MEMORIES OF SILK AND STRAW: A Self-Portrait of Small-Town Japan <i> by Junichi Saga (Kodansha: $10.95, illustrated)</i>

To compile this charming “collective biography” of his home town, Junichi Saga spent 15 years interviewing the oldest citizens of Tsuchiura, a small city on Lake Kasumigaura, 40 miles northeast of Tokyo. While many of the men and women regret the loss of traditional attitudes and values, their recollections make it clear that the Americanization of postwar Japan represents only one aspect of the country’s transformation. Prior to World War II, the peasants in Tsuchiura eked out a bare subsistence, scarcely different from their feudal ancestors’ lives under the Shogunate. Saga’s warm, informal study would make excellent background reading for anyone interested in understanding contemporary Japanese culture.