
corpses of Japanese soldiers scattered throughout the jungles, fields,
and river banks of Burma. The focus of the story is on the soldiers of
"the Singing Company," as they are known. They are tired of the war,
tired of running, hiding, killing, and being killed, yet they have
maintained their morale and their sense of humanity by singing songs
from various countries: France, Italy, Germany, and England, as well
as Japan. While many of the men carry homemade musical instruments,
Corporal Mizushima's homemade Burmese harp is the soul of the group.
Although he has had no formal training in music, he is a natural
talent, arranging pieces for the men and accompanying their singing.
The Harp of Burma is finally his story, his struggle as a soldier and
then as a disguised Buddhist monk to understand the causes of war and
of human suffering." (Source: The Harp of Burma (The Burmese Harp),
<http://www.aems.uiuc.edu/HTML/ChalkGuides/Harp_of_Burma.html>).

The main lesson of the book, to sum up, is an anti-war message: the
horrors of the war are described, as well as the soldiers' conflicts
and problems during the war.

Read more: 
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Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0804802327/102-4376583-8276967?v=glance
- reviews and summary (including opinions on this book).

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the book. Please contact me if you need any clarifications on the
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