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Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha
Lesley Downer · back to the book
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorShowa, 1926-1939: A History of Japan
Shigeru Mizuki · 560 pages
"First volume of Shigeru Mizuki's meticulously researched historical portrait of twentieth century Japan. This volume deals with the period leading up to World War II, a time of high unemployment and other economic hardships caused by the Great Depression. Mizuki's photo-realist style effortlessly brings to life Japan of the 1920s and 1930s, depicting bustling city streets and abandoned graveyards
The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan
Ivan Morris · 350 pages
A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present
Andrew Gordon · 400 pages
Introduction: Enduring Imprints of the Longer PastPART 1. CRISIS OF HE TOKUGAWA REGIME 1. The Tokugawa Polity UnificationThe Tokugawa Political SettlementsThe DaimyoThe Imperial InstitutionThe SamuraiVillagers and City-DwellersThe Margins of the Japanese and Japan2. Social and Economic Transformations The Seventeenth-Century BoomRiddles of Stagnation and Vitality3. The Intellectual World of Late T
The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori
Mark J. Ravina · 265 pages
The dramatic arc of Saigo Takamori's life, from his humble origins as a lowly samurai, to national leadership, to his death as a rebel leader, has captivated generations of Japanese readers and now Americans as well - his life is the inspiration for a major Hollywood film, The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. In this vibrant new biography, Mark Ravina, professor of history and D
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
Herbert P. Bix · 800 pages
Winner of the Pulitzer PrizeIn this groundbreaking biography of the Japanese emperor Hirohito, Herbert P. Bix offers the first complete, unvarnished look at the enigmatic leader whose sixty-three-year reign ushered Japan into the modern world. Never before has the full life of this controversial figure been revealed with such clarity and vividness. Bix shows what it was like to be trained from bir
Samurai William: The Adventurer Who Unlocked Japan
Giles Milton · 368 pages
The true story behind James Clavell's best-selling Shogun, Samurai William is the incredible tale of a man who tried to bridge two very different cultures during one of the earliest and most fascinating encounters between East and West. In 1611, the merchants of London's East India Company received a startling letter from Japan, written by a marooned English mariner named William Adams. Even thoug
Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun
Rhoda Blumberg · 144 pages
In 1853, few Japanese people knew that a country called America even existed.For centuries, Japan had isolated itself from the outside world by refusing to trade with other countries and even refusing to help shipwrecked sailors, foreign or Japanese. The country's people still lived under a feudal system like that of Europe in the Middle Ages. But everything began to change when American Commodore
Inventing Japan: 1853-1964
Ian Buruma · 192 pages
LA Times Book Award winner and expert on the past and present Japan, Ian Buruma examines the transformation of a country. Following Japan's history from its opening to the West in 1853 to its hosting of the 1964 Olympics, Buruma focuses on how figures such as Commodore Matthew Perry, Douglas MacArthur, and Emperor Mitsushito helped shape this complex country.
A Brief History of the Samurai (Brief History
Jonathan Clements · 356 pages
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Laura Hillenbrand · 514 pages
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Se
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
John W. Dower · 680 pages
John Dower, distinguished historian of modern Japan, casts his eye on the immediate aftermath of World War II. Drawing on a vast range of Japanese sources, this new study illuminates how shattering defeat followed by over six years of American military occupation affected every level of Japanese society in ways that neither the victor nor the vanquished could anticipate. The great achievement of
The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back
Charles Pellegrino · 413 pages
Drawing on the voices of atomic-bomb survivors and the new science of forensic archaeology, Charles Pellegrino describes the events and aftermath of two days in August when nuclear devices detonated over Japan changed life on Earth forever.
Japan at War: An Oral History
Haruko Taya Cook, Theodore F. Cook · 479 pages
This pathbreaking work of oral history captures for the first time ever - in either Japanese or English - the remarkable story of ordinary Japanese people during World War II. In a sweeping panorama, Haruko Taya and Theodore Cook take us from the Japanese attacks on China in the 1930s to the Japanese homefront during the inhuman raids on Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, offering the first glimpses
The Rising Sun: The Decline & Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-45
John Willard Toland · 954 pages
Comprehensive account of the military and political events that led to Pearl Harbor, the war in the Pacific, and Japan's defeat; based on interviews with participants, and told from a Japanese point of view.
Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War
Susan Southard · 402 pages
This book is a powerful and unflinching account of the enduring impact of nuclear war, told through the stories of those who survived. On August 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, a small port city on Japan's southernmost island. An estimated 74,000 people died within the first five months, and another 75,000 were
Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45
Max Hastings · 656 pages
By the summer of 1944 it was clear that Japan's defeat was inevitable, but how the drive to victory would be achieved remained unclear. The ensuing drama--that ended in Japan's utter devastation--was acted out across the vast theater of Asia in massive clashes between army, air, and naval forces.In recounting these extraordinary events, Max Hastings draws incisive portraits of MacArthur, Mao, Roos
Hiroshima Nagasaki
Paul Ham · 640 pages
In this harrowing history of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, Paul Ham argues against the use of nuclear weapons, drawing on extensive research and hundreds of interviews to prove that the bombings had little impact on the eventual outcome of the Pacific War.
Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai
Kokichi Katsu · 178 pages
The Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters
O no Yasumaro · 611 pages
**Written by imperial command in the eighth century, The Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters is Japan's classic of classics, the oldest connected literary work and the fundamental scripture of Shinto.** A more factual history called the Nihongi or Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan) was completed in A.D. 720, but The Kojiki remains the better known, perhaps because of its special concern with the
Hiroshima
John Hersey · 118 pages
Describes the effect of the bombing of Hiroshima on six survivors of the atomic blast.
Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds
Pamela Rotner Sakamoto · 444 pages
"'Meticulously researched and beautifully written, the true story of a Japanese American family that found itself on opposite sides during World War II--an epic tale of family, separation, divided loyalties, love, reconciliation, loss, and redemption this is a riveting chronicle of U.S.-Japan relations and the Japanese experience in America. After their father's death, Harry, Frank, and Pierce Fuk
Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan
Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard · 384 pages
Autumn 1944. World War II is nearly over in Europe but is escalating in the Pacific, where American soldiers face an opponent who will go to any length to avoid defeat. The Japanese army follows the samurai code of Bushido, stipulating that surrender is a form of dishonor. This book takes readers to the bloody tropical-island battlefields of Peleliu and Iwo Jima and to the embattled Philippines, w
Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy
Eri Hotta · 344 pages
Examines the attack on Pearl Harbor from the Japanese perspective.