Showing titles in Japan

During the occupation of Japan after WWII, the US had an important decision to make. Should they hold those responsible for atrocities during the war accountable or should they take the information to advance national interest? The researchers who worked at Unit 731, the biological and chemical warfare research and development unit, were given immunity in exchange for their research data. Unit 731 included factories filled with humans, tested with various diseases, as well as field tests on civilians of the Soviet Union and China.

Among Buddhist traditions, Zen has been remarkably successful in garnering and sustaining interest outside the Buddhist homelands of Asia, and "zen" is now part of the global cultural lexicon. This deeply informed book explores the history of this enduring Japanese tradition - from its beginnings as a form of Buddhist thought and practice imported from China to its reinvention in medieval Japan as a force for religious, political, and cultural change to its role in Japan's embrace of modernity.

Este Audiolibro es mucho más que un "código samurai", mucho es más que un texto sobre las condiciones culturales del Japón de los guerreros, mucho más que una serie de retratos sobre la vida de un ronin o un conjunto de saberes relacionados con la ciencia de las artes marciales. Es un tratado sobre el manejo de los sables, escrito en su madurez y con completo conocimiento de las artes marciales.

Many people in the West look upon the Second Sino-Japanese War, which took place in the 1930s and 1940s, as a sort of sideshow to the larger Second World War, but there is no separating the two. Imagine the Pacific War, the theater of World War II that took place in the Pacific. If the Japanese were not busy fighting on another front, they would have had millions of more troops available to fight the Americans and the British. In all likelihood, World War II would have ended the same way, but it would have taken much longer and cost that many more lives.

General Douglas MacArthur's bloody campaign to defeat die-hard Japanese forces and liberate the Philippines “I shall return,” General Douglas MacArthur promised the Filipino people following the Japanese invasion and occupation of the Philippines in spring 1942. The people there believed...

In 24 Hours in Shogun’s Japan, Mark Hudson brings this pivotal moment to life through the eyes of 24 individuals—nobles and farmers, merchants and monks, pirates and poets—each living through one dramatic hour of a single day. From the streets of Kyoto to the slopes of Mount Fuji, this book offers an immersive portrait of this fascinating era of Japanese history.

Folk tales of the Shaolin Temple depict warrior monks with superhuman abilities. Today, dozens of East Asian fighting styles trace their roots back to the Buddhist brawlers of Shaolin, although any quest for the true story soon wanders into a labyrinth of forgeries, secret texts and modern retellings. This new study approaches the martial arts from their origins in military exercises and callisthenics. It examines a rich folklore from old wuxia tales of crime-fighting heroes to modern kung fu movies.

Barbed wire, trenches, and machine guns are all elements of modern warfare that are mainly associated with the bloody carnage of World War One, yet they were all first used in combination 10 years earlier in a largely forgotten war that was fought in Manchuria and Korea: the Russo-Japanese War.

In 17th century Japan, a masterless samurai with nothing but his sword and unwavering resolve defeated over sixty opponents in life-or-death duels. He died undefeated.

Two devastating wars changed the face of humanity forever. Discover the crucial role Japan played in these events and why some facts about their involvement are still hidden all these years later. Japan had a special military force and ideology that led it to become one of the strongest imperial powers of the world. Their efforts had taken them far and wide, but who were the people behind such victories, and what were their roles in the wars?

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. A bitter fight to the death ensued, and the results would determine the course of Japanese history for the next 250 years. On the battlefield was the warlord Leyasu Tokugawa, a man desiring domain over the entire island of Japan, but standing in his way was Ishida Mitsunari, a warlord controlling vast swaths of western Japan.

The man known to most of the world as Emperor Hirohito ruled during some of the most tumultuous years in Japanese history. When he came to the throne in 1926, he inherited control of a country which had only recently emerged as a major industrial and world power. Through the aggressive expansion and wars of the 1930s, Hirohito was at the head of one of the world’s foremost powers. Throughout the maelstrom of World War II, he remained in power, a distant and, to most outsiders, inscrutable factor in the rise of the Japanese Empire.

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.

On November 20, 1943, in the first trial by fire of America’s fledgling amphibious assault doctrine, 5,000 men stormed the beaches of Tarawa, a seemingly invincible Japanese island fortress barely the size of the 300-acre Pentagon parking lots. Before the first day ended, one-third of the marines who had crossed Tarawa’s deadly reef under murderous fire were killed, wounded, or missing. In three days of fighting, four Americans would win the Medal of Honor and six thousand combatants would die.

While intensely attentive to its own tradition, Japanese literature has also embraced the outside world, particularly the influence of China. Beyond this, Japan boasts a powerful literary culture, made up of cultivated reading publics, both aristocratic and bourgeois, literary salons, specialized presses, authoritative judges of talent who cultivated and celebrated particular writers and styles, and a canon consisting of classics. This Very Short Introduction traces the rich history of Japanese literature from its beginnings over a millennium ago to the present day.

An incredible sea story that turns the Age of Exploration on its head, following the first Japanese man to set foot on North America and England. On November 12, 1588, five young Asian men—led by a twenty-one-year-old called Christopher—traveled up the River Thames to meet Queen Elizabeth I...

佐藤優氏が30年間、たえず読み返してきた「座右の書」であり「最高の基本書」であり「伝説の学習参考書」。

あの『大学への日本史』が読みやすくなって、しかも最新情報で新登場！

本書は【教養編（古代・中世・近世）】【実用編（近代・現代）】全２巻をセットにした合本版のオーディオブックです。

The history of ancient Japan is filled with interesting events that involved many influential and legendary figures. However, some of the accounts were also infused with Japanese myths, which might make it difficult for curious readers to distinguish between facts and legends. But you can safely put your concern aside. With this new Enthralling History book, you will discover an array of information and stories of the ancient Japanese, starting from the prehistoric era up until the Heian period, which saw the birth of the first samurai warriors.

Bushido is the Code Samurai lived and died by. Even after their Blades were sheathed, and they lived during peacetime, their code lived on. Their code inspired them to be great men. Learn how historical figures continued to apply this code, even in business, even in martial arts, and even in the modern military. The Code of the Samurai can live on in you!

This book traces the history of the Manhattan Project, from the first glimmerings of the possibility of such a catastrophic weapon to the aftermath of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It profiles the architects of the bomb, including J. Robert Oppenheimer, and how they tried to reconcile their personal feelings with their ambition as scientists. It looks at the role of the politicians and it includes first-hand accounts of those who experienced the effects of the bombings.