Talk:Evacuations of civilians in Japan during World War II

WP Assessment Commentary
This appears to be a good start to a situation that had a profound effect on many thousands, if not millions of Japanese lives. For coverage to be complete, the article should address life in the countryside for children who were raised in cities; the difficulties they had with other children, resentful hosts, and siblings being separated. I have read accounts that stated their education was cut drastically, as food became scarce, and the children were forced to spend time gathering wild roots. Older children were given military-style training, some worked in small factories, etc. Another problem arose at the end of the war as children found out they were orphaned or their families had been decimated. I dont have the sources on hand at the moment, but I can get you the names of them if you like. Lastly, I'm not sure the Yawata air raid counts as the "first". What about the Doolittle Raid? I suppose the Yawata air raid could be called the "first air raid to inflict serious damage", the "first air raid of the Home Islands campaign" or the "first to cause concern among the civilian populace" or something like that. Good luck. Boneyard90 (talk) 09:03, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks for that - I thought that this was on the border between B and start class. Could you please provide the names of these sources? When I visited Japan a few years ago museums there had a focus on these evacuations, but they're little known outside the country for some reason. Nick-D (talk) 09:40, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
 * If you don't mind a little collaboration, it might be easier if I write up what I have with me, in a couple of paragraphs, maybe in a seperate section. You could then edit it however you think's best, before re-submitting it to WP:MH for another editor to assess. Boneyard90 (talk) 15:46, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
 * That would be fantastic. Nick-D (talk) 09:54, 10 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Sorry, somehow I missed that last message when it was posted. Anyway, I'll get on it here in a day or two. Boneyard90 (talk) 14:53, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

WPMILHIST Assessment
I can't find the wikilink, but there's a recent trend in the project to minimize the use of X in fiction or Y in cultural somethingorother in articles. The problem usually is once you mention one thing, the go into extensive detail about it, there's another work you missed, and another, and then the whole article is about fiction instead of history. I have a feeling the fictional part of this article was written first, then the history was written around the fictional plot of historical events.

The specific thing the article for B-class is a paragraph of background to what was happened before 1943 that didn't prompt evacuations of civilians (and as I suspect, there are earlier evacuations), and then a link to Evacuations of civilians during World War II as a see also. Once you add that ping me and I'll reassess. Kirk (talk) 15:22, 4 April 2011 (UTC)


 * About the fiction, I think I know what you're getting at. There are many articles where the "Cultural references" section is huge, and mostly list every single video game that remotely touches the subject. In the case of this article, the sections were written in the order you see them. User:Nick-D wrote the lead and the History section; I made an initial assessment, then added the "Challenges". I later wrote the "cultural reference" as an afterthought. I don't mind reducing or even deleting it, though I do think it's a valuable link to a reader who may have first approached either this article or the movie article.
 * But, more background and research on pre-1943 evacuations or the reasons there weren't any. Cool, thanks for the input. Boneyard90 (talk) 16:17, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
 * My suggestion is to have the headings Background, Evacuations (and maybe subheadings with specific evacuations) and Aftermath. In aftermath, put in the cultural references as a paragraph. I'm not exactly sure what to do with challenges but it sounds like an aftermath. Part of my question is it makes sense to me that the evacuations have something to do with B-29s air-raids in 1944, but I wondered why they started in 1943.Kirk (talk) 21:11, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I'll make the "Challenges" a sub-section of the "Evacuations" section; or divide relevant portions between "Evacuations" and "Aftermath". I'm sure one of us (me or Nick-D) can look into developing the background a little better. I think he's been busy developing a similar article lately. Boneyard90 (talk) 01:37, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I've added some background, though there's not all that much that can be said - the Japanese Government did little to prepare for air raids until they first became likely to occur in late 1943, but few civilians self-evacuated until the raids began in 1944. From 1945 onwards there was a large scale migration from the main Japanese cities in response to the US air raids (these seem to have occurred more or less simultaneously). Nick-D (talk) 11:29, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
 * To Nick-D: I changed the section headings a bit. Take a look, let me know what you think, edit, revert, etc. Boneyard90 (talk) 13:01, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Its good enough for B now, thanks, although please reword the timing for the 'first' evacuations; one citation says October 1943, another says December 1943. Kirk (talk) 13:52, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks for that Kirk. That information isn't contradictory - the Government decided to begin evacuations in October, but they didn't actually commence until December. Nick-D (talk) 08:22, 6 April 2011 (UTC)