Cover of When I Was a Boy in Japan

When I Was a Boy in Japan

by Sakae Shioya

Read When I Was a Boy in Japan online, or download the EPUB (works on Kindle too) or PDF.

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First published
1906
Pages
62Digital edition
Language
English
Reading difficulty
4 of 10

A little about the story

Sakae Shioya tells American children about his own childhood in Japan in the 1870s and 1880s: his name and his toys, tea season, festivals and food, school and his teachers, and the changes as Japan opened to the West.

It is a warm, humorous memoir, full of the details of everyday life in Meiji-era Japan.

Things You May Not Know About When I Was a Boy in Japan

  • Part of the When I Was a Boy series, in which authors told about their childhoods in other countries.
  • Teachers old and new. He remembers both a Chinese classics teacher and a Western teacher.
  • A childhood in a changing country. Shioya grew up as Japan opened to Western ideas.

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Get “When I Was a Boy in Japan”

  • EPUB ebook: one file that works on Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play Books and phone reading apps.
  • PDF: fixed pages, for printing or reading on a computer.

Reading on Kindle? Send the EPUB to your Kindle with Amazon’s Send to Kindle (app, website or email). Amazon converts it for you.

Part of Freebookia's children's classics collection, added November 2026.

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