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The Arts of Japan: Ancient and Medieval
by Seiroku. Noma, et al
Listed under Japanese Art

A Brief History of Japanese Civilization
by Conrad Schirokauer
(Paperback - 1993)

The Cambridge History of Japan 6 Volume Set
by John Whitney Hall, Marius B. Jansen, Madoka Kanai, Denis Twitchett
Book Description: The Cambridge History of Japan is the first major collaborative synthesis to present the current state of knowledge of Japanese history for the English-reading world. The series draws on the expertise and research of leading Japanese specialists as well as the foremost Western historians of Japan. From prehistory to the present day, the series encompasses the events and developments in Japanese polity, economy, culture, religion and foreign affairs. In the distinguished tradition of Cambridge histories, the completed series provides an indispensable reference tool for all students and scholars of Japan and the Far East.
Hardcover: 650 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.37 x 9.29 x 6.30
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; (August 1993)
ISBN: 0521223520

The Cambridge History of Japan: Volume 1, Ancient Japan
by Delmer M. Brown (Editor)
(Hardcover - August 1993)

The Cambridge History of Japan: Volume 2, Heian Japan
by Donald H. Shively (Editor), William H. McCullough (Editor)
(Hardcover)

The Cambridge History of Japan : Volume 3, Medieval Japan
by Kozo Yamamura (Editor)
(Hardcover - June 1990)

Cambridge History of Japan: Volume 4, Early Modern Japan
by John W. Hall

The Cambridge History of Japan : The Nineteenth Century
by Marius B. Jansen (Editor)
(Hardcover - April 1989)

Cambridge History of Japan: Volume 6, The Twentieth Century
edited by Peter Duus

Contemporary Japanese Film
by Mark Schilling
Listed under Cinematography

Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun
by Rhoda Blumberg
Listed under Commodore Perry

Double Eagle and Rising Sun: The Russians and Japanese at Portsmouth in 1905
by Raymond A. Esthus
(Hardcover - January 1988)

The Enigma of Japanese Power
by Karel Van Wolferen, et al
(Paperback - June 1990)

Kaigun : Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941
by David C. Evans, Mark R. Peattie
(Hardcover)

The Karma of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan
by William R. Lafleur
(Paperback - June 1986)

Noh' or Accomplishment: A Study of the Classical Stage of Japan
by Ernest Fenollsa, et al
(Hardcover)

Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia, 1939
by Alvin D. Coox
(Hardcover - February 1986)

Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
by Herbert P. Bix
To many, Emperor Hirohito of Japan is remembered as a helpless figurehead during Japan's wars with China and the U.S. According to the received wisdom, he knew nothing of the plan to bomb Pearl Harbor and had no power to stop atrocities like the Rape of Nanking. The emperor was the mild-mannered little man who traipsed with Mickey Mouse in Disneyland and who brought peace through surrender, certainly not "one of the most disingenuous persons ever to occupy the modern throne." Herbert Bix's charged political biography, however, argues that such accepted beliefs are myths and misrepresentations spun by both Japanese and Americans to protect the emperor from indictment. Since Hirohito's death in 1989, hundreds of documents, diaries, and scholarly studies have been published (and subsequently ignored) in Japan. Historian Bix used these sources to develop this shocking and nuanced portrait of a man far more shrewd, activist, and energetic than previously thought. Caught up in the fever of territorial expansion, Hirohito was the force that animated the war system, who, acting fully as a military leader and head of state, encouraged the belligerency of his people and pursued the war to its disastrous conclusion. To the very end, Hirohito refused to acknowledge any responsibility for his role in the death of millions as well as the brutalities inflicted by his forces in China, Korea, and the Philippines. In fact, he worked with none other than General MacArthur to select his fall guys and fix testimony at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials--the emperor trying to protect the throne at all cost, the U.S. acting to ensure control of the Japanese population and the military by retaining Hirohito as a figurehead. 

Not surprisingly, this hefty work of scholarship is making waves, as Americans and Japanese reconsider their roles in WWII and its aftermath. By placing Hirohito back in the center of the picture and puncturing the myths that surround him, Bix has effectively asked the Japanese to come out of their half-century repression of the past and face their wartime responsibility. Without doing so, he implies, the monarchy will forever impede the development of democracy. For those interested in Japan's wartime past and its influence on the present, this is fascinating, if lengthy, reading. --Lesley Reed - Amazon.com
Hardcover: 816 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.87 x 9.57 x 6.49
Publisher: HarperCollins; ;
ISBN: 006019314X

A Hundred Years of Japanese Film
by Donald Richie, Paul Schrader (Introduction)
Listed under Cinematography

Inside GHQ : The Allied Occupation of Japan and Its Legacy
by Eiji Takemae
(Hardcover)

Japan Erupts: The London Naval Conference and the Manchurian Incident, 1928-1932 (Japans Road to the Pacific War)
by James Morley (Editor), David Titus (Translator)
(Hardcover)

Japan: A Modern History
by James L. McClain
(Hardcover)
 

Lost Japan
by Alex Kerr
Book Description: Drawing on the author's personal experiences of life in Japan over a period of 30 years, Lost Japan takes the reader on a backstage tour of the country's cultural icons. The book explores different facets of Alex Kerr's cultural involvement: friendships with Kabuki actors, buying and selling art, studying calligraphy, exploring rarely visited temples and shrines. The author's experiences underscore the fact that Japan is heading towards environmental and cultural ruin. 
Paperback from Lonely Planet
 
Lost Leaves: Women Writers of Meiji Japan
by Rebecca L. Copeland
Paperback from University of Hawaii Press

 
The Making of Modern Japan
by Marius B. Jansen
Hardcover: 896 pages
Belknap Pr; ISBN: 0674003349; (November )
 
Nikken Sekkei : Building Future Japan 1900-2000
by Botond Bognar, Kenneth Frampton
(Hardcover)

Okinawa: Cold War Island
by Chalmers Johnson (Editor)
(Paperback)

Geisha : A Living Tradition
by Kyoko Aihara (Photographer)
Hardcover: 128 pages
Carlton Books; ISBN: 1858689708; 0 edition (May 15, )

History of Japanese Religion (Kegan Paul Library of Religion and Mysticism)
by Masaharu Anesaki
(Hardcover)
Special Order

Race, Resistance and the Ainu of Japan (Sheffield Centre for Japanese Studies/Routledge Studies)
by Richard Siddle
(Hardcover)
Special Order

Toward the Rising Sun: Russian Ideologies of Empire and the Path to War With Japan
by David Schimmelpenninck Van Der Oye, et al
(Hardcover)

The Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905
by Geoffrey Jukes
Listed under Russo-Japanese War

The Tsar's Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima
by Constantin Pleshakov, et al
Listed under Naval Warfare

Japan: Its History and Culture
by W. Scott Morton
Book Description Beginning with its earliest known civilization (about 3,000 B.C.), Japan: It's History and Culture traces aspects of Japanese religion, art, militarism, and agriculture and analyzes the social, political, and economic life of Asia's wealthiest nation. Richly anecdotal, this book casts fascinating sidelights on significant Japanese personalities, works of literature, and historic events, and the characteristic of the Japanese culture to adopt other's material for their own.

Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-19
by Donald Keene
Hardcover: 928 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 2.21 x 9.60 x 6.50
Publisher: Columbia University Press; ; (May 15, )
ISBN: 023112340X

Japan in Crisis: Essays on Taisho Democracy 
by Bernard S. Silberman, H. D. Harootunian, and Gail Bernstein
Paperback: 478 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.04 x 8.99 x 6.00
Publisher: Univ of Michigan Center for; ; (February 15, )
ISBN: 0939512971
Special Order

Hirohito: The Emperor and the Man
by Edwin P. Hoyt
Hardcover: 214 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.00 x 9.40 x 6.40
Publisher: Praeger Publishers; ; (May 1992)
ISBN: 0275940691

Emperor Hirohito and Showa Japan
by Stephen Large
Hardcover: 249 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.96 x 9.55 x 6.42
Publisher: Routledge (Import); ; (October 1992)
ISBN: 0415032032

Hirohito and War
by Peter Wetzler
Card catalog description The debate over Emperor Hirohito's accountability for government decisions and military operations up to the end of World War II began before the end of the war and has continued even after his death in 1989. Hirohito and War documents this controversy while providing insights into the Showa emperor's role in military planning in imperial Japan. It argues that Hirohito both knew of and participated in such planning and offers evidence that he was informed well in advance of imperial army and navy decisions, including the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Using Japanese primary sources, many overlooked by Japanese and Western historians, it shows that Hirohito's participation in the decision-making process was entirely consistent with his intellectual background and his passionate belief in the significance of the imperial tradition for the Japanese polity (kokutai) in prewar Japan.
Hardcover: 310 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.10 x 9.48 x 6.48
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press;
ISBN: 082481925X

A History of Japan, 1334-1615
by George B. Sansom
Listed under Medieval Japan

In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army
by Edward J. Drea

Showa
by Carol Gluck and Stephen Graubard (Editors)
Paperback: ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.13 x 9.19 x 6.14
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company; ; Reprint edition (August 1993)
ISBN: 0393310647

Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire
by Richard B. Frank
Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire is an impeccably written analysis of the last months of the Pacific War and the unfolding of the American air campaign over Japan. The story opens with a searing description of the fire-bombing of Tokyo in March 1945, which caused more deaths than the atom bomb in Hiroshima. Within five months, Japan's economy was collapsing and the country faced catastrophic starvation. Richard B. Frank coolly analyzes different scenarios for ending the war (Russia waited in the wings). Frank concludes that the emperor and the Japanese military were far from ready to surrender, and that the decision to use the atom bomb probably saved millions of lives, not only Allied but Japanese and other Asian lives, also--perhaps a hundred thousand Chinese were dying each month under Japanese occupation. The effects of the bomb worked on many levels, even lending faces to the Japanese militarists, who could convince themselves that they were defeated not by a lack of spiritual power but by superior science. Densely documented, intelligently argued, Downfall recreates the end of the war from the viewpoints of the principals, giving the book an unusual immediacy. A highly valuable insight into the disintegration of the Japanese Empire, one of the most dramatic episodes of World War II. --John Stevenson - Amazon.com
Paperback: 528 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.14 x 8.43 x 5.50
Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper); ; Reissue edition (May )
ISBN: 0141001461

The Silver Drum: A Japanese Imperial Memoir
by Princess Chichibu, translated by Dorothy Britton
Hardcover: 210 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.90 x 8.75 x 5.65
Publisher: Paul Norbury; ; (March )
ISBN: 1860340040

The Chrysanthemum Throne: A History of the Emperors of Japan
by Peter Martin and James Melville

The People's Emperor: Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy, 1945-1995
by Kenneth J. Ruoff
Book Description Few institutions are as well suited as the monarchy to provide a window on postwar Japan. The monarchy, which is also a family, has been significant both as a political and as a cultural institution. This comprehensive study analyzes numerous issues, including the role of individual emperors in shaping the institution, the manner in which the emperor's constitutional position as symbol has been interpreted, the emperor's intersection with politics through ministerial briefings, memories of Hirohito's wartime role, nationalistic movements in support of Foundation Day and the reign-name system, and the remaking of the once sacrosanct throne into a "monarchy of the masses" embedded in the postwar culture of democracy. The author stresses the monarchy's "postwarness," rather than its traditionality.

The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan's Imperial Family
by Sterling Seagrave and Peggy Seagrave
Most Westerners will know next to nothing of the Yamato, Japan's current imperial family. Neither do most Japanese. Much of Japan's modern history has been erased from postwar textbooks, and a whole generation has grown up knowing nothing of the Rape of Nanking, Pearl Harbor, the Second World War death camps, and countless other atrocities. All that remains are Hiroshima and Nagasaki, symbols of Japan's eternal innocence. 

Sterling and Peggy Seagrave correct these falsehoods and expose the collusion and corruption that have been at the heart of the postwar Japanese economic miracle. And far from being a symbolic reminder of an ancient past, as the Japanese royal family is sometimes portrayed, the authors point out that it has been at the epicenter of venality and cruelty. Prince Chichibu, Emperor Hirohito's brother, turns out to have masterminded Golden Lily, the systematic looting of every country Japan occupied in the prewar years. Prince Yasuhiko was the brains behind the Rape of Nanking. And dear old Hirohito was so hands-on during the war that he could have halted Pearl Harbor. Moreover, the royal family was so comfortably in bed with the zaibatsu, the corporate ruling elite, that it made a fortune out of the war while the rest of the nation starved. 

That none of this has come out before is only partly due to Japanese revisionism. We, too, have to share the blame. We had the evidence to try some of the imperial family as war criminals, but we chose not to. The Seagraves' book makes uncomfortable reading for all concerned. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk
Hardcover: 400 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.44 x 9.58 x 6.52
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub (Trd); ; (April 11, )
ISBN: 0767904966

A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns
by Chikafusa Kitabatake
Ancient Japanese Emporers

The World of the Shining Prince
by Ivan Morris, edited by Paul De Angelis
Ancient Japan

The Splendid Monarchy
by T. Fujitani
Paperback: 320 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.74 x 9.02 x 6.02
Publisher: University of California Press; Reprint edition (April )
ISBN: 0520213718

The Clear Mirror: A Chronicle of the Japanese Court During the Kamakura Period (1185-1333)
by by George W. Perkins
Listed under Medieval Japan

Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 1600-1945: The Age of the Gods and Emperor Jimmu
by John S. Brownlee

The Japanese Enthronement Ceremonies: With an Account of the Imperial Regalia
by Daniel Clarence Holtom

Japan: A Concise History
by Milton W. Meyer

Religion in Japan : Arrows to Heaven and Earth (University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, 50)
by Peter F. Kornicki (Editor), et al
(Hardcover)
Out of Print - Try Used Books

The Age of Hirohito: In Search of Modern Japan
by Daikichi Irokawa, translated by John K. Urda and Mikiso Hane
Out of Print - Try Used Books

Emperors of the Rising Sun
by Stephen S. Large
Publisher: Kodansha International;
Out of Print - Try Used Books

Zen at War
by Brian A. Victoria
Zen at War is a wake-up call for all Buddhists. Brian Victoria has shown in a passionate and well documented way that Buddhism is not immune to the kind of distortions that have been used throughout human history by virtually all of the worlds religions to justify so-called holy wars. John Daido Loori, Roshi, Abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery Author of The Heart of Being. From the Back Cover
Paperback: Weatherhill; ISBN: 0834804050;
Out of Print - Try Used Books
 

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