The History Book Club discussion

This is a thread which can be used as a general discussion about "LAND OF THE RISING SUN - READ JAPAN" challenge.

We will focus on Japan, the various prefectures and locations within Japan, its people, its places, its events, its conflicts and its cultural icons.

Link to the I Like to Learn Quiz on Asia - lots of fun and learn the locations of all of the countries in this area:

http://www.ilike2learn.com/ilike2lear...

In terms of my first book - I will be reading with the History Book Club - Japan at War: An Oral History

The focus country for this book is Japan.

Japan at War: An Oral History

by Haruko Taya Cook

Synopsis:

Following the release of Clint Eastwood’s epic film Letters from Iwo Jima, which was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture, there has been a renewed fascination and interest in the Japanese perspective on World War II. This pathbreaking work of oral history is the first book ever to capture—in either Japanese or English—the experience of ordinary Japanese people during the war.

In a sweeping panorama, Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook take us from the Japanese attacks on China in the 1930s to the Japanese home front during the inhuman raids on Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, offering the first glimpses of how the twentieth century’s most deadly conflict affected the lives of the Japanese population. The book “seeks out the true feelings of the wartime generation [and] illuminates the contradictions between the official views of the war and living testimony” (Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan).

Japan at War is a book to which Americans and Japanese will continue to turn for decades to come. With more than 30,000 copies sold to date, this edition features an updated cover designed to appeal to a new generation of readers.

In a vivid, sweeping panorama, this captivating oral history relates the remarkable story of Japanese people living during World War II, offering the first glimpses of how this century's most violent conflict affected the lives of the ordinary Japanese population.

A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present

by Andrew Gordon (no image)

Synopsis:

In The Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present, Andrew Gordon paints a richly nuanced and strikingly original portrait of the last two centuries of Japanese history.

He takes students from the days of the shogunate--the feudal overlordship of the Tokugawa family--through the modernizing revolution launched by midlevel samurai in the late nineteenth century; the adoption of Western hairstyles, clothing, and military organization; and the nation's first experiments with mass democracy after World War I.

Gordon offers the finest synthesis to date of Japan's passage through militarism, World War II, the American occupation, and the subsequent economic rollercoaster. But the true ingenuity and value of Gordon's approach lies in his close attention to the non-elite layers of society. Here students will see the influence of outside ideas, products, and culture on home life, labor unions, political parties, gender relations, and popular entertainment.

The book examines Japan's struggles to define the meaning of its modernization, from villages and urban neighborhoods, to factory floors and middle managers' offices, to the imperial court. Most importantly, it illuminates the interconnectedness of Japanese developments with world history, demonstrating how Japan's historical passage represents a variation of a process experienced by many nations and showing how the Japanese narrative forms one part of the interwoven fabric of modern history.

With a sustained focus on setting modern Japan in a comparative and global context, The Modern History of Japan is ideal for undergraduate courses in modern Japanese history, Japanese politics, Japanese society, or Japanese culture.

Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1545-1879

by Noel Perrin (no photo)

Synopsis:


Was there ever a time when a civilization, technically sophisticated, and in full possession of its senses, reverted in an earlier, less advanced technology? You bet - Japan, 1543-1879. During this period Japan effectively prohibited all manufacture of firearms and gunpowder, and isolated itself from the rest of the world with a blockade that remained successful until Commodore Perry's celebrated opening of Japan in 1854. An altogether fascinating book - because Perrin is a consistently good storyteller, because even his footnotes are a delight to read, and because this is the story that really has few parallels in modern history.

All books sound so good. Thank you for the suggestions.

You are welcome Sarah.

Here is a PBS sponsored documentary:

Japan : History of Japan's Ancient and Modern Empire (Full Documentary)

Here is the link: http://youtu.be/EmTZnnbqfsc

Here is a Discovery channel documentary on Japan:

What the Ancients Knew - Japan

Here is the link:

http://documentaryaddict.com/what+the...

Japan an island group roughly 120 million people strong, is one of the largest economic powers in the world today. In the eyes of history, Japan's economic success happened overnight and yet it didn't come out of the blue. Cultivating an ancient legacy, modern Japan continues to hold on to its past. And while today many of the ancient crafts are struggling to survive, they provide the foundation for modern Japan's technological success. What the Ancient Japanese knew helps explain the industrial marvel of one of the largest economic powers in the world.

Hosted by Jack Turner. Published by Discovery Channel, 2007.

Here is an article which lists some of the major contemporary writers of Japan:

http://flavorwire.com/175218/contempo...

Article: Some of the Best Modern Japanese Fiction

http://www.flashlightworthybooks.com/...

The Reason I Jump

by Naoki Higashida (no photo)

Synopsis:

Last week, a slim English-language translation of a memoir by a Japanese teenager suffering from autism blew past Amazon’s (AMZN) current crop of bestselling books, in the process leapfrogging such made-to-sell-millions titles as Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath and Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Jesus.

As of today, The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism, by Naoki Higashida (translated by David Mitchell and KA Yoshida), ranks No. 2 in sales. Part of its success can be attributed to David Mitchell, the acclaimed author of Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet, who translated Higashida’s book and offered an introduction. (Mitchell, who has an autistic child, originally wanted to translate The Reason I Jump as a service to parents with children suffering from autism—and then his agent got involved.) But the book skyrocketed up bestseller lists mainly because of a full-throated endorsement from The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart.

“It is the most illuminating book I have ever read on the syndrome [of autism] and on the individual,” Stewart says in the interview, which aired on Oct. 1, before turning to the camera and making a direct appeal to his viewers. “I don’t normally urge you—The Reason I Jump is on bookshelves. Please, if you get a chance, please pick it up. It is remarkable.” The book remained in his hands as the credits rolled through the show’s Moment of Zen. The next day, the book shot to No. 2 from No. 556 on Amazon, where sales have held strong.

Goodreads Synopsis:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

You’ve never read a book like The Reason I Jump. Written by Naoki Higashida, a very smart, very self-aware, and very charming thirteen-year-old boy with autism, it is a one-of-a-kind memoir that demonstrates how an autistic mind thinks, feels, perceives, and responds in ways few of us can imagine. Parents and family members who never thought they could get inside the head of their autistic loved one at last have a way to break through to the curious, subtle, and complex life within.

Using an alphabet grid to painstakingly construct words, sentences, and thoughts that he is unable to speak out loud, Naoki answers even the most delicate questions that people want to know. Questions such as: “Why do people with autism talk so loudly and weirdly?” “Why do you line up your toy cars and blocks?” “Why don’t you make eye contact when you’re talking?” and “What’s the reason you jump?” (Naoki’s answer: “When I’m jumping, it’s as if my feelings are going upward to the sky.”) With disarming honesty and a generous heart, Naoki shares his unique point of view on not only autism but life itself. His insights—into the mystery of words, the wonders of laughter, and the elusiveness of memory—are so startling, so strange, and so powerful that you will never look at the world the same way again.

In his introduction, bestselling novelist David Mitchell writes that Naoki’s words allowed him to feel, for the first time, as if his own autistic child was explaining what was happening in his mind. “It is no exaggeration to say that The Reason I Jump allowed me to round a corner in our relationship.” This translation was a labor of love by David and his wife, KA Yoshida, so they’d be able to share that feeling with friends, the wider autism community, and beyond. Naoki’s book, in its beauty, truthfulness, and simplicity, is a gift to be shared.

Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan

by Herbert P. Bix

Synopsis:

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

In this groundbreaking biography of the Japanese emperor Hirohito, Herbert P. Bix offers the first complete, unvarnished look at the enigmatic leader whose sixty-three-year reign ushered Japan into the modern world. Never before has the full life of this controversial figure been revealed with such clarity and vividness. Bix shows what it was like to be trained from birth for a lone position at the apex of the nation's political hierarchy and as a revered symbol of divine status. Influenced by an unusual combination of the Japanese imperial tradition and a modern scientific worldview, the young emperor gradually evolves into his preeminent role, aligning himself with the growing ultranationalist movement, perpetuating a cult of religious emperor worship, resisting attempts to curb his power, and all the while burnishing his image as a reluctant, passive monarch. Here we see Hirohito as he truly was: a man of strong will and real authority.

Supported by a vast array of previously untapped primary documents, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan is perhaps most illuminating in lifting the veil on the mythology surrounding the emperor's impact on the world stage. Focusing closely on Hirohito's interactions with his advisers and successive Japanese governments, Bix sheds new light on the causes of the China War in 1937 and the start of the Asia-Pacific War in 1941. And while conventional wisdom has had it that the nation's increasing foreign aggression was driven and maintained not by the emperor but by an elite group of Japanese militarists, the reality, as witnessed here, is quite different. Bix documents in detail the strong, decisive role Hirohito played in wartime operations, from the takeover of Manchuria in 1931 through the attack on Pearl Harbor and ultimately the fateful decision in 1945 to accede to an unconditional surrender. In fact, the emperor stubbornly prolonged the war effort and then used the horrifying bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, together with the Soviet entrance into the war, as his exit strategy from a no-win situation. From the moment of capitulation, we see how American and Japanese leaders moved to justify the retention of Hirohito as emperor by whitewashing his wartime role and reshaping the historical consciousness of the Japanese people. The key to this strategy was Hirohito's alliance with General MacArthur, who helped him maintain his stature and shed his militaristic image, while MacArthur used the emperor as a figurehead to assist him in converting Japan into a peaceful nation. Their partnership ensured that the emperor's image would loom large over the postwar years and later decades, as Japan began to make its way in the modern age and struggled -- as it still does -- to come to terms with its past.

Until the very end of a career that embodied the conflicting aims of Japan's development as a nation, Hirohito remained preoccupied with politics and with his place in history. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan provides the definitive account of his rich life and legacy. Meticulously researched and utterly engaging, this book is proof that the history of twentieth-century Japan cannot be understood apart from the life of its most remarkable and enduring leader.

10 Books Set in Tokyo: Reading the Motley City

Tokyo, Japan’s most populous metropolis, has been a subject of literature for centuries, and continues to inspire writers today. These ten fiction and non-fiction works capture Tokyo’s unique character, revealing multiple aspects of the city, from its arts scene to its pop culture, and down to the depths of its underworld.

http://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/...

Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami

by Gretel Ehrlich

Synopsis:

A passionate student of Japanese poetry, theater, and art for much of her life, Gretel Ehrlich felt compelled to return to the earthquake-and-tsunami-devastated Tohoku coast to bear witness, listen to survivors, and experience their terror and exhilaration in villages and towns where all shelter and hope seemed lost. In an eloquent narrative that blends strong reportage, poetic observation, and deeply felt reflection, she takes us into the upside-down world of northeastern Japan, where nothing is certain and where the boundaries between living and dying have been erased by water.

The stories of rice farmers, monks, and wanderers; of fishermen who drove their boats up the steep wall of the wave; and of an eighty-four-year-old geisha who survived the tsunami to hand down a song that only she still remembered are both harrowing and inspirational. Facing death, facing life, and coming to terms with impermanence are equally compelling in a landscape of surreal desolation, as the ghostly specter of Fukushima Daiichi, the nuclear power complex, spews radiation into the ocean and air. Facing the Wave is a testament to the buoyancy, spirit, humor, and strong-mindedness of those who must find their way in a suddenly shattered world

Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy

by Eri Hotta (no photo)

Synopsis:

A groundbreaking history that considers the attack on Pearl Harbor from the Japanese perspective and is certain to revolutionize how we think of the war in the Pacific.

When Japan launched hostilities against the United States in 1941, argues Eri Hotta, its leaders, in large part, understood they were entering a war they were almost certain to lose. Drawing on material little known to Western readers, and barely explored in depth in Japan itself, Hotta poses an essential question: Why did these men—military men, civilian politicians, diplomats, the emperor—put their country and its citizens so unnecessarily in harm’s way? Introducing us to the doubters, schemers, and would-be patriots who led their nation into this conflagration, Hotta brilliantly shows us a Japan rarely glimpsed—eager to avoid war but fraught with tensions with the West, blinded by reckless militarism couched in traditional notions of pride and honor, tempted by the gambler’s dream of scoring the biggest win against impossible odds and nearly escaping disaster before it finally proved inevitable.

In an intimate account of the increasingly heated debates and doomed diplomatic overtures preceding Pearl Harbor, Hotta reveals just how divided Japan’s leaders were, right up to (and, in fact, beyond) their eleventh-hour decision to attack. We see a ruling cadre rich in regional ambition and hubris: many of the same leaders seeking to avoid war with the United States continued to adamantly advocate Asian expansionism, hoping to advance, or at least maintain, the occupation of China that began in 1931, unable to end the second Sino-Japanese War and unwilling to acknowledge Washington’s hardening disapproval of their continental incursions. Even as Japanese diplomats continued to negotiate with the Roosevelt administration, Matsuoka Yosuke, the egomaniacal foreign minister who relished paying court to both Stalin and Hitler, and his facile supporters cemented Japan’s place in the fascist alliance with Germany and Italy—unaware (or unconcerned) that in so doing they destroyed the nation’s bona fides with the West.

We see a dysfunctional political system in which military leaders reported to both the civilian government and the emperor, creating a structure that facilitated intrigues and stoked a jingoistic rivalry between Japan’s army and navy. Roles are recast and blame reexamined as Hotta analyzes the actions and motivations of the hawks and skeptics among Japan’s elite. Emperor Hirohito and General Hideki Tojo are newly appraised as we discover how the two men fumbled for a way to avoid war before finally acceding to it.

Hotta peels back seventy years of historical mythologizing—both Japanese and Western—to expose all-too-human Japanese leaders torn by doubt in the months preceding the attack, more concerned with saving face than saving lives, finally drawn into war as much by incompetence and lack of political will as by bellicosity. An essential book for any student of the Second World War, this compelling reassessment will forever change the way we remember those days of infamy.

Hiroshima

by John Hersey

Synopsis:

A correspondent for TIME during World War II, John Hersey journeyed to Japan in May 1946 to report on the dropping of the first atomic bomb from the perspective of the residents of Hiroshima. Published first in the New Yorker (at 31,000 words, it took up the whole issue) and then as a book by Knopf, Hiroshima reconstructs the events of Aug. 6, 1945, and the year that followed through the eyes of two doctors, a housewife, a secretary, a Japanese minister and a German Jesuit priest. They wander through the carnage and destruction trying to bear the unbearable, like characters from Dante’s Inferno — but of course, they are innocent souls. Hersey’s spare, stripped-down prose matched the blasted landscape and devastated psychology of the victims, and his novelistic structure and techniques helped inspire an entirely new style of reportage that would come to be known as New Journalism. Reading the 1985 edition, which includes a final chapter looking at all six characters’ lives 40 years on, is essential.

Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

by John W. Dower

Synopsis:

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the 1999 National Book Award for Nonfiction, finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize and the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, Embracing Defeat is John W. Dower's brilliant examination of Japan in the immediate, shattering aftermath of World War II.

Drawing on a vast range of Japanese sources and illustrated with dozens of astonishing documentary photographs, Embracing Defeat is the fullest and most important history of the more than six years of American occupation, which affected every level of Japanese society, often in ways neither side could anticipate. Dower, whom Stephen E. Ambrose has called "America's foremost historian of the Second World War in the Pacific," gives us the rich and turbulent interplay between West and East, the victor and the vanquished, in a way never before attempted, from top-level manipulations concerning the fate of Emperor Hirohito to the hopes and fears of men and women in every walk of life. Already regarded as the benchmark in its field, Embracing Defeat is a work of colossal scholarship and history of the very first order.

Musashi
Note: Fictionalized account of the life of Miyamoto Musashi, author of The Book of Five Rings and arguably the most renowned Japanese swordsman who ever lived.

by Eiji Yoshikawa

Synopsis:

I bought this book at Kinokuniya bookstore in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It is as thick as a Harry Potter book, probably thicker, but the pages are as thin as onion skin. It’s a serious tome. I never expected to finish it, and I tore through it in less than two weeks.

If you’re like me and enjoy a good Samurai story – the wandering ronin, epic battle scenes with lots of penetrating (wisdom), then you’ll love Eiji Yoshikawa’s Musashi. It’s sold more than 100 million copies in Japanese. Musashi’s transformation from talented yet conflicted young warrior to one of the greatest (perhaps the greatest) swordsman of all time teaches you about critical thinking, strategizing, and ultimately, that there is more to life than merely surviving. Musashi re-created himself from nothing and rose from destitution to legend.

Why not you?

Forgotten Ally

by Rana Mitter (no photo)

Synopsis:

The epic, untold story of China’s devastating eight-year war of resistance against Japan

For decades, a major piece of World War II history has gone virtually unwritten. The war began in China, two years before Hitler invaded Poland, and China eventually became the fourth great ally, partner to the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain. Yet its drama of invasion, resistance, slaughter, and political intrigue remains little known in the West.

Rana Mitter focuses his gripping narrative on three towering leaders: Chiang Kai-shek, the politically gifted but tragically flawed head of China’s Nationalist government; Mao Zedong, the Communists’ fiery ideological stalwart, seen here at the beginning of his epochal career; and the lesser-known Wang Jingwei, who collaborated with the Japanese to form a puppet state in occupied China. Drawing on Chinese archives that have only been unsealed in the past ten years, he brings to vivid new life such characters as Chiang’s American chief of staff, the unforgettable “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell, and such horrific events as the Rape of Nanking and the bombing of China’s wartime capital, Chongqing. Throughout, Forgotten Ally shows how the Chinese people played an essential role in the wider war effort, at great political and personal sacrifice.

Forgotten Ally rewrites the entire history of World War II. Yet it also offers surprising insights into contemporary China. No twentieth-century event was as crucial in shaping China’s worldview, and no one can understand China, and its relationship with America today, without this definitive work.

Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan

by Robert Whiting

Synopsis:

"A fascinating look at some fascinating people who show how democracy advances hand in hand with crime in Japan."--Mario Puzo

In this unorthodox chronicle of the rise of Japan, Inc., Robert Whiting, author of You Gotta Have Wa, gives us a fresh perspective on the economic miracle and near disaster that is modern Japan.

Through the eyes of Nick Zappetti, a former GI, former black marketer, failed professional wrestler, bungling diamond thief who turned himself into "the Mafia boss of Tokyo and the king of Rappongi," we meet the players and the losers in the high-stakes game of postwar finance, politics, and criminal corruption in which he thrived. Here's the story of the Imperial Hotel diamond robbers, who attempted (and may have accomplished) the biggest heist in Tokyo's history. Here is Rikidozan, the professional wrestler who almost single-handedly revived Japanese pride, but whose own ethnicity had to be kept secret. And here is the story of the intimate relationships shared by Japan's ruling party, its financial combines, its ruthless criminal gangs, the CIA, American Big Business, and perhaps at least one presidential relative. Here is the underside of postwar Japan, which is only now coming to light.

Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter

by Shoko Tendo

Synopsis:

Yakuza Moon is a unique memoir detailing the youth of a woman brought up by criminals.

Tendo candidly shows how her upbringing shaped her identity. She eventually breaks away and is able to lead her own life.

This autobiography is a much better read than certain fiction books about a yakuza boss's daughter.

Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan

by Jake Adelstein

Synopsis:

Missouri-native Jake Adelstein got a job out of college at the prestigious Yomiuri Shimbun covering Tokyo's police beat--the first foreigner to do so. During his tenure he reported on some of the most high-profile crime stories in recent memory. He also uncovered how crime boss Tadamasa Goto managed to enter the U.S. for a liver transplant.

Confessions of a Yakuza

by Junichi Saga (no photo)

Synopsis:

Dr. Saga provides an engrossing account of an elderly patient's brief stint as a yakuza before the war.

Confessions of a Yakuza brilliantly captures the atmosphere of prewar Tokyo. The romance is stripped away from the criminal life, and we are instead treated to a realistic view of a gangster's life.

Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld

by David E. Kaplan (no photo)

Synopsis:

Known for their striking full-body tattoos and severed fingertips, Japan's gangsters comprise a criminal class eighty thousand strong—more than four times the size of the American Mafia. Despite their criminal nature, the yakuza are accepted by fellow Japanese to a degree guaranteed to shock most Westerners. Here is the first book to reveal the extraordinary reach of Japan's Mafia. Originally published in 1986, Yakuza was so controversial in Japan that it could not be published there for five years. But in the West it has long served as the standard reference on Japanese organized crime, inspiring novels, screenplays, and criminal investigations. David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro spent nearly two decades conducting hundreds of interviews with everyone from street-level hoodlums and police to Japan's most powerful godfathers. The result is a searing indictment of corruption in the world's second-largest economy.

This updated, expanded, and thoroughly revised edition of Yakuza tells the full story of Japan's remarkable crime syndicates, from their feudal start as bands of medieval outlaws to their emergence as billion-dollar investors in real estate, big business, art, and more.

Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan

by Giles Milton

Synopsis:

With all the adventure, derring-do, and bloodcurdling battle scenes of his earlier book, Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, acclaimed historian Giles Milton dazzles readers with the true story of William Adams—the first Englishman to set foot in Japan (and the inspiration for James Clavell’s bestselling novel Shogun). Beginning with Adams’s startling letter to the East India Company in 1611—more than a decade after he’d arrived in Japan—Samurai William chronicles the first foray by the West
into that mysterious closed-off land. Drawing upon the journals and letters of Adams as well as the other Englishmen who came looking for him, Samurai William presents a unique glimpse of Japan before it once again closed itself off from the world
for another two hundred years.

Shogun
Note: Historical Fiction

by James Clavell

by James Clavell

Two Volumes

Synopsis:

A bold English adventurer. An invincible Japanese warlord. A beautiful woman torn between two ways of life, two ways of love. All brought together in an extraordinary saga of a time and a place aflame with conflict, passion, ambition, lust, and the struggle for power...

Racing the Enemy: Stalin. Truman, and the Surrender of Japan

by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa (no photo)

Synopsis:

With startling revelations, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa rewrites the standard history of the end of World War II in the Pacific. By fully integrating the three key actors in the story - the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan - Hasegawa for the first time puts the last months of the war into international perspective. From April 1945, when Stalin broke the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact and Harry Truman assumed the presidency, to the final Soviet military actions against Japan, Hasegawa brings to light the real reasons Japan surrendered. From Washington to Moscow to Tokyo and back again, he shows us a high-stakes diplomatic game as Truman and Stalin sought to outmaneuver each other in forcing Japan's surrender, as Stalin dangled mediation offers to Japan while secretly preparing to fight in the Pacific, as Tokyo peace advocates desperately tried to stave off a war party determined to mount a last-ditch defense, and as the Americans struggled to balance their competing interests of ending the war with Japan and preventing the Soviets from expanding into the Pacific. Authoritative and engrossing, Racing the Enemy puts the final days of World War II into a whole new light.

Unbroken

by Laura Hillenbrand

Synopsis:

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and the Indies Choice Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year award

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit. Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit

2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake

by Jake Adelstein

Synopsis:

In just over a week, a group of unpaid professional and citizen journalists who met on Twitter created a book to raise money for Japanese Red Cross earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. In addition to essays, artwork and photographs submitted by people around the world, including people who endured the disaster and journalists who covered it, 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake contains a piece by Yoko Ono, and work created specifically for the book by authors William Gibson, Barry Eisler and Jake Adelstein.

“The primary goal,” says the book's editor, a British resident of Japan, “is to record the moment, and in doing so raise money for the Japanese Red Cross Society to help the thousands of homeless, hungry and cold survivors of the earthquake and tsunami. The biggest frustration for many of us was being unable to help these victims. I don’t have any medical skills, and I’m not a helicopter pilot, but I can edit. A few tweets pulled together nearly everything – all the participants, all the expertise – and in just over a week we had created a book including stories from an 80-year-old grandfather in Sendai, a couple in Canada waiting to hear if their relatives were okay, and a Japanese family who left their home, telling their young son they might never be able to return."

If you'd like to make a donation to aid the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, please visit the Japanese Red Cross Society website, where you can donate via Paypal or bank transfer (watch out for the fees, though!) or the American Red Cross Society, which accepts donations directed to its Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund (but only accepts donations made with U.S.-issued credit cards).

And of course, if you like the book, please tell your friends, and tell them to give generously as well! Thank you! Japan really does appreciate your help!

Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies

by Yuko Ogasawara (no photo)

In large corporations in Japan, much of the clerical work is carried out by young women known as "office ladies" (OLs) or "flowers of the workplace." Largely nameless, OLs serve tea to the men and type and file their reports. They are exempt from the traditional lifetime employment and have few opportunities for promotion. In this engaging ethnography, Yuko Ogasawara exposes the ways that these women resist men's power, and why the men, despite their exclusive command of authority, often subject themselves to the women's control. Ogasawara, a Japanese sociologist trained in the United States, skillfully mines perceptive participant-observation analyses and numerous interviews to outline the tensions and humiliations of OL work. She details the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that OLs who are frustrated by demeaning, dead-end jobs thwart their managers and subvert the power structure to their advantage. Using gossip, outright work refusal, and public gift-giving as manipulative strategies, they can ultimately make or break the careers of the men. This intimate and absorbing analysis illustrates how the relationships between women and work, and women and men, are far more complex than the previous literature has shown.

I am going to start with this one... Haruki Murakami

The six stories in Haruki Murakami’s mesmerizing collection are set at the time of the catastrophic 1995 Kobe earthquake, when Japan became brutally aware of the fragility of its daily existence. But the upheavals that afflict Murakami’s characters are even deeper and more mysterious, emanating from a place where the human meets the inhuman.

An electronics salesman who has been abruptly deserted by his wife agrees to deliver an enigmatic package—and is rewarded with a glimpse of his true nature. A man who has been raised to view himself as the son of God pursues a stranger who may or may not be his human father. A mild-mannered collection agent receives a visit from a giant talking frog who enlists his help in saving Tokyo from destruction. As haunting as dreams, as potent as oracles, the stories in After the Quake are further proof that Murakami is one of the most visionary writers at work today.

Great start Julie - he is such a wonderful author.

by Haruki Murakami

Just a gentle reminder - about the citation - you did a great job adding the book cover and the author's link but also you should add the photo if available and the word by. We appreciate your attempts with the citation and you are almost there - great try Julie.

We are delighted to have you with us on the challenge.

I would like to read by Stuart D. Goldman (no photo).

The Nomonhan Incident is mentioned in Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and he cites the works he consulted at the end of the book. Unfortunately, I couldn't find them in the Kindle library, but I found Goldman's book and it had some pretty good reviews.

by Haruki Murakami

That sounds great Karen - great job with the citations too.

Bently, your picks on Tokyo organized crime sound eye-opening--I really had no idea! Kaplan's book seems like a good place to start. Clearly I'm going to get as carried away with the Japanese challenge as I did with Exotic India.

by David E. Kaplan (no photo)

That is terrific - we learn something with these challenges and break out of our comfort zone.

The Lake
by Banana Yoshimoto

I have never been great at reviews, but I'll give it a try.

Synopsis:
Chihiro, who grew up in the country, now lives in Tokyo. Her mother has died and Nakajima, who lives in the apartment across the street, is her boyfriend.
The couple move into their relationship slowly, because they both have pasts that they have to reconcile.
I found this story to be very similar to Haruki Murakami's style, particularly 1Q84. I recommend it.
by Haruki Murakami

Karen you are not doing bad at all - let us see your citations are great - you are only missing the colon after Synopsis: and then you would be moderator ready (smile)

I added the latter to my list.

The Art and Architecture of Japan

For all that is terrible about Japanese history, there is also a wonderful beauty to the land--and Japanese artists and architects have always celebrated that beauty, so one of the Japan challenge books I'm considering is The Art and Architecture of Japan. Since the war, much of Japanese art has taken a very different turn, so I am also listing Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky, a survey of Japan's avant-garde art movement.

by Robert Treat Paine (no photo)

by Alexandra Munroe (no photo)

The Art of the Japanese Garden

by Michiko Young and David Young (no photos)

Synopsis:

Japanese gardens are rooted in two traditions: an indigenous prehistoric tradition in which patches of graveled forest or pebbled beach were dedicated to nature spirits, and a tradition from China and Korea that included elements such as ponds, streams, waterfalls, rock compositions and a variety of vegetation. The Art of the Japanese Garden traces the development and blending of these two traditions, as well as the inclusion of new features as gardening reached new heights of sophistication on Japanese soil.

300 full-color Japanese garden illustrations and photographs highlight notable gardens in Japan, including graveled courtyards, early aristocratic gardens, esoteric and paradise gardens, Zen gardens, warrior gardens, tea gardens and stroll gardens. Also included are sections on modern trends and Japanese gardens in other countries.

The Art of the Japanese Garden won the 2006 American Horticultural Society Book Award.

Hi Hana, you might be interested in Tan Twan Eng's book: The Garden of Evening Mists (if you haven't read it yet).Set in Penang, Malaysia. One of the main characters is a Japanese gardener. Eng's writing is just perfect.

by Twan Eng Tan

Sakuteiki: Visions of the Japanese Garden

by Jiro Takei (no photo)

Synopsis:

The Sakuteiki, or "Records of Garden Making," was written nearly one thousand years ago. It is the oldest existing text on Japanese gardening or any kind of gardening in the world. In this edition of the Sakuteiki the authors provide an English-language translation of this classic work and an introduction to the cultural and historical context that led to the development of Japanese gardening. Central to this explanation is an understanding of the sacred importance of stones in Japanese culture and Japanese garden design.

Written by a Japanese court noble during the Heian period (794-1184), the Sakuteiki includes technical advice on gardening, much of which is still followed in today's Japanese gardens and an examination of the four central threads of allegorical meaning, which were integral features of Heian-era garden design.

Karen wrote: "Hi Hana, you might be interested in Tan Twan Eng's book: The Garden of Evening Mists (if you haven't read it yet).Set in Penang, Malaysia. One of the main characters is a Japanese ..."

I have that book! I didn't even realize it until you posted. Have to read it now. Thanks ladies

by Twan Eng Tan

Hello Julie - we are delighted that you are joining the challenge and you can cover books in any order that you please - remember that they need to be a sampling - meaning not five books by one author unless those five books deal with different cities or places in Japan and then you can count them that way - or five different topics, etc, - the rules are spelled out and are very generous. I think that is a great idea to start with a book that you would like to digest more carefully and revisit. Sounds like a wonderful plan and you are so right - here is your chance.

I think that the choices you have made are excellent ones.

Let me show you how we do citations here and then you can practice and edit your message box. Just type normally in terms of the text and add the citations at the bottom of the comment box.

For authors - we add the author's photo when available and always the author's link:

Haruki Murakami

For the book you mentioned: (we add the bookcover, the author's photo when available and always the author's link - in the case of the book you mentioned - there is no author's photo on goodreads so we simply add the words (no photo) at the end after the author's link which is the author's name is linkable text.

by Simon Partner (no photo)

Kathy wrote: "Karen wrote: "Hi Hana, you might be interested in Tan Twan Eng's book: The Garden of Evening Mists (if you haven't read it yet).Set in Penang, Malaysia. One of the main characters ..."

You are welcome Kathy - hope you enjoy the book

Hana wrote: "Sakuteiki: Visions of the Japanese Garden

by Jiro Takei (no photo)

Synopsis:

The Sakuteiki, or "Records of Garden Ma..."

Hana, this sounds like a lovely book especially for folks who love gardening. Thank you so much for your add.

Hana wrote: "Hi Karen,

I absolutely loved Garden of the Evening Mists--it's on my personal list for favorite reads from 2014! That's one thing that inspired me to add The Art of the Japanese Garden. Also on a ..."

Hello Hana - we do not allow links to personal reviews - if you would like to post the photos here please do so - we would love to see them. Note that the citations have the book cover, then the author's photo and always the author's link last. If there is no photo of the author - after the author's link - simply add in parentheses - the words (no photo)

Hana's post:

Hi Karen,

I absolutely loved Garden of the Evening Mists--it's on my personal list for favorite reads from 2014! That's one thing that inspired me to add The Art of the Japanese Garden. Also on a trip to Portland I fell in love with the city's magnificent Japanese gardens--the web site is great. Here is the link: http://japanesegarden.com

by Twan Eng Tan

by Michiko Young (no photo)

Karen wrote: "Hi Hana, you might be interested in Tan Twan Eng's book: The Garden of Evening Mists (if you haven't read it yet).Set in Penang, Malaysia. One of the main characters is a Japanese ..."

Karen - excellent try on the citation - just reverse the order - book cover then by then author's photo and then the author's link but pretty close.

Hana wrote: "The Art of the Japanese Garden

by Michiko Young and David Young (no photos)

Synopsis:

Japanese gardens are rooted ..."

Thank you Hana.

Hana wrote: "The Art and Architecture of Japan

For all that is terrible about Japanese history, there is also a wonderful beauty to the land--and Japanese artists and architects have always celebrated that bea..."

Hana - you have added so many wonderful books - thank you.