11 August 2011
Abandoned Japanese in Postwar Manchuria: The Lives of War Orphans and Wives in Two Countries by Yeeshan Chan, Routledge (Japan Anthropology Workshop Series), 2011, 208 pages, £85.00, ISBN: 0415591813 This is a superbly researched work about the lives and experiences of the Japanese women and children who were abandoned in Manchuria at the end of [...]
5 August 2011
The Meiji Restoration in 19th century Japan not only overthrew the Shogun’s rule but rewrote the nation’s religious map. That propelled the emperor into a deity whose absolute authority was crafted by the founders of the new regime for political purposes. Prior to that transformation, no traditional belief held that the emperors were gods; that was so even among scholars who believed in the Way of the Gods. This is the basic theme in Yasuhisa Ebisawa’s best-selling novel that got rave reviews in 2004 and is now available in paperback.
3 August 2011
The 1920s were a crucial period in modern Japanese history, when new and revolutionary western ideologies, like communism and fascism, entered Japan and found adherents there. Anti-Semitism was one of those western ideologies to arrive at that time. It offered a simplistic explanation of the perplexing turmoil of the world. It appealed to conservatives alarmed about communist subversion and to those attracted by conspiracy theories.
2 August 2011
This book consists of a series of studies about Japanese shipping and shipbuilding. These are of interest to anyone specialising in Japanese economic history. It includes chapters on the rise of Japan’s modern shipping industry, the development of Japanese shipping industries in post-war Japan, Japan’s merchant marine and Japanese shipbuilding.
27 July 2011
The late Richard Bowen was an accomplished student and instructor of judo. Bowen was also an indefatigable researcher into the history of judo in this country. He amassed a considerable archive of letters, photographs and other documentary records (which are now held in the Richard Bowen Collection at the University of Bath). His two volume history is a pleasingly written and the combined work runs to nearly 1000 pages.
27 July 2011
This book provides an illustrated and factual guide to the development of nuclear weapons. It starts with an account of research into the nature of atoms. This is followed by a summary of the work which led up to the manufacture of the first atomic bombs in the Manhattan project.
4 July 2011
Much more has been published in English about the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/5 than about the Sino-Japanese War of 1894/5. Yet the war with China was possibly even more significant for Japan and for Asia. Professor Mitani in his foreword explains: “The Sino-Japanese War did more than rob China of its centrality.
24 May 2011
by Penelope Francks Cambridge University Press, 2009, 249 pages including index and references, ISBN 978-0521-69932-7 (soft back) Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi Penelope Francks is an honorary lecturer in Japanese studies in the department of East Asian Studies at the University of Leeds. She has specialized in the study of Japanese economic history. Most books [...]
28 April 2011
by Ken Kotani (小谷 賢), translated by Chiharu Kotani, Osprey, 2009, 224 pages including end notes, bibliography and index, ISBN 13-978-1-84603-425-1 Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi “This study reveals a Japanese military that was in most respects dysfunctional in the field of intelligence. It was not so much a failure of the intelligence organizations themselves [...]
7 April 2011
by David Mitchell, Sceptre/Hodder and Stoughton, 2010, 469 pages, ISBN 978-0-340-92156-2 Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi This readable historical novel set in Japan has been well reviewed in the national press. Many Japan Society members will have read about it and some may already have read the book. Anyone interested in the life of the [...]
