Japan

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

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

This is a fresh and surprising account of Japan's culture from the 'opening up' of the country in the mid-19th century to the present....

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

Noted Japan expert Professor Mark J. Ravina of the University of Texas at Austin covers the politics, economics, and culture of the island nation since World War II - a conflict that saw the end of Japan’s dream of regional conquest, which Professor Ravina calls Empire 1.0....

There are few moments in American history in which the course of events tipped so suddenly and so dramatically as at the Battle of Midway....

Giant monsters. Tales of eternal love. The beginning of creation. Pint-sized warriors. Long voyages and insurmountable heroics are only a small piece of the classic myths that have helped shape Japan’s unique and immaculate history....

Today we take it for granted that Japan is a forge of the world's fantasies: the birthplace of Transformers and Pokémon, of food trends like ramen and artisanal whisky and cutting-edge manga and anime....

March 1942: The world is at war. Too old to fight and with jobs scarce at home, Tom Phelps found work as a carpenter in the goldfields of the New Guinea Highlands....

On 11 March 2011, a massive earthquake sent a 120-foot-high tsunami smashing into the coast of Northeast Japan....

This traces the history of the Manhattan Project, from the first glimmerings of such a catastrophic weapon, to the aftermath of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It profiles the architects of the bomb, and looks at the role of the politicians, including first-hand accounts.....

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

Japanese mythology is intricate and complex, and the ideals behind their mythological beliefs were often intertwined with real-life events. This book will examine how both myth and fact contributed to the culture and traditions of the Japanese....

This illuminating study explores the ways in which the defeat of the Japanese in World War II, followed by over six years of American military occupation, affected every level of Japanese society....

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....

Almost 24 hours to the minute since the tsunami hit Fukushima Daiichi, Unit 1 exploded. The building wrenched apart, sending shards of irradiated concrete and metal knifing through the air in all directions....

Essential for anyone interested in Japanese culture, this unsurpassed masterwork opens an intriguing window on Japan. The World War II-era study by the cultural anthropologist Ruth Benedict paints an illuminating contrast between the people of Japan and those of the United States....

For 83 blood-soaked days, the fighting on the island of Okinawa plumbed depths of savagery as bad as anything seen on the Eastern Front. When it was over, almost a quarter of a million people had lost their lives, making it by far the bloodiest US battle of the Pacific....

At 8:15 a.m. on 6th August 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. In an instant, the temperature at its core rose to millions of degrees....

There is an ancient Chinese proverb that states, 'Two tigers cannot share the same mountain'. However, in East Asia, there are three tigers on that mountain: China, Japan and Korea, and they have a long history of turmoil and tension with each other....

Chris Harding's enormously enjoyable new book distils Japan's long, complex and fascinating history into the stories of 20 remarkable individuals.... 

A stirring narrative of World War II's final major battle - the Pacific war's largest, bloodiest, most savagely fought campaign - the last of its kind....

In 1942, the Solomon Islands formed the stepping stones toward Rabaul, the main base of Japanese operations in the South Pacific, and the Allies primary objective....

The story of the Battle of Saipan has it all. Marines at war: on Pacific beaches, in hellish volcanic landscapes, under a commander known as "Howlin' Mad." Naval combat: carriers battling carriers from afar, fighters downing Japanese aircraft, submarines sinking carriers....

Discover fascinating ancient Japanese fairy tales as well as the folk tales of the Ainu/Aino. The first book in this collection, titled Japanese Fairy Tales, was written by Iwaya Sazanami. The second is not usually available in audio: Aino Folk-Tales by Basil Chamberlain....