Japan

In Hidden Japan, acclaimed author and environmentalist Alex Kerr leads us to the country's most secluded and enchanting corners—places where time seems to stand still and traditional culture endures.

Uncover the true story of the man who unified medieval Japan. For 700 years, Japan was ruled by military commanders who waged war against one another incessantly. Shogun tells the fascinating story of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the man who finally unified and brought lasting peace to the nation. He...

The last installment of the War in the Far East trilogy, Asian Armageddon 1944-1945, continues and completes the narrative of the first two volumes, describing how a US-led coalition of nations battled Japan into submission through a series of cataclysmic encounters. Leyte Gulf, the biggest...

Dive into Japanese history—and discover who the samurai really were—in this fascinating study that reveals the flawed human warriors behind the idealistic myths.

In this groundbreaking biography of the Japanese emperor Hirohito, Herbert P. Bix offers the first complete, unvarnished look at the enigmatic leader whose 63-year reign ushered Japan into the modern world. Never before has the full life of this controversial figure been revealed with such...

This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire....

Many consider the Battle of Midway to have turned the tide of the Pacific War. It is without question one of the most famous battles in history. Now, for the first time since Gordon W. Prange's best-selling Miracle at Midway, Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully offer a new interpretation of this...

From a leading expert in Japanese history, this is one of the first full histories of the art and culture of the Samurai warrior....

Seven minutes past midnight on March 10, 1945, nearly 300 American B-29s thundered into the skies over Tokyo. Their payloads of incendiaries ignited a firestorm that reached up to 2,800 degrees, liquefying asphalt and vaporizing thousands; sixteen square miles of the city were flattened and more...

The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon is a fascinating, detailed account of Japanese court life in the closing years of the 10th century. Written by a lady of the court at the height of Heian culture, this book enthrals with its lively gossip, witty observations and subtle impressions. Lady...

Okinawa delivers you to the front lines of The Pacific Theater with the real-life stories behind the HBO miniseries. Former Marine and Pacific War veteran Robert Leckie tells the story of the invasion of Okinawa, the closing battle of World War II. Leckie is a skilled military historian, mixing...

On October 21, 1600, two massive Japanese armies, totaling an estimated 200,000 soldiers - armed to the teeth with swords, yari (spears), arrows, muskets, and cannons - faced off on a battlefield near the town of Sekigahara....

In December 1937, in the capital of China, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred.

A classic of Japanese history, this audiobook is the preeminent work on the history of Japan. Newly revised and updated, A History of Japan is a single-volume complete history of the nation of Japan. Starting in ancient Japan during its early pre-history period, A History of Japan covers every...

More than just a war memoir, Samurai! offers rare insight into the mindset, discipline, and honor of a warrior shaped by both tradition and global conflict.

The Japanese experience of war from the late-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century presents a stunning example of the meteoric rise and shattering fall of a great power. As Japan modernized and became the one non-European great power, its leaders concluded that an empire on the Asian mainland...

Through a study of the way of the samurai, Nitobe identifies the seven virtues most widely recognized by the Japanese: rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, veracity, honor, and loyalty....

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author John Hersey's seminal work of narrative nonfiction which has defined the way we think about nuclear warfare. “One of the great classics of the war" (The New Republic) that tells what happened in Hiroshima during World War II through the...

In early 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy were advancing on all fronts, humiliating Allied forces throughout the Pacific. In a matter of months, Japan had conquered an area larger than Hitler's empire at its apex. Hawaiians and Australians feared a future under Hirohito. The fate of...

Shinto, the indigenous faith of the Japanese people, continues to fascinate and mystify both the casual visitor to Japan and the long-time resident. Relatively unknown among the religions of the world, Shinto: The Kami Way provides an enlightening window into this Japanese faith.

As the soldiers lifted me from the floor, my father's eyes locked with my own. For just a moment, I thought I saw a shadow of sadness across his face. But it disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, replaced with my father's look of perpetual determination. "You'll find me at the hospital," I...

This is a riveting and disturbing account of the medical atrocities performed in China during WWII. Some of the cruelest deeds of Japan's war in Asia did not occur on the battlefield, but in quiet, antiseptic medical wards in obscure parts of China. Far from front lines and prying eyes, Japanese...

Master the Mind of a Warrior with the Timeless Wisdom of Japan’s Greatest Swordsman. A groundbreaking modern edition of Miyamoto Musashi’s legendary text—clear, complete, and designed for the modern listener. The Book of Five Rings is far more than a manual on swordsmanship.

In the Spring of 1974, 2nd Lt. Hiroo Onoda of the Japanese army made world headlines when he emerged from the Philippine jungle after a thirty-year ordeal....

Tokyo Junkie is a memoir that plays out over the dramatic 60-year growth of the megacity Tokyo, once a dark, fetid backwater and now the most populous, sophisticated, and safe urban capital in the world....

寧(北政所)と茶々(淀殿)．現代の目は，この二人を秀吉の妻と愛妾と見て，あたかも対立したかのように捉えてきた．しかし実は，二人は連携して豊臣家を運営，大きく動く歴史の中で確かな役割を果たしていた

通説を打破!たった二代で滅びた栄華と衰退の真相農民から大出世を遂げた天下人として知られる豊臣秀吉。しかし、彼とその一族の実像は、驚くほど謎に満ちている。

The military general who became Emperor Hirohito’s prime minister, Tojo Hideki is most often remembered as an iron-fisted leader who dragged Japan into World War II and—after spectacular losses—was eventually executed as a war criminal. Yet Tojo was far more than his ignominious end. In...

A gripping full-cast dramatisation of Japan’s 2011 nuclear emergency, narrated by Romola Garai When a tsunami hit Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant in March 2011, surging past defences and flood reactors, it triggered the worst nuclear incident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. This...

Whisky Rising: The Second Edition is the most up-to-date, comprehensive resource on Japanese whisky. This fully updated guide by whisky authority and Japanese whisky expert Stefan Van Eycken takes you on a tour of some of the most coveted whiskies in the world. Japanese whiskies have become some...