Environment and Society in the Japanese Islands

Download Environment and Society in the Japanese Islands PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780870718014
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (18 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Environment and Society in the Japanese Islands by : Bruce Loyd Batten

Download or read book Environment and Society in the Japanese Islands written by Bruce Loyd Batten and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the long course of Japan's history, its people profited from their rich natural environment while simultaneously facing significant environmental challenges. Over time, they have altered their natural environment in numerous ways, from landscape modification to industrial pollution. How has the human-nature relationship changed over time in Japan? How does Japan's environmental history compare with that of other countries, or that of the world as a whole? Environment and Society in the Japanese Islands attempts to answer these questions through a series of case studies by leading Japanese and Western historians, geographers, archaeologists, and climatologists. These essays, on diverse topics from all periods of Japanese history and prehistory, are unified by their focus on the key concepts of "resilience" and "risk mitigation." Taken as a whole, they place Japan's experience in global context and call into question the commonly presumed division between pre-modern and modern environmental history. Primarily intended for scholars and students in fields related to Japan or environmental history, these accessibly-written essays will be valuable to anyone wishing to learn about the historical roots of today's environmental issues or the complex relationship between human society and the natural environment.

Japan

Download Japan PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691175063
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Japan by : Mark Brazil

Download or read book Japan written by Mark Brazil and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-18 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive, richly illustrated guide to Japan’s astonishing animals and plants—and the natural forces that have shaped them This richly illustrated guide is the first comprehensive and accessible introduction to the extraordinary natural history of the Japanese archipelago. It explains how Japan’s geology, geography, climate, seas and currents have forged conditions supporting a diverse range of species—from cranes, bears, eagles and monkeys to plants, butterflies, dragonflies, frogs and snakes—many of which are found nowhere else in the world. Engaging and authoritative, this book is a must-have for anyone who wants to explore or learn about Japan’s natural wonders, from the Japanese Macaque—the famous snow monkeys—to the magnificent Steller’s Eagle. Features more than 878 colour photographs, illustrations and maps Provides a lavishly illustrated introduction to many of Japan’s common and iconic mammals and birds Takes readers on a naturalist’s journey to the key areas of Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Nansei Shoto, as well as the Izu, Ogasawara and Iwo islands Introduces Japan’s geology, geography, topography, climate, habitats, biodiversity and much more Explains where and how to watch and photograph wildlife in Japan, including whales

Environment and Society in the Japanese Islands

Download Environment and Society in the Japanese Islands PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780870718021
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (18 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Environment and Society in the Japanese Islands by : Bruce Loyd Batten

Download or read book Environment and Society in the Japanese Islands written by Bruce Loyd Batten and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Over the long course of Japan's history, its people profited from their rich natural environment while simultaneously facing significant environmental challenges. Over time, they have altered their natural environment in numerous ways, from landscape modification to industrial pollution. How has the human-nature relationship changed over time in Japan? How does Japan's environmental history compare with that of other countries, or that of the world as a whole? Environment and Society in the Japanese Islands attempts to answer these questions through a series of case studies by leading Japanese and Western historians, geographers, archaeologists, and climatologists. These essays, on diverse topics from all periods of Japanese history and prehistory, are unified by their focus on the key concepts of 'resilience' and 'risk mitigation.' Taken as a whole, they place Japan's experience in global context and call into question the commonly presumed division between pre-modern and modern environmental history. Primarily intended for scholars and students in fields related to Japan or environmental history, these accessibly-written essays will be valuable to anyone wishing to learn about the historical roots of today's environmental issues or the complex relationship between human society and the natural environment"--

Japan at Nature's Edge

Download Japan at Nature's Edge PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 9780824836924
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (369 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Japan at Nature's Edge by : Ian Jared Miller

Download or read book Japan at Nature's Edge written by Ian Jared Miller and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2013-07-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan at Nature’s Edge is a timely collection of essays that explores the relationship between Japan’s history, culture, and physical environment. It greatly expands the focus of previous work on Japanese modernization by examining Japan’s role in global environmental transformation and how Japanese ideas have shaped bodies and landscapes over the centuries. The immediacy of Earth’s environmental crisis, a predicament highlighted by Japan’s March 2011 disaster, brings a sense of urgency to the study of Japan and its global connections. The work is an environmental history in the broadest sense of the term because it contains writing by environmental anthropologists, a legendary Japanese economist, and scholars of Japanese literature and culture. The editors have brought together an unparalleled assemblage of some of the finest scholars in the field who, rather than treat it in isolation or as a unique cultural community, seek to connect Japan to global environmental currents such as whaling, world fisheries, mountaineering and science, mining and industrial pollution, and relations with nonhuman animals. The contributors assert the importance of the environment in understanding Japan’s history and propose a new balance between nature and culture, one weighted much more heavily on the side of natural legacies. This approach does not discount culture. Instead, it suggests that the Japanese experience of nature, like that of all human beings, is a complex and intimate negotiation between the physical and cultural worlds. Contributors: Daniel P. Aldrich, Jakobina Arch, Andrew Bernstein, Philip C. Brown, Timothy S. George, Jeffrey E. Hanes, David L. Howell, Federico Marcon, Christine L. Marran, Ian Jared Miller, Micah Muscolino, Ken’ichi Miyamoto, Sara B. Pritchard, Julia Adeney Thomas, Karen Thornber, William M. Tsutsui, Brett L. Walker, Takehiro Watanabe.

Environmental ScienceBites

Download Environmental ScienceBites PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : The Ohio State University
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 594 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Environmental ScienceBites by : Kylienne A. Clark

Download or read book Environmental ScienceBites written by Kylienne A. Clark and published by The Ohio State University. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was written by undergraduate students at The Ohio State University (OSU) who were enrolled in the class Introduction to Environmental Science. The chapters describe some of Earth's major environmental challenges and discuss ways that humans are using cutting-edge science and engineering to provide sustainable solutions to these problems. Topics are as diverse as the students, who represent virtually every department, school and college at OSU. The environmental issue that is described in each chapter is particularly important to the author, who hopes that their story will serve as inspiration to protect Earth for all life.

Drawing the Sea Near

Download Drawing the Sea Near PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 1452959471
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (529 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Drawing the Sea Near by : C. Anne Claus

Download or read book Drawing the Sea Near written by C. Anne Claus and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Japanese coastal residents and transnational conservationists collaborated to foster relationships between humans and sea life Drawing the Sea Near opens a new window to our understanding of transnational conservation by investigating projects in Okinawa shaped by a “conservation-near” approach—which draws on the senses, the body, and memory to collapse the distance between people and their surroundings and to foster collaboration and equity between coastal residents and transnational conservation organizations. This approach contrasts with the traditional Western “conservation-far” model premised on the separation of humans from the environment. Based on twenty months of participant observation and interviews, this richly detailed, engagingly written ethnography focuses on Okinawa’s coral reefs to explore an unusually inclusive, experiential, and socially just approach to conservation. In doing so, C. Anne Claus challenges orthodox assumptions about nature, wilderness, and the future of environmentalism within transnational organizations. She provides a compelling look at how transnational conservation organizations—in this case a field office of the World Wide Fund for Nature in Okinawa—negotiate institutional expectations for conservation with localized approaches to caring for ocean life. In pursuing how particular projects off the coast of Japan unfolded, Drawing the Sea Near illuminates the real challenges and possibilities of work within the multifaceted transnational structures of global conservation organizations. Uniquely, it focuses on the conservationists themselves: why and how has their approach to project work changed, and how have they themselves been transformed in the process?

The Soils of Japan

Download The Soils of Japan PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 9811582297
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (115 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Soils of Japan by : Ryusuke Hatano

Download or read book The Soils of Japan written by Ryusuke Hatano and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-02-18 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an overview of the distribution, properties, and function of soils in Japan. First, it offers general descriptions of the country’s climate, geology, geomorphology, and land use, the history of the Japanese soil classification system and characteristics and genesis of major soil types follow. For each region – a geographic/administrative region of the country – there is a chapter with details of current land use as well as properties and management challenges of major soils. Maps of soil distribution, pedon descriptions, profile images, and tables of properties are included throughout the text and appendices.

The Roots of Japan's Environmental Policies

Download The Roots of Japan's Environmental Policies PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 131773405X
Total Pages : 462 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (177 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Roots of Japan's Environmental Policies by : Anny Wong

Download or read book The Roots of Japan's Environmental Policies written by Anny Wong and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-24 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study focuses on Japan's policies toward international environmental issues and includes case studies on whaling, deforestation in the tropics, and acid deposition in Asia.

Coral and Concrete

Download Coral and Concrete PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824855213
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Coral and Concrete by : Greg Dvorak

Download or read book Coral and Concrete written by Greg Dvorak and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2018-11-30 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Coral and Concrete, Greg Dvorak’s cross-cultural history of Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, explores intersections of environment, identity, empire, and memory in the largest inhabited coral atoll on earth. Approaching the multiple “atollscapes” of Kwajalein’s past and present as Marshallese ancestral land, Japanese colonial outpost, Pacific War battlefield, American weapons-testing base, and an enduring home for many, Dvorak delves into personal narratives and collective mythologies from contradictory vantage points. He navigates the tensions between “little stories” of ordinary human actors and “big stories” of global politics—drawing upon the “little” metaphor of the coral organisms that colonize and build atolls, and the “big” metaphor of the all-encompassing concrete that buries and co-opts the past. Building upon the growing body of literature about militarism and decolonization in Oceania, this book advocates a layered, nuanced approach that emphasizes the multiplicity and contradictions of Pacific Islands histories as an antidote to American hegemony and globalization within and beyond the region. It also brings Japanese, Korean, Okinawan, and American perspectives into conversation with Micronesians’ recollections of colonialism and war. This transnational history—built upon a combination of reflective personal narrative, ethnography, cultural studies, and postcolonial studies—thus resituates Kwajalein Atoll as a pivotal site where Islanders have not only thrived for thousands of years, but also mediated between East and West, shaping crucial world events. Based on multi-sited ethnographic and archival research, as well as Dvorak’s own experiences growing up between Kwajalein, the United States, and Japan, Coral and Concrete integrates narrative and imagery with semiotic analysis of photographs, maps, films, and music, traversing colonial tropical fantasies, tales of victory and defeat, missile testing, fisheries, war-bereavement rituals, and landowner resistance movements, from the twentieth century through the present day. Representing history as a perennial struggle between coral and concrete, the book offers an Oceanian paradigm for decolonization, resistance, solidarity, and optimism that should appeal to all readers far beyond the Marshall Islands.

Engineering Geology and the Environment

Download Engineering Geology and the Environment PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : CRC Press
ISBN 13 : 9789054108801
Total Pages : 1080 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (88 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Engineering Geology and the Environment by : Paul G. Marinos

Download or read book Engineering Geology and the Environment written by Paul G. Marinos and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 1080 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Environmental Policy in Japan

Download Environmental Policy in Japan PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9781781008249
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (82 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Environmental Policy in Japan by : Hidefumi Imura

Download or read book Environmental Policy in Japan written by Hidefumi Imura and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a must; it is best reading for all interested in or working on environmental policy formulation and implementation, be it in a polluted industrial country or in a polluting developing country. Environmentalist . . . a well-conceptualized analysis of the evolution of Japan s environmental policies and programmes. . . The quality of integration from chapter to chapter is much superior to that of most multiple-author texts. International Sociology Review of Books The eleven contributors to this book provide profound retrospective view son the fearsome damage inflicted on the environment of Japan and on its people during the rapid economic growth period from late 1950s to the early 1970s. The book also presents a clear vision of how developing countries might draw lessons from Japan s experiences in overcoming some of its pollution problems. Hiroshi Ohta, Pacific Affairs This is, I m sure, the most comprehensive and the best book ever on Japan s environmental policy. This book is a must; it is best reading for all interested in or working on environmental policy formulation and implementation, be it in a polluted industrial country or in a polluting developing country. Udo E. Simonis, Internationales Asienforum The volume is a great source to explain what factors have made Japanese pollution control policy so successful. . . Imura and Schreurs have unveiled the intricacies of Japanese pollution control policy in this volume. The book can be used at the undergraduate and graduate level, particularly as a stepping stone in projects focused on minimization of contaminant emissions and on Japanese environmental policy and politics. Raul Pacheco-Vega, Global Environmental Politics A gold mine of information, this book gives a balanced, comprehensive, and authoritative analysis of Japan s environmental policy and candidly covers both its considerable achievements and persistent limitations. Although this volume focuses on issues of policy implementation, it impressively addresses most aspects of environmental issues in Japan. . . This is indeed a superb book that provides encyclopedia-like information about environmental issues in Japan and is unmatched, especially in its emphasis on policy implementation. Lam Peng Er, Journal of Japanese Studies Japanese environmental management style is in many ways distinct from that found in Europe or the USA. There is less emphasis on litigation, more emphasis on administrative guidance and considerable use of voluntary mechanisms for policy implementation. This volume considers what factors may have contributed to Japan s relatively successful efforts at dealing with severe industrial pollution and problems associated with rapid urbanization. The book introduces Japan s environmental history, its key environmental regulations and the forces that have driven Japan to introduce these environmental regulations and programs. It also examines the various formal and informal institutional mechanisms and policy instruments that have been introduced over the past several decades to implement pollution control and energy conservation. The authors conclude by putting Japan s environmental policy experiences in comparative perspective and considering what useful lessons can be drawn from the Japanese experience for developing nations. Providing a detailed analysis of environmental policies and policy instruments in Japan by leading experts in the field, this book will be of great interest to students of environmental policy and politics and policymakers concerned with environmental protection in Asia.

The Green Archipelago

Download The Green Archipelago PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520908767
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (29 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Green Archipelago by : Conrad Totman

Download or read book The Green Archipelago written by Conrad Totman and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1989-01-24 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every foreign traveler in Japan is delighted by the verdant forest-shrouded mountains that thrust skyward from one end of the island chain to the other. The Japanese themselves are conscious of the lush green of their homeland, which they sometimes refer to as "the green archipelago." Yet, based on its fragile geography and centuries of extremely dense human occupation, Japan today should be an impoverished, slum-ridden, peasant society subsisting on a barren, eroded moonscape characterized by bald mountains and debris-strewn lowlands. In fact, as Conrad Totman argues in this pathbreaking work based on prodigious research, this lush verdue is not a monument to nature's benevolence and Japanese aesthetic sensibilities, but the hard-earned result of generations of human toil that have converted the archipelago into one great forest preserve. Indeed, the author shows that until the late 1600s Japan was well on her way to ecological disaster due to exploitative forestry. During the Tokugawa period, however, an extraordinary change took place resulting in a system of "regenerative forestry" that averted the devastation of Japan's forests. The Green Archipelago is the only major Western-language work on this subject and a landmark not only in Japanese history, but in the history of the environment.

Japanese Environmental Philosophy

Download Japanese Environmental Philosophy PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190683260
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (96 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Japanese Environmental Philosophy by : J. Baird Callicott

Download or read book Japanese Environmental Philosophy written by J. Baird Callicott and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japanese Environmental Philosophy is an anthology that responds to the environmental problems of the 21st century by drawing from Japanese philosophical traditions to investigate our relationships with other humans, nonhuman animals, and the environment. It contains chapters from fifteen top scholars from Japan, the United States, and Europe. The essays cover a broad range of Japanese thought, including Zen Buddhism, Shintoism, the Kyoto School, Japanese art and aesthetics, and traditional Japanese culture.

Seeds of Control

Download Seeds of Control PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 : 0295747471
Total Pages : 315 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (957 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Seeds of Control by : David Fedman

Download or read book Seeds of Control written by David Fedman and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2020-07-23 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conservation as a tool of colonialism in early twentieth-century Korea Japanese colonial rule in Korea (1905–1945) ushered in natural resource management programs that profoundly altered access to and ownership of the peninsula’s extensive mountains and forests. Under the banner of “forest love,” the colonial government set out to restructure the rhythms and routines of agrarian life, targeting everything from home heating to food preparation. Timber industrialists, meanwhile, channeled Korea’s forest resources into supply chains that grew in tandem with Japan’s imperial sphere. These mechanisms of resource control were only fortified after 1937, when the peninsula and its forests were mobilized for total war. In this wide-ranging study David Fedman explores Japanese imperialism through the lens of forest conservation in colonial Korea—a project of environmental rule that outlived the empire itself. Holding up for scrutiny the notion of conservation, Seeds of Control examines the roots of Japanese ideas about the Korean landscape, as well as the consequences and aftermath of Japanese approaches to Korea’s “greenification.” Drawing from sources in Japanese and Korean, Fedman writes colonized lands into Japanese environmental history, revealing a largely untold story of green imperialism in Asia.

Islands of Protest

Download Islands of Protest PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824858263
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Islands of Protest by : Davinder L. Bhowmik

Download or read book Islands of Protest written by Davinder L. Bhowmik and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2016-01-31 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literature is an important vehicle to further knowledge of other cultures, and English translations of Okinawan literary works have had a major impact on the field of Okinawan studies. Yet the riches of Okinawa's literature have yet to be adequately mined. Islands of Protest attempts to address this lacuna with this new selection of critically acclaimed modern and contemporary works in English. The anthology includes poetry, fiction, and drama, drawing on Okinawa's distinct culture and subtropical natural environment to convey the emotions and tensions present in everyday life. Tōma Hiroko's poem "Backbone" juxtaposes the natural environment of aquamarine beaches and subtropical flora and fauna with the built environment of America's military bases. Stories by two of Okinawa's most dynamic contemporary authors display wide breadth, from the preservation of island dances and burial practices in Sakiyama Tami's "Island Confinement" and "Come Swaying, Come Swinging" to the bold, disquieting themes of violence and comfort women in Medoruma Shun's "Hope," "Taiwan Woman," and "Tree of Butterflies." The crown jewel of the anthology, Chinen Seishin's play The Human Pavilion, is based on an infamous historical incident in which Okinawans were put on display during a 1903 industrial exhibition in Osaka. In his 1978 masterpiece, Chinen depicts the relentless pressure on Okinawans to become more Japanese. Given the controversial presence of U.S. military forces in Okinawa, this book is particularly timely. Disputes between the United States and Japanese governments over construction of a new marine airbase at Henoko have led to the resignation of Japan's prime minister, the election of an anti-base governor, and repeated protests. Islands of Protest offers a compelling entrée into a complex culture, one marked by wartime decimation, relentless discrimination, and fierce resistance, yet often overshadowed by the clichéd notion of a gentle Okinawa so ceaselessly depicted in Japan's mass media.

Science for Better Environment

Download Science for Better Environment PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Elsevier
ISBN 13 : 1483160491
Total Pages : 1009 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (831 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Science for Better Environment by : Sam Stuart

Download or read book Science for Better Environment written by Sam Stuart and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2015-12-04 with total page 1009 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science for Better Environment: Proceedings of the International Congress on the Human Environment (HESC) focuses on the applications of science in health, human settlements, and protection of the environment. The selection first offers information on the background of HESC, including human settlements and habitat, environment and development, natural disasters, and energy. The text then discusses human’s place in natural ecosystems, along with essential properties of ecosystem, auto-regulation in ecosystem, and collapse of symbiosis between human and nature. The compilation presents a summary of the environmental problems in Japan, including progress and outstanding issues in the environmental field. The water pollution from 1970 to 1975 and air pollution control in the country are underscored. The text also explains the development of antipollution laws in the country. Topics include local government antipollution laws, creation of antipollution laws, and clarifying the responsibility of industries in antipollution drives. The book also touches on the role of scientists in the task of achieving a better environment; challenges of stress on human health in urban ecosystems; and environmental problems on a global scale. The selection is a dependable reference for readers interested in the application of science for the improvement of the environment.

Hokkaido

Download Hokkaido PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786454652
Total Pages : 379 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (864 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Hokkaido by : Ann B. Irish

Download or read book Hokkaido written by Ann B. Irish and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2009-10-21 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japanese people have lived on the country's other three main islands--Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku--for many centuries, but ethnic Japanese, or Wajin, began coming to Hokkaido in large numbers only in the latter half of the nineteenth century. This book tells the story of Japan's aboriginal people, the Ainu, followed by that of foreign explorers and ethnic Japanese pioneers. The book pays close attention to the Japanese-Russian conflicts over the island, including Cold War confrontations and more recent clashes over fishing rights and the Hokkaido-administered islands seized by the U.S.S.R. in 1945.