Wages of Guilt

With a new introduction

'A comparative study of great subtlety and intelligence' Spectator

In this highly original and now classic text, Ian Buruma explores and compares how Germany and Japan have attempted to come to terms with their violent pasts, and investigates the painful realities of living with guilt—and with its denial. As he travels through both countries, Buruma encounters people whose honesty in confronting their past is strikingly brave, and others who astonish by the ingenuity of their evasions of responsibility.

In Auschwitz, Berlin, Hiroshima, and Tokyo, he explores the contradictory attitudes of scholars, politicians, and survivors towards the Second World War and visits the contrasting monuments that commemorate the atrocities of the war. These opposing voices reveal how an obsession with the past, especially distorted versions of it, continually raises questions about who should indeed pay the wages of guilt.

'Absorbing and sometimes surprising' A.C. Grayling, Financial Times

‘Buruma's sensitive account . . . is most disturbing to read. I strongly recommend this unusual book’ Paul Johnson, Sunday Times

'Wise and very readable' New Statesman