Showing titles in Japan

The incredible true story of Louis Zamperini, now a major motion picture directed by Angelina Jolie. THE INTERNATIONAL NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER In 1943 a bomber crashes into the Pacific Ocean. Against all odds, one young lieutenant survives. Louise Zamperini had already transformed himself from...

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 and translated by Yei Theodora Ozaki, a 20th-century translator of Japanese short stories and fairy tales. The second book in this collection is a rare one that is not usually available in audio format: Aino Folk-Tales by Basil Chamberlain, one of the most prominent British Japanologists active in Japan during the latter half of the 19th century.

For those looking for the real story behind the fictionalized movie account of the 47 Ronin story, this is the definitive, fascinating account of this unforgettable tale of a band of samurai who defied the Emperor to avenge the disgrace and death of their master, and faced certain death as a result. It led to one of the bloodiest episodes in Japanese history, and in the process, created a new set of heroes in Japan.

A sweeping narrative history -- the first in over twenty years -- of America's first major offensive of World War II, the brutal, no-quarter-given campaign to take Japanese-occupied Guadalcanal From early August until mid-November of 1942, US Marines, sailors, and pilots struggled for dominance...

This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s words, "a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened - muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox."

For nearly a thousand years, the samurai stood at the heart of Japan’s history—warriors of the sword, guardians of tradition, and ultimately casualties of modern change. Their story is one of loyalty and betrayal, war and peace, honour and decline. To understand the samurai is to understand Japan itself, for no other class shaped the nation’s destiny so profoundly. The Rise and Fall of the Samurai traces this extraordinary journey through ten defining moments.

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...

'Irrefutable and beautiful' New York Times 'Only Kiyoko Murata can convey this world' YOKO OGAWA, author of The Memory Police, Yomiuri Shibun The year is 1903, and tenacious and spirited Aoi Ichi is sold to the most exclusive brothel in Kumamoto, Japan, becoming the protégée of Shinonome, the...

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake large enough to knock the earth from its axis sent a massive tsunami speeding toward the Japanese coast and the aging and vulnerable Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power reactors. Over the following weeks, the world watched in horror as a natural disaster became a man-made catastrophe: fail-safes failed, cooling systems shut down, nuclear rods melted.

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. Hunted in turn by American troops, the Philippine army and police, hostile islanders, and eventually successive Japanese search parties, Onoda had skillfully outmaneuvered all his pursuers, convinced that World War II was still being fought and waiting for the day when his fellow soldiers would return victorious.

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. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword is a revealing look at how and why our societies differ, making it the perfect introduction to Japanese history and customs. 

The Shogun's Last Samurai Corps tells the thrilling story of the Shinsengumi - the legendary corps of Samurai warriors tasked with keeping order in Kyoto during the final chaotic years of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1868).

Bloomsbury presents Pearl Harbor: Japan's Greatest Disaster by Mark E. Stille, read by Christopher Ragland. A detailed re-examination of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Day of Infamy that saw the USA enter World War II. In this the first comprehensive treatment of Pearl Harbor since the...

More than a mere warrior code, Bushido is the moral breath defining Japan. In this seminal work, Inazo Nitobe unveils the ethical roots of the samurai, blending Buddhist calm, Shinto loyalty, and Confucian morality. Through unyielding virtues like rectitude, honor, and stoic self-control, the author shows how the "Way of the Warrior" transcended the battlefield to mold a nation's soul. Though the feudal system has vanished, discover how its spirit—fragrant and delicate as the wild cherry blossom—remains vital in modern Japan.

From bestselling authors Genki Kawamura and Marie Kondo comes a collection of heartwarming and whimsical short stories, based on Marie's personal experience of tidying over 1,000 rooms. Miko is a professional tidier, with a secret. When she enters a room, she is greeted by the voices of every...

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. The reactor’s massive heavy-duty gantry crane bent like a twig and collapsed onto the refueling floor control room, crushing everything that wasn’t expelled in the blast. Outside, chunks of debris rained down on the fire crew, injuring five and shredding the hoses they had just laid.

Samurai! is the gripping autobiography of Saburō Sakai, one of Japan’s most renowned fighter pilots during World War II. Co-written with Fred Saito and Martin Caidin, the book chronicles Sakai’s rise from a poor rural upbringing to becoming an elite Zero pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy.

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 sharing these moral guidelines, handed down over generations, Nitobe gives the world unique insight into a previously unexplored code of honor.

Only three short years after the end of the Japanese occupation, war came again to Malaya. The Chinese-backed guerrillas called it the War of the Running Dogs - their contemptuous term for those in Malaya who remained loyal to the British. The British Government referred to this bloody and costly struggle as the 'Malayan Emergency'. Yet it was a war that lasted twelve years and cost thousands of lives. By the time it was over Malaya had obtained its independence - but on British, not on Chinese or Communist terms.

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 clarity and vividness. Bix describes 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.