"Japan and China have been rivals for more than a millennium. Until the late nineteenth century, China was the more powerful, while Japan took the upper hand in the twentieth century. Now, China's resurgence has emboldened it as Japan perceives itself falling behind, exacerbating long-standing historical frictions ... Dreyer argues that recent disputes should be seen as manifestations of embedded rivalries rather than as issues whose resolution would provide a lasting solution to deep-standing disputes"--Jacket.

During the first half of the 20th Century, the former Czarist Russia and then the former Soviet Union, and the Empire of Japan fought a series of undeclared wars in the Far East. The first of these, fought 1904-1905 over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea, ended in a clear-cut Japanese victory. Following the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, in 1931, Japan turned its interest to nearby Soviet territories. The result was a series of border incidents - starting with the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938. Maintaining that the border between their proxy-state, Manchukuo, and the Soviet-dominated Mongolian People's Republic was the Khalkhyn Gol (or Khalkha River), the Japanese deployed some of best units of their army to occupy and secure this area. Following a military build-up, a series of bitter clashes took place mid-May and June 1939, after which the Japanese launched an all-out assault in July. Due to heavy casualties, the battle resulted in a stalemate. Concerned about the possibility of facing a two-front war, the Soviets reacted with a major counter-offensive, in August 1939, and defeated the Japanese. While little known in the West, this short but bitter war - known as Nomohan Incident in Japan, or the Battle of Khalkhyn Gol in the Soviet Union - was a crucial overture for the subsequent World War II. Having secured its border in the Far East, the Soviet Union was free to concentrate on war in Europe. Although continuing to underestimate their opponents, the Japanese introduced a major reform of their army. Furthermore, after realizing the massive material disparity vis- -vis the former USSR, Tokyo joined the Axis with Nazi Germany and Italy.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes this riveting thriller of corporate intrigue and cutthroat competition between American and Japanese business interests. “As well built a thrill machine as a suspense novel can be.”—The New York Times Book Review On the forty-fifth floor of the Nakamoto tower in downtown Los Angeles—the new American headquarters of the immense Japanese conglomerate—a grand opening celebration is in full swing. On the forty-sixth floor, in an empty conference room, the corpse of a beautiful young woman is discovered. The investigation immediately becomes a headlong chase through a twisting maze of industrial intrigue, a no-holds-barred conflict in which control of a vital American technology is the fiercely coveted prize—and in which the Japanese saying “Business is war” takes on a terrifying reality. “A grand maze of plot twists . . . Crichton’s gift for spinning a timely yarn is going to be enough, once again, to serve a current tenant of the bestseller list with an eviction notice.”—New York Daily News “The action in Rising Sun unfolds at a breathless pace.”—Business Week

Winner of the Northern California Book Award for Nonfiction "Both a serious work of history…and a marvelously readable dramatic narrative." —San Francisco Chronicle On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss, a blow that destroyed the offensive power of their fleet. Pacific Crucible—through a dramatic narrative relying predominantly on primary sources and eyewitness accounts of heroism and sacrifice from both navies—tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history to seize the strategic initiative.

The powerful and riveting new book in the multimillion-selling Killing series by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard Autumn 1944. World War II is nearly over in Europe but is escalating in the Pacific, where American soldiers face an opponent who will go to any length to avoid defeat. The Japanese army follows the samurai code of Bushido, stipulating that surrender is a form of dishonor. Killing the Rising Sun takes readers to the bloody tropical-island battlefields of Peleliu and Iwo Jima and to the embattled Philippines, where General Douglas MacArthur has made a triumphant return and is plotting a full-scale invasion of Japan. Across the globe in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team of scientists are preparing to test the deadliest weapon known to mankind. In Washington, DC, FDR dies in office and Harry Truman ascends to the presidency, only to face the most important political decision in history: whether to use that weapon. And in Tokyo, Emperor Hirohito, who is considered a deity by his subjects, refuses to surrender, despite a massive and mounting death toll. Told in the same page-turning style of Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, Killing Jesus, Killing Patton, and Killing Reagan, this epic saga details the final moments of World War II like never before.

This fascinating history tells the story of the people of Japan, from ancient teenage priest-queens to teeming hordes of salarymen, a nation that once sought to conquer China, yet also shut itself away for two centuries in self-imposed seclusion. First revealed to Westerners in the chronicles of Marco Polo, Japan was a legendary faraway land defended by a fearsome Kamikaze storm and ruled by a divine sovereign. It was the terminus of the Silk Road, the furthest end of the known world, a fertile source of inspiration for European artists, and an enduring symbol of the mysterious East. In recent times, it has become a powerhouse of global industry, a nexus of popular culture, and a harbinger of post-industrial decline. With intelligence and wit, author Jonathan Clements blends documentary and storytelling styles to connect the past, present and future of Japan, and in broad yet detailed strokes reveals a country of paradoxes: a modern nation steeped in ancient traditions; a democracy with an emperor as head of state; a famously safe society built on 108 volcanoes resting on the world's most active earthquake zone; a fast-paced urban and technologically advanced country whose land consists predominantly of mountains and forests. Among the chapters in this Japanese history book are: The Way of the Gods: Prehistoric and Mythical Japan A Game of Thrones: Minamoto vs. Taira Time Warp: 200 Years of Isolation The Stench of Butter: Restoration and Modernization The New Breed: The Japanese Miracle

During the Second World War, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) suffered one of its greatest defeats in Burma. Both in Malaya and Burma, the bulk of the British Commonwealth forces comprised Indian units. Few people know that by 1944, about 70 percent of the Allied ground personnel in Burma was composed of soldiers of the Indian Army. The Indian Army comprised British-led Indian units, British officered units of the Indian princely states and the British units attached to the Government of India. Based on the archival materials collected from India and the United Kingdom, Sepoys against the Rising Sun assesses the combat/military/battlefield effectiveness of the Indian Army against the IJA during World War II. The volume is focussed on the tactical innovations and organizational adaptations which enabled the sepoys to overcome the Japanese in the trying terrain of Burma.

This book is about Americans not of Japanese ancestry, who served as Japanese language officers in World War II. Covering the period 1940-1945, it describes their selection, training, and service in the Navy and Marine Corps during the war and their contributions to maintenance of good relations between America and Japan thereafter. It argues that their service as “code breakers” and combat interpreters hastened victory and that their cross-cultural experience and linguistic knowledge facilitated the successful dismantling of the Japanese Empire and the peaceful occupation of Japan. The book shows how the war changed relations between the Navy and academia, transformed the lives of these 1200 men and women, and set onetime enemies on course to enduring friendship. Its purpose is twofold: to reveal an exciting and hitherto unknown aspect of the Pacific War and to demonstrate the enduring importance of linguistic and cross-cultural knowledge within America’s armed forces in war and peace alike.The book is meant for the general reader interested in World War II, as well as academic specialists and other persons particularly interested in that conflict. It will also appeal to readers with an interest in America’s intelligence establishment and to those interested in Japan and its relations with the United States. This history tells and exciting and previously unknown story of men and women whose brains and devotion to duty enabled them to learn an extraordinarily difficult language and use it in combat and ashore to hasten Japan’s defeat and transformation from enemy to friend of America.

"The Russo-Japanese War and the peace conference that followed it at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, marked a turning point in the history of both participants and reshaped the future of East Asia and the world. Mediated by President Theodore Roosevelt (for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize), the 1905 Portsmouth Conference brought to an end one of the largest and most important wars in modern history, one in which Japan won spectacular victories on land and sea. But the peace settlement fell far short of public expectations in Japan. As a consequence of the treaty, Japan gained supremacy in Korea and a sphere of influence in South Manchuria, but overall the treaty reflected the military stalemate that had come about in Manchuria. Roosevelt wanted a balance of power to emerge from the war, and his hope was realized in the peace process"--Jacket.