I am looking for books written first hand by the people that fought in WWII. I have many of the popular recommendations. (Example: Helmet for my Pillow, With the Old Breed, The Forgotten Soldier, Etc.)
Though I will be happy to look into any recommendations given, I am looking for any Japanese, Soviet, Finnish, Italian, or British memoirs/personal accounts specifically.
I have started a decent collection so far with American and German books. I would like to further it to different corners of the war.
You might want to consider "The Execution of Private Slovik". Eddie was the only executed by the US Army since the American Civil War and William Bradford Huie does an excellent job of bringing an unpleasant side of war to light.
correction: he was the only person executed by the US Army for Desertion since the Civil War
There are three books written by submarine captains about their wartime experiences. "Iron Coffins" is about the German u-boats, "Pig Boats" is about Japanese I-Boats and "Clear The Bridge" is on American submarines. Each captain presents us with a frank discussion about the life and problems they experienced on board and the tactical mistakes made by their superiors. I read all three of them back to back and was amazed at the differences between how differently the three countries used their subs and treated their men.
For the Soviet perspective: