A History of Modern Japan

The rise, fall, and renaissance of Japan, within the space of less than a hundred years, is one of the most curious and dramatic stories of our time. This history begins by describing the historical background to Japan's emergence as a modern state in the 1860s. It then discusses in detail the stages of Japan's advance as a world power up to the tragedy of the Pacific War. This struggle and its aftermath - the Occupation - are vividly described and analysed. The last chapter, bringing the account up to the 1960s, is a fascinating study of the Japan that came into being following the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951.