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Issue 71 (October 2017, Volume 12, Number 5)

Issue 71 (October 2017, Volume 12, Number 5)

In this issue, The Japan Society Review focuses on four non-fiction publications which explore from different perspectives a series of key events and persons in Japanese history, politics and art.

Japan Society Chairman Sir David Warren reviews Ghosts of the Tsunami written by British journalist Richard Lloyd Parry. As the Asia Editor of The Times, Lloyd Parry covered the news of the triple disaster which occurred in the north-east of Japan on March 11, 2011. In order ‘to try and get beyond the professional detachment of the reporter and understand the enormity of what had happened’, he also continued visiting the area after these tragic events disappeared from the front page. Ghosts of the Tsunami is the result of these visits. With remarkable observational skill and great sensitivity, Parry records the personal testimonies of some of the survivors and, in particular, some of the parents of the 74 children who died at Okawa Primary School in Kamaya.

The second book reviewed in this issue is Two Pilgrims Meet: In search of Reconciliation between China and Japan. The two authors Minoru Kasai and Basil Scott, one Japanese and the other British, embark on a spiritual journey to Shanghai, where they spent their childhood during the years of the Japanese occupation and the Asia Pacific War. According to reviewer Reverend Ikuko Williams, the book offers an opportunity to reflect on ‘the complex facets of reconciliation between countries with a history of enmity in the past’ and provides genuine encouragement to build ‘trust-based relationships between neighbouring countries on a person-to-person level’.

This October issue of the Review also includes two biographical publications which deal with historical figures who had an important role in shaping Japan’s relationship and image in the West. ANJIN-The Life & Times of Samurai William Adams, 1564-1620, written by Hiromi T. Rogers and reviewed by Nicolas Maclean, presents a detailed and complex account of the first Englishman ever to travel to Japan.

The second biography, Hokusai Beyond The Great Wave edited by Timothy Clark, consists of a combination of colour illustrations and scholarly essays that explore the late career of the celebrated Japanese painter, whose work was the focal point of the recent exhibition at the British Museum.

As ever, the Japan Society is extremely grateful to all of its reviewers for giving their time and expertise.


Contents

Contributors

Editor
Alejandra Armendáriz-Hernández

Reviewers
Sir Hugh Cortazzi, Nicolas Maclean, Sir David Warren and Revd Ikuko Williams

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