Japan

The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon is a fascinating, detailed account of Japanese court life in the closing years of the 10th century....

Uncover the true story of the man who unified medieval Japan....

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

The monumental struggle fought against Imperial Japan in the Asia/Pacific theater during World War II is primarily viewed as an American affair. While the United States did play a dominant role, the British and Commonwealth forces also made major contributions.

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....

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....

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 doctors and their assistants subjected human guinea pigs to gruesome medical experiments....

To Hell and Back offers listeners a stunning "you are there" time capsule, wrapped in elegant prose. Charles Pellegrino's scientific authority and close relationship with the A-bomb survivors make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written....

In early 1942, while the American military was still in disarray from the devastating attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, a single U.S. Army squadron advanced to the far side of the world to face America's new enemy. Based in Australia with inadequate supplies and no ground support, the...

This fascinating history tells the story of the people of Japan, from ancient teenage priest-queens to teeming hordes of salarymen, a nation that once sought to conquer China, yet also shut itself away for two centuries in self-imposed seclusion....

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....

It made Changi seem like heaven.'There was a place far worse than Changi – Singapore's Outram Road Gaol....

The acclamied, definitive, best-selling account of Australia's prisoners of war held captive by the Japanese....

As scout and machine-gunner for the First Marine Division, Leckie fought in all its engagements until his wounding at Peleliu....

In The Cactus Air Force, Pacific War expert Thomas McKelvey Cleaver worked closely with Eric to build on his collection of diary entries, interviews and first-hand accounts to create a vivid narrative of the struggle in the air over the island of Guadalcanal....

What really lies in the forest’s depths? Aokigahara is a mystery. Born out of an explosion, its roots twist and turn, the dense trees seeming to swallow anything that enters it whole. In recent years it has gained renown as a “suicide forest,” but it wasn’t always this way.

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

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.

Martha Sherrill brings us to a world that Americans know very little about---the snow country of Japan during World War II....

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....

Little has been written about the strangely obscured figure of Meiji himself, the first Japanese emperor ever to meet a European. But now, Donald Keene sifts the available evidence to present a rich portrait not only of Meiji but also of change during this period in Japan's history....

The New York Times bestselling author of Viper Pilot delivers an electrifying narrative account of the top-secret U.S. mission to kill Isoroku Yamamoto, the Japanese commander who masterminded Pearl Harbor. ""Operation Vengeance is colorful, intimate, eye-popping history, delivered at a...

On the morning of August 15, 1945, Captain Jerry Yellin flew the last combat mission of World War II out of Iwo Jima....

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....

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....

The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was the third most powerful navy in the world at the start of World War II, and came to dominate the Pacific in the early months of the war. This book details the Japanese ships which fought in the Pacific and examines the principles on which they were designed, how they were armed, when and where they were deployed and how effective they were in battle.

Japan's blissful isolation changed with the arrival of American Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853. In awe of the American weapons and ships, the Tokugawa shogunate quickly realized that they needed to evolve and modernize their military to survive, and a time of rapid change descended on Japan. Within a mere 30 years, the Tokugawa period’s great samurai caste was extinct. Military service was no longer the exclusive domain of the privileged warrior class who had combined the military with an intricate network of social status and vassalship to their feudal lords.

Ancient Japan: Untold Stories of Love, Power, and Everyday Life History is about more than just emperors, samurai, and war. It’s also about how real people lived, loved, and endured. Long before dating apps, there was the mysterious moonlight visit when men slipped into women’s rooms under the cover of darkness in a ritual woven from romance, danger, and deep cultural meaning. One misstep could ignite scandal, or a confrontation with a pitchfork.

This unique book combines Japanese warrior techniques with ancient Zen practices for mental clarity and physical agility, giving listeners a Samurai edge that will carry them through life. Blending Japanese Samurai wisdom with ancient Zen practices, this book will take you on a metaphysical journey to becoming a swordsman. Sharpen the mind, hone the senses and control the body to achieve clarity, drive and peace.

Available for the first time in English, an intimate look into the private lives and spiritual experiences of 30 nuns and laywomen practicing under pioneering female Zen master Sozen Nagasawa Roshi in World War II-era Japan.