The Japan Society Review

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 […]

By David Mitchell 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 […] Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

By Atsushi Nakajima, Translated by Paul McCarthy and Nobuko Ochner, Autumn Hill Books, 2010, 182 pages ISBN:9780982746608. Review by Adam House. Atsushi Nakajima (中島 敦) was born in Tokyo in 1909, his father came from a family of scholars specializing in the classics of ancient China, this would not only influence his reading but would […]

Edited by Guy Podoler, Global Oriental, 2009, 242 pages including index and bibliography, ISBN978-1-905246-85-4 Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi This collection of essays reproduces papers prepared for “The International Conference on Japan in Honour of Professor Ben-Ami Shillony,” which took place at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel between 29 April and 2 May […]

Professor Gough’s Historical Dreadnoughts is biography rather than autobiography. It is a joint biography of two historians of the Royal Navy in the twentieth century. While much of the book is taken up with disputes between these two historical giants – historians have been known to disagree! –it contains much of relevance to the story of the Asia-Pacific war.

Ramesh Benegal (1926-2003) was born in Rangoon, Burma, to an Indian family. When Rangoon was bombed by the Japanese, he was evacuated at the age of 15 with his mother in the hope of reaching India by an overland route. This proving impossible, he returned to Rangoon. Ramesh became infused with aspirations for Indian independence and felt that the Japanese could help in achieving this.

Intellectual Property, Innovation and Management in Emerging Economies, Edited by Ruth Taplin and Alojzy Z. Nowak, Routledge, 2010, ISBN10:0-415-55960-X, £85 This thought-provoking book argues that a country’s development of a robust intellectual property rights (IPRs) framework is fundamental to long-term economic success in today’s globalized world. This is something not just vital for […]

Project Japan and Art Media, Edo to Now by Graham Cooper, with essays contributed by Japanese architects Fumihiko Maki, Kisho Kurokawa, Tadao Ando, Kengo Kuma and Makoto Sei Watanabe, Images Publishing, Australia, 2009, 240 pages, numerous colour illustrations, ISBN 978 1 86470 300 2 Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi Graham Cooper introduced his book […]

By Ian Nish 454 pp including index and appendices ISBN 978-1-905246-87-8, Global Oriental, 2011 Ian Nish, Professor Emeritus in International History at LSE, spent two years with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan from 1946-48. He arrived in Kure in October 1946 as an interpreter-translator attached to the Combined Services Direct Interrogation Centre (CSDIC) […]

Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits VII. Complied & Edited by Sir Hugh Cortazzi, Global Oriental and the Japan Society 2010, 665 pages, ISBN: 978-1906876265. Review by Sean Curtin.