World War I and the Triumph of a New Japan, 1919–1930

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107470846
Total Pages : 235 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis World War I and the Triumph of a New Japan, 1919–1930 by : Frederick R. Dickinson

Download or read book World War I and the Triumph of a New Japan, 1919–1930 written by Frederick R. Dickinson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-03 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frederick R. Dickinson illuminates a new, integrative history of interwar Japan that highlights the transformative effects of the Great War far from the Western Front. World War I and the Triumph of a New Japan, 1919–1930 reveals how Japan embarked upon a decade of national reconstruction following the Paris Peace Conference, rivalling the monumental rebuilding efforts in post-Versailles Europe. Taking World War I as his anchor, Dickinson examines the structural foundations of a new Japan, discussing the country's wholehearted participation in new post-war projects of democracy, internationalism, disarmament and peace. Dickinson proposes that Japan's renewed drive for military expansion in the 1930s marked less a failure of Japan's interwar culture than the start of a tumultuous domestic debate over the most desirable shape of Japan's twentieth-century world. This stimulating study will engage students and researchers alike, offering a unique, global perspective of interwar Japan.

Supreme Commander

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Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062287958
Total Pages : 378 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (622 download)

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Book Synopsis Supreme Commander by : Seymour Morris

Download or read book Supreme Commander written by Seymour Morris and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-04-22 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seymour Morris Jr. combines political history, military biography, and business management to tell the story of General Douglas MacArthur's tremendous success in rebuilding Japan after World War II in Supreme Commander, a lively, in-depth work of biographical history complementary to The Generals, The Storm of War, and Truman. He is the most decorated general in American history—and the only five five-star general to receive the Medal of Honor. Yet Douglas MacArthur's greatest victory was not in war but in peace. As the uniquely titled Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, he was charged with transforming a defeated, militarist empire into a beacon of peace and democracy—“the greatest gamble ever attempted,” he called it. A career military man, MacArthur had no experience in politics, diplomacy, or economics. A vain, reclusive, and self-centered man, his many enemies in Washington thought he was a flaming peacock, and few, including President Harry Truman's closest advisors, gave him a chance of succeeding. Yet MacArthur did so brilliantly, defying timetables and expectations. Supreme Commander tells for the first time, the story of how MacArthur's leadership achieved a nation-building success that had never been attempted before—and never replicated since. Seymour Morris Jr. reveals this flawed man at his best who treated a defeated enemy with respect; who made informed and thoughtful decisions yet could be brash and stubborn when necessary, and who lead the Occupation with intelligence, class, and compassion. Morris analyzes MacArthur's key tactical choices, explaining how each contributed to his accomplishment, and paints a detailed picture of a true patriot—a man of conviction who proved to be an outstanding and effective leader in the most extraordinary circumstances.

The Triumph of Citizenship

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Publisher : UBC Press
ISBN 13 : 0774840757
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (748 download)

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Book Synopsis The Triumph of Citizenship by : Patricia E. Roy

Download or read book The Triumph of Citizenship written by Patricia E. Roy and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Patricia E. Roy is the winner of the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award, Canadian Historical Association. Patricia E. Roy examines the climax of antipathy to Asians in Canada: the removal of all Japanese Canadians from the BC coast in 1942. Canada ignored the rights of Japanese Canadians and placed strict limits on Chinese immigration. In response, Japanese Canadians and their supporters in the human rights movement managed to halt "repatriation" to Japan, and Chinese Canadians successfully lobbied for the same rights as other Canadians to sponsor immigrants. The final triumph of citizenship came in 1967, when immigration regulations were overhauled and the last remnants of discrimination removed.

Tradition and Triumph: Japanese Women Artists from the John Fong and Colin Johnstone Collection

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Publisher : Denver Art Museum
ISBN 13 : 9781945483073
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (83 download)

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Book Synopsis Tradition and Triumph: Japanese Women Artists from the John Fong and Colin Johnstone Collection by : Andrew L. Maske

Download or read book Tradition and Triumph: Japanese Women Artists from the John Fong and Colin Johnstone Collection written by Andrew L. Maske and published by Denver Art Museum. This book was released on 2021-10 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In pre-1900 Japan few women were encouraged to become professional artists and pursue art seriously. In some situations, male family members who recognized and supported the artistic talent of a female relative could arrange for her to receive further training. And some Buddhist nuns, freed from domestic duties, took up the brush. In a different social realm, courtesans at the highest levels were trained in the arts and attained recognition as poet-calligraphers. After the fall of the shogunate in the 1860s, women had more opportunities to practice art, albeit still limited by tradition. In Tradition and Triumph Andrew L. Maske showcases art created by Japanese women from the 1600s through the 1900s. Ranging from works on silk and paper to ceramics, the art of important women artists is represented along with pieces by male artists who trained and championed them. Assembled by John Fong and Colin Johnstone, who gifted the works to the Denver Art Museum, this collection is believed to be the largest group of works of this type outside of Japan.

Japan 1941

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Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0385350511
Total Pages : 465 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (853 download)

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Book Synopsis Japan 1941 by : Eri Hotta

Download or read book Japan 1941 written by Eri Hotta and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

War and National Reinvention

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Author :
Publisher : Harvard Univ Asia Center
ISBN 13 : 9780674005075
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis War and National Reinvention by : Frederick R. Dickinson

Download or read book War and National Reinvention written by Frederick R. Dickinson and published by Harvard Univ Asia Center. This book was released on 1999 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Japan, as one of the victorious allies, World War I meant territorial gains in China and the Pacific. At the end of the war, however, Japan discovered that in modeling itself on imperial Germany since the nineteenth century, it had perhaps been imitating the wrong national example. Japanese policy debates during World War I, particularly the clash between proponents of greater democratization and those who argued for military expansion, thus became part of the ongoing discussion of national identity among Japanese elites. This study links two sets of concerns--the focus of recent studies of the nation on language, culture, education, and race; and the emphasis of diplomatic history on international developments--to show how political, diplomatic, and cultural concerns work together to shape national identity.

The Real Triumph of Japan

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Author :
Publisher : Legare Street Press
ISBN 13 : 9781021889089
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis The Real Triumph of Japan by : Louis Livingston Seaman

Download or read book The Real Triumph of Japan written by Louis Livingston Seaman and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating and insightful account of life in Japan during the early 20th century, this book offers a unique perspective on the culture and society of the era. Featuring personal anecdotes and observations, the book provides a valuable insight into the challenges and rewards of life in Japan during this time period. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Emperor of Japan

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231518110
Total Pages : 957 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Emperor of Japan by : Donald Keene

Download or read book Emperor of Japan written by Donald Keene and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2005-06-14 with total page 957 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The renowned Japanese scholar “brings us as close to the inner life of the Meiji emperor as we are ever likely to get” (The New York Times Book Review). When Emperor Meiji began his rule in 1867, Japan was a splintered empire dominated by the shogun and the daimyos, cut off from the outside world, staunchly antiforeign, and committed to the traditions of the past. Before long, the shogun surrendered to the emperor, a new constitution was adopted, and Japan emerged as a modern, industrialized state. Despite the length of his reign, little has been written about the strangely obscured figure of Meiji himself, the first emperor ever to meet a European. But now, Donald Keene sifts the available evidence to present a rich portrait not only of Meiji but also of rapid and sometimes violent change during this pivotal period in Japan’s history. In this vivid and engrossing biography, we move with the emperor through his early, traditional education; join in the formal processions that acquainted the young emperor with his country and its people; observe his behavior in court, his marriage, and his relationships with various consorts; and follow his maturation into a “Confucian” sovereign dedicated to simplicity, frugality, and hard work. Later, during Japan’s wars with China and Russia, we witness Meiji’s struggle to reconcile his personal commitment to peace and his nation’s increasingly militarized experience of modernization. Emperor of Japan conveys in sparkling prose the complexity of the man and offers an unrivaled portrait of Japan in a period of unique interest. “Utterly brilliant . . . the best history in English of the emergence of modern Japan.”—Los Angeles Times

This Japanese Life.

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Author :
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781489596987
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (969 download)

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Book Synopsis This Japanese Life. by : Eryk Salvaggio

Download or read book This Japanese Life. written by Eryk Salvaggio and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2013-07-25 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most books about Japan will tell you how to use chopsticks and say "konnichiwa!" Few honestly tackle the existential angst of living in a radically foreign culture. The author, a three-year resident and researcher of Japan, tackles the thousand tiny uncertainties of living abroad. -- Adapted from back cover

The Real Triumph of Japan

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Author :
Publisher : New York : D. Appleton
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 14 pages
Book Rating : 4.A/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis The Real Triumph of Japan by : Louis Livingston Seaman

Download or read book The Real Triumph of Japan written by Louis Livingston Seaman and published by New York : D. Appleton. This book was released on 1906 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

A Bowl for a Coin

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Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824889916
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis A Bowl for a Coin by : William Wayne Farris

Download or read book A Bowl for a Coin written by William Wayne Farris and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2021-04-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Bowl for a Coin is the first book in any language to describe and analyze the history of all Japanese teas from the plant’s introduction to the archipelago around 750 to the present day. To understand the triumph of the tea plant in Japan, William Wayne Farris begins with its cultivation and goes on to describe the myriad ways in which the herb was processed into a palatable beverage, ultimately resulting in the wide variety of teas we enjoy today. Along the way, he traces in fascinating detail the shift in tea’s status from exotic gift item from China, tied to Heian (794–1185) court ritual and medicinal uses, to tax and commodity for exchange in the 1350s, to its complete nativization in Edo (1603–1868) art and literature and its eventual place on the table of every Japanese household. Farris maintains that the increasing sophistication of Japanese agriculture after 1350 is exemplified by tea farming, which became so advanced that Meiji (1868–1912) entrepreneurs were able to export significant amounts of Japanese tea to Euro-American markets. This in turn provided the much-needed foreign capital necessary to help secure Japan a place among the world’s industrialized nations. Tea also had a hand in initiating Japan’s “industrious revolution”: From 1400, tea was being drunk in larger quantities by commoners as well as elites, and the stimulating, habit-forming beverage made it possible for laborers to apply handicraft skills in a meticulous, efficient, and prolonged manner. In addition to aiding in the protoindustrialization of Japan by 1800, tea had by that time become a central commodity in the formation of a burgeoning consumer society. The demand-pull of tea consumption necessitated even greater production into the postwar period—and this despite challenges posed to the industry by consumers’ growing taste for coffee. A Bowl for a Coin makes a convincing case for how tea—an age-old drink that continues to adapt itself to changing tastes in Japan and the world—can serve as a broad lens through which to view the development of Japanese society over many centuries.

Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914

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Publisher : Tuttle Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1462907210
Total Pages : 781 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (629 download)

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Book Synopsis Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914 by : Dan Free

Download or read book Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914 written by Dan Free and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2012-11-27 with total page 781 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914 is a cultural and engineering history of railway building in Japan during the Meiji era. The importance of early railways in the industrialization of the United States and Europe is a fact all of us are familiar with. To witness the amazing parallel development of the railways in Japan, happening at much the same time as America was connecting its vast hinterland to the East and West coasts, is an eye-opening realization. Early Japanese Railways, tells the fascinating story of the rise of Japanese rail amidst a period of rapid modernization during Japan's Meiji era. Leaving behind centuries of stagnation and isolation, Japan would emerge into the 20th century as a leading modern industrialized state. The development of the railways was a significant factor in the cultural and technological development of Japan during this pivotal period. Free's rare photographic and historical materials concerning Japan's early railways, including a print showing the miniature steam engine brought to Japan by Admiral Perry aboard his "Black Ships" to demonstrate American superiority, combine to form a richly detailed account that will appeal to students of Japanese history and railway buffs alike. This one-of-a-kind book, Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914, illuminates for non-Japanese-speaking readers the early history of Japanese railroads and in the process the fascinating story of Japan's prewar industrial modernization. Anyone interested in train history or model trains will find this book a fascinating read.

Imperial Japan at Its Zenith

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Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801471818
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Imperial Japan at Its Zenith by : Kenneth J. Ruoff

Download or read book Imperial Japan at Its Zenith written by Kenneth J. Ruoff and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2014-09-18 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1940, Japan was into its third year of war with China, and relations with the United States were deteriorating, but it was a heady time for the Japanese nonetheless. That year, the Japanese commemorated the 2,600th anniversary of the founding of the Empire of Japan. According to the imperial myth-history, Emperor Jimmu, descended from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, established the "unbroken imperial line" in 660 BCE. In carefully choreographed ceremonies throughout the empire, through new public monuments, with visual culture, and through heritage tourism, the Japanese celebrated the extension of imperial rule under the 124th emperor, Hirohito. These celebrations, the climactic moment for the ideology that was central to modern Japan's identity until the imperial cult's legitimacy was bruised by defeat in 1945, are little known outside Japan. Imperial Japan at Its Zenith, the first book in English about the 2,600th anniversary, examines the themes of the celebration and what they tell us about Japan at mid-century. Kenneth J. Ruoff emphasizes that wartime Japan did not reject modernity in favor of nativist traditionalism. Instead, like Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, it embraced reactionary modernism. Ruoff also highlights the role played by the Japanese people in endorsing and promoting imperial ideology and expansion, documenting the significant grassroots support for the cult of the emperor and for militarism. Ruoff uses the anniversary celebrations to examine Japan's invention of a national history; the complex relationship between the homeland and the colonies; the significance of Imperial Japan's challenge to Euro-American claims of racial and cultural superiority; the role of heritage tourism in inspiring national pride; Japan's wartime fascist modernity; and, with a chapter about overseas Japanese, the boundaries of the Japanese nation. Packed with intriguing anecdotes, incisive analysis, and revelatory illustrations, Imperial Japan at Its Zenith is a major contribution to our understanding of wartime Japan.

Triumph in the Philippines

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 784 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (319 download)

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Book Synopsis Triumph in the Philippines by : Robert Ross Smith

Download or read book Triumph in the Philippines written by Robert Ross Smith and published by . This book was released on 1963 with total page 784 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The reconquest of the Philippine archipelago (exclusive of Leyte), with detailed accounts of Sixth Army and Eighth Army operations on Luzon, as well as of the Eighth Army's reoccupation of the southern Philippines.

Japan's Holy War

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Publisher : Duke University Press
ISBN 13 : 0822392461
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (223 download)

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Book Synopsis Japan's Holy War by : Walter Skya

Download or read book Japan's Holy War written by Walter Skya and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-03 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan’s Holy War reveals how a radical religious ideology drove the Japanese to imperial expansion and global war. Bringing to light a wealth of new information, Walter A. Skya demonstrates that whatever other motives the Japanese had for waging war in Asia and the Pacific, for many the war was the fulfillment of a religious mandate. In the early twentieth century, a fervent nationalism developed within State Shintō. This ultranationalism gained widespread military and public support and led to rampant terrorism; between 1921 and 1936 three serving and two former prime ministers were assassinated. Shintō ultranationalist societies fomented a discourse calling for the abolition of parliamentary government and unlimited Japanese expansion. Skya documents a transformation in the ideology of State Shintō in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth. He shows that within the religion, support for the German-inspired theory of constitutional monarchy that had underpinned the Meiji Constitution gave way to a theory of absolute monarchy advocated by the constitutional scholar Hozumi Yatsuka in the late 1890s. That, in turn, was superseded by a totalitarian ideology centered on the emperor: an ideology advanced by the political theorists Uesugi Shinkichi and Kakehi Katsuhiko in the 1910s and 1920s. Examining the connections between various forms of Shintō nationalism and the state, Skya demonstrates that where the Meiji oligarchs had constructed a quasi-religious, quasi-secular state, Hozumi Yatsuka desired a traditional theocratic state. Uesugi Shinkichi and Kakehi Katsuhiko went further, encouraging radical, militant forms of extreme religious nationalism. Skya suggests that the creeping democracy and secularization of Japan’s political order in the early twentieth century were the principal causes of the terrorism of the 1930s, which ultimately led to a holy war against Western civilization.

The Most Dangerous Man in America

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Author :
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465080677
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis The Most Dangerous Man in America by : Mark Perry

Download or read book The Most Dangerous Man in America written by Mark Perry and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At times, even his admirers seemed unsure of what to do with General Douglas MacArthur. Imperious, headstrong, and vain, MacArthur matched an undeniable military genius with a massive ego and a rebellious streak that often seemed to destine him for the dustbin of history. Yet despite his flaws, MacArthur is remembered as a brilliant commander whose combined-arms operation in the Pacific -- the first in the history of warfare -- secured America's triumph in World War II and changed the course of history. In The Most Dangerous Man in America, celebrated historian Mark Perry examines how this paradox of a man overcame personal and professional challenges to lead his countrymen in their darkest hour. As Perry shows, Franklin Roosevelt and a handful of MacArthur's subordinates made this feat possible, taming MacArthur, making him useful, and finally making him victorious. A gripping, authoritative biography of the Pacific Theater's most celebrated and misunderstood commander, The Most Dangerous Man in America reveals the secrets of Douglas MacArthur's success -- and the incredible efforts of the men who made it possible.

Kaempfer's Japan

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Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 9780824820664
Total Pages : 564 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (26 download)

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Book Synopsis Kaempfer's Japan by : Engelbert Kaempfer

Download or read book Kaempfer's Japan written by Engelbert Kaempfer and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1999-04-01 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Engelbert Kaempfer's History of Japan was a best-seller from the moment it was published in London in 1727. Born in Westphalia in 1651, Kaempfer traveled throughout the Near and Far East before settling in Japan as physician to the trading settlement of the Dutch East India Company at Nagasaki. During his two years residence, he made two extensive trips around Japan in 1691 and 1692, collecting, according to the British historian Boxer, "an astonishing amount of valuable and accurate information." He also learned all he could from the few Japanese who came to Deshima for instruction in the European sciences. To these observations, Kaempfer added details he had gathered from a wide reading of travelers' accounts and the reports of previous trading delegations. The result was the first scholarly study of Tokugawa Japan in the West, a work that greatly influenced the European view of Japan throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, serving as a reference for a variety of works ranging from encyclopedias to the libretto of "The Mikado." Kaempfer's work remains one of the most valuable sources for historians of the Tokugawa period. The narrative describes what no Japanese was permitted to record (the details of the shogun's castle, for example) and what no Japanese thought worthy of recording (the minutiae of everyday life). However, all previous translations of the History are flawed, being based on the work of an eighteenth-century Swiss translator or that of the German editor some fifty years later who had little knowledge of Japan and resented Kaempfer's praise of the heathen country. Beatrice Bodart-Bailey's impressive new translation of this classic, which reflects careful study of Kaempfer's original manuscript, reclaims the work for the modern reader, placing it in the context of what is currently known about Tokugawa Japan and restoring the humor and freshness of Kaempfer's observations and impressions. In Kaempfer's Japan we have, for the first time, an accurate and thoroughly readable annotated translation of Kaempfer's colorful account of pre-modern Japan.