In this groundbreaking study of a subject intricately tied up with the controversies of Japanese wartime politics and propaganda, Maki Kaneko reexamines the iconic male figures created by artists of yōga (Western-style painting) between 1930 and 1950. Particular attention is given to prominent yōga painters such as Fujita Tsuguharu, Yasui Sōtarō, Matsumoto Shunsuke, and Yamashita Kiyoshi—all of whom achieved fame for their images of men either during or after the Asia-Pacific War. By closely investigating the representation of male figures together with the contemporary politics of gender, race, and the body, this profusely illustrated volume offers new insight into artists’ activities in late Imperial Japan. Rather than adhering to the previously held model of unilateral control governing the Japanese Empire’s visual regime, the author proposes a more complex analysis of the role of Japanese male artists and how art functioned during an era of international turmoil.

New York Times Bestseller: A “virtually faultless” account of the last weeks of WWII in the Pacific from both Japanese and American perspectives (The New York Times Book Review). By midsummer 1945, Japan had long since lost the war in the Pacific. The people were not told the truth, and neither was the emperor. Japanese generals, admirals, and statesmen knew, but only a handful of leaders were willing to accept defeat. Most were bent on fighting the Allies until the last Japanese soldier died and the last city burned to the ground. Exhaustively researched and vividly told, The Fall of Japan masterfully chronicles the dramatic events that brought an end to the Pacific War and forced a once-mighty military nation to surrender unconditionally. From the ferocious fighting on Okinawa to the all-but-impossible mission to drop the 2nd atom bomb, and from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s White House to the Tokyo bunker where tearful Japanese leaders first told the emperor the truth, William Craig captures the pivotal events of the war with spellbinding authority. The Fall of Japan brings to life both celebrated and lesser-known historical figures, including Admiral Takijiro Onishi, the brash commander who drew up the Yamamoto plan for the attack on Pearl Harbor and inspired the death cult of kamikaze pilots., This astonishing account ranks alongside Cornelius Ryan’s The Longest Day and John Toland’s The Rising Sun as a masterpiece of World War II history.

This volume is a history of the Japanese drive for the conquest of Greater East Asia. It includes an account of the Malayan campaign and the Fall of Singapore, followed by an outline of the dominant features of the campaign in S E Asia and the Pacific and ending with the attack on Japan and the unconditional surrender. As a prisoner in Tokyo, the author was able to observe the reactions of the people and the government to the bombing of Japan, and by revealing their overwhelming defeat, to dispose of the fiction that surrender was brought about by two atomic bombs. The outstanding value of the work is its analysis of the fundamental problems of Japan.

This collection of essays challenges the notion that Japan's present cultural identity is the simple legacy of its pre-modern and insular past. Scholars examine "age-old" Japanese cultural practices and show these to be largely creations of the modern era.

Mini-set F: Philosophy & Religion re-issues 4 volumes originally published between 1926 and 1967. For institutional purchases for e-book sets please contact [email protected] (customers in the UK, Europe and Rest of World)

His research is the first of its kind to treat propaganda as a profession in wartime Japan.The Thought War will be important for not only students of Japanese history and culture but also those interested in comparative studies of World War II and the increasingly popular propaganda studies of the United States, Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, and the United Kingdom."--BOOK JACKET.

Edited with an Introduction by Richard Storry. First published over 20 years ago and long out of print, this is a unique interpretation of the essence of Japanese society and individual psychology.