This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s words, "a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened - muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox." In weaving together the historical facts and human drama leading up to and culminating in the war in the Pacific, Toland crafts a riveting and unbiased narrative history. Read more

The powerful and riveting new audiobook 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 listeners 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 pause-resistant 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. Read more

The classic portrayal of court life in tenth-century Japan Written by the court gentlewoman Sei Shonagon, ostensibly for her own amusement, The Pillow Book offers a fascinating exploration of life among the nobility at the height of the Heian period, describing the exquisite pleasures of a confined world in which poetry, love, fashion, and whim dominated, while harsh reality was kept firmly at a distance. Moving elegantly across a wide range of themes including nature, society, and her own flirtations, Sei Shonagon provides a witty and intimate window on a woman's life at court in classical Japan.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. Read more

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As Dog Man opens, Martha Sherrill brings us to a world that Americans know very little about---the snow country of Japan during World War II. In a mountain village, we meet Morie Sawataishi, a fierce individualist who has chosen to break the law by keeping an Akita dog hidden in a shed on his property. During the war, the magnificent and intensely loyal Japanese hunting dogs are donated to help the war effort, eaten, or used to make fur vests for the military. By the time of the Japanese surrender in 1945, there are only sixteen Akitas left in the country. The survival of the breed becomes Morie's passion and life, almost a spiritual calling.Devoted to the dogs, Morie is forever changed. His life becomes radically unconventional---almost preposterous---in ultra-ambitious, conformist Japan. For the dogs, Morie passes up promotions, bigger houses, and prestigious engineering jobs in Tokyo. Instead, he raises a family with his young wife, Kitako---a sheltered urban sophisticate---in Japan's remote and forbidding snow country.Their village is isolated, but interesting characters are always dropping by---dog buddies, in-laws from Tokyo, and a barefoot hunter who lives in the wild. Due in part to Morie's perseverance and passion, the Akita breed strengthens and becomes wildly popular, sometimes selling for millions of yen. Yet Morie won't sell his spectacular dogs. He only likes to give them away.Morie and Kitako remain in the snow country today, living in the traditional Japanese cottage they designed together more than thirty years ago---with tatami mats, an overhanging roof, a deep bathtub, and no central heat. At ninety-four years old, Morie still raises and trains the Akita dogs that have come to symbolize his life.In beautiful prose that is a joy to read, Sherrill opens up the world of the Dog Man and his wife, providing a profound look at what it is to be an individualist in a culture that reveres conformity--and what it means to live... Read more

A Voice from the Ashes: One Man’s Testament of Faith, Science, and Survival After the Atomic BombOn August 9, 1945, the atomic bomb reduced Nagasaki to dust. Amid the devastation, one man stood at the intersection of catastrophe and conscience—Dr. Takashi Nagai. The Bells of Nagasaki is his unforgettable account of what it meant to survive the unthinkable, serve the wounded, and find meaning beyond the ruins.This newly translated edition brings Dr. Nagai’s timeless message to an international audience in powerful, accessible English—capturing the raw emotion, poetic insight, and spiritual depth of a man who endured the worst of war and yet spoke only of peace.✓ First-hand account of the Nagasaki atomic bombing by a survivor, doctor, and scientist✓ Blends powerful eyewitness testimony with philosophical and spiritual reflection✓ For readers of Hiroshima by John Hersey, Night by Elie Wiesel, and Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl✓ Includes historical insights into nuclear warfare, radiation medicine, and post-war Japan✓ Written with haunting beauty and moral clarity—an enduring voice against the violence of warDr. Nagai, a pioneer in radiology and a Catholic convert, was critically injured in the blast. Yet instead of retreating into silence, he poured his final years into writing this soul-stirring chronicle of tragedy, resilience, and hope. He speaks not in anger but in prayer. Not in bitterness but in grace. His words echo with urgency today in a world still armed with nuclear power—and still in search of peace.Whether you are a student of history, a seeker of spiritual truth, or simply a lover of courageous memoirs, The Bells of Nagasaki is more than a book. It is a testimony. A reckoning. A prayer.A true story you will never forget.A warning we must never ignore.A hope that still rings true.Scroll up and order your copy now. Let the voice of Nagasaki speak to your heart—before the world forgets. Read more

The comprehensive and accurate edition of the Hagakure is a must-have for serious martial artists or fans of samurai and the bushido code. The Hagakure is one of the most influential of all Japanese texts—written nearly 300 years ago by Yamamoto Tsunetomo to summarize the very essence of the Japanese Samurai bushido ("warrior") spirit. Its influence has been felt throughout the world, and yet its existence is scarcely known to many Westerners. This is the first translation to include the complete first two books of the Hagakure and the most reliable and authentic passages contained within the third book; all other English translations published previously have been fragmentary and incomplete.Alex Bennett's wholly new and highly readable translation of this essential work includes extensive footnotes that serve to fill in many cultural and historical gaps in the previous translations. This unique combination of readability and scholarship gives Hagakure: The Secret Wisdom of the Samurai a distinct advantage over all previous English editions. Read more

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author John Hersey's seminal work of narrative nonfiction which has defined the way we think about nuclear warfare.  “One of the great classics of the war" (The New Republic) that tells what happened in Hiroshima during World War II through the memories of the survivors of the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city."The perspective [Hiroshima] offers from the bomb’s actual victims is the mandatory counterpart to any Oppenheimer viewing." —GQ Magazine   “Nothing can be said about this book that can equal what the book has to say. It speaks for itself, and in an unforgettable way, for humanity.” —The New York Times   Hiroshima is the story of six human beings who lived through the greatest single manmade disaster in history. John Hersey tells what these six -- a clerk, a widowed seamstress, a physician, a Methodist minister, a young surgeon, and a German Catholic priest -- were doing at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, when Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city. Then he follows the course of their lives hour by hour, day by day.The New Yorker of August 31, 1946, devoted all its space to this story. The immediate repercussions were vast: newspapers here and abroad reprinted it; during evening half-hours it was read over the network of the American Broadcasting Company; leading editorials were devoted to it in uncounted newspapers.Almost four decades after the original publication of this celebrated book John Hersey went back to Hiroshima in search of the people whose stories he had told. His account of what he discovered about them -- the variety of ways in which they responded to the past and went on with their lives -- is now the eloquent and moving final chapter of Hiroshima. Read more

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Dive into this “truly compelling” (Good Morning America) New York Times bestseller that explores how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war—from the creator and host of the podcast Revisionist History. In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history.   Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the “Bomber Mafia,” asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal?     In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks, “Was it worth it?”   Things might have gone differently had LeMay’s predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge. Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. The Bomber Mafia is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war. Read more

The Wars for Asia, 1911–1949 shows that the Western treatment of World War II, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War as separate events misrepresents their overlapping connections and causes. The long Chinese Civil War precipitated a long regional war between China and Japan that went global in 1941 when the Chinese found themselves fighting a civil war within a regional war within an overarching global war. The global war that consumed Western attentions resulted from Japan's peripheral strategy to cut foreign aid to China by attacking Pearl Harbor and Western interests throughout the Pacific on December 7–8, 1941. S. C. M. Paine emphasizes the fears and ambitions of Japan, China, and Russia, and the pivotal decisions that set them on a collision course in the 1920s and 1930s. The resulting wars – the Chinese Civil War (1911–1949), the Second Sino-Japanese War (1931–1945), and World War II (1939–1945) – together yielded a viscerally anti-Japanese and unified Communist China, the still-angry rising power of the early twenty-first century. While these events are history in the West, they live on in Japan and especially China. Read more

Japan’s Invisible Rules—Exposed!Why This Country Runs on Social Sorcery (And How to Survive It)Did you know…95% of lost wallets are returned with cash still inside (yes, even in Tokyo).Escalators have sides: Stand left in Tokyo, right in Osaka—get it wrong, and you’ll spark a silent civil war.Vending machines sell fresh eggs, hot ramen, and used underwear (¥500, Akihabara—don’t ask).Trash cans vanished overnight in 1995… and Japan became the cleanest country on Earth.Shinkansen delays average 0.9 seconds (yes, seconds). A train once apologized for leaving 20 seconds early.This book answers burning questions like:Why do Japanese people say “it’s difficult” when they mean “HELL NO”?How did a tissue packet become the ultimate café seat reservation?Why do salarymen nap at work (and get praised for it)?What’s the secret hand signal to dodge a nomikai drinking session?Inside, you’ll uncover:The “No High-Fives” Rule: Why a simple hand slap baffles locals.Toilet Slipper Espionage: Mistake these for flip-flops, and you’ll traumatize a grandma.The ¥10,000 Test: How a cash-stuffed wallet survived 3 days on a Tokyo train (and what it reveals about trust).Real-Life Fails You’ll Avoid:The tourist who stabbed sushi with chopsticks and summoned a funeral ritual.The expat who hugged their boss and triggered a HR crisis.The influencer who danced past midnight and nearly got arrested (thanks, obscure 1950s law!).This Book Is For You If:You’ve ever wondered why Japan feels like a polite dystopia (robot priests, anyone?).You want to stop being “that gaijin” who accidentally offends 10 people before breakfast.You’re obsessed with why Japan works (hint: it’s not just anime and robots).Praise for The Invisible Rules:“I used to think Japan was just sushi and temples. This book blew my mind. Now I judge tourists who block escalators.”— Emma T., Recovering Clueless Gaijin“Half travel guide, half cultural thriller. I laughed, I cringed, I learned to never stick chopsticks in rice.”— Liam R., Japan YouTuberWarning: Reading may result in…Secretly judging loud tourists.Bowing to vending machines.An unhealthy obsession with trash-sorting.Open this book. Crack the code. Japan will never look the same.Design Notes to Hook Readers:Bold Visual Contrast: Black background with neon-red Japanese text (e.g., “マナー” [manners] fading into “秘密” [secrets]).Icon Explosion: Tiny illustrations of chopsticks 🥢, trains 🚅, and trash bins 🗑️ breaking up text.Teaser Factoids in Margins:“There’s a KitKat flavor for every prefecture. (Try the wasabi one—we dare you.)”“Dancing after midnight? Illegal until 2016. Yes, really.”This version hits readers with shocking facts, humor, and FOMO (fear of missing out) on Japan’s hidden logic. It’s not just a guide—it’s a backstage pass to the world’s most fascinating social operating system. 🚀🗾 Read more

This is a riveting and disturbing account of the medical atrocities performed in China during WWII.Some of the cruelest deeds of Japan's war in Asia did not occur on the battlefield, but in quiet, antiseptic medical wards in obscure parts of China. Far from front lines and prying eyes, Japanese doctors and their assistants subjected human guinea pigs to gruesome medical experiments in the name of science and Japan's wartime chemical and biological warfare research.Author Hal Gold draws upon a wealth of sources to construct a portrait of the Imperial Japanese Army's most notorious medical unit, giving an overview of its history and detailing its most shocking activities. The book presents the words of former unit members themselves, taken from remarks they made at a traveling Unit 731 exhibition held in Japan in 1994-95. They recount vivid first-hand memories of what it was like to take part in horrific experiments on men, women and children, their motivations and reasons why they chose to speak about their actions all these years later.A new foreword by historian Yuma Totani examines the actions of Unit 731, the post-war response by the Allies and the lasting importance of the book. Japan's Infamous Unit 731 represents an essential addition to the growing body of literature on the still unfolding story of some of the most infamous war crimes in modem military history. By showing how the ethics of normal men and women, and even an entire profession, can be warped by the fire of war, this important book offers a window on a time of human madness and the hope that history will not be repeated. Read more

Title: The Bells of Nagasaki – The Life and Legacy of Takashi NagaiOn August 9, 1945, the city of Nagasaki was consumed by fire, its people devastated by the atomic bomb. Yet, from the ruins, one man stood as a beacon of hope—Dr. Takashi Nagai, a scientist, physician, and man of deep faith.Once a skeptic, Takashi’s journey led him to Christianity, where he found profound meaning in both science and faith. As a doctor, he witnessed suffering firsthand, but nothing could prepare him for the horrors of that fateful day. Losing his beloved wife, Midori, and suffering from terminal radiation sickness, he could have given in to despair. Instead, he devoted his final years to healing—both bodies and souls—through his writings, prayers, and tireless advocacy for peace.In The Bells of Nagasaki, discover the powerful true story of a man who turned unimaginable tragedy into a message of love, forgiveness, and resilience. Through his moving words and unwavering faith, Takashi Nagai’s legacy continues to inspire generations.This book is perfect for readers interested in:✅ True stories of faith and survival✅ World War II history from a Japanese perspective✅ The intersection of science and Christianity✅ Biographies of inspiring Catholic figures✅ Messages of peace and hopeJoin the journey of a man who found light in the darkest of times. His story is not just history—it is a call to faith, love, and reconciliation.Are you ready to be inspired? Read more

The culmination of 25 years of research, Alex Bennett's groundbreaking English translation of Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings reveals the true meaning of the original work. Plus, definitive translations of five more known works of Musashi! This piece of writing by famed samurai Musashi (1584-1645) is the single-most influential work on samurai swordsmanship, offering insights into samurai history, the Zen Buddhist state of "no-mind" that enables warriors to triumph and the philosophical meaning of Bushido—"the way of the warrior."Until now, English translations of The Book of Five Rings have been based on inaccurate copies of Musashi's long-lost original manuscript. Bennett's translation is the first to be based on a careful reconstruction of the original text by Japan's foremost Musashi scholar. By identifying discrepancies among the existing copies, adding missing texts and correcting over 150 incorrect characters, this source is the closest representation of Musashi's original work possible. Utilizing this new source, Bennett captures the subtle nuance of the classic Japanese text, resulting in the most accurate English translation of The Book of Five Rings availableEnjoy complete, richly annotated translations of Musashi's most-known works:The Book of Five Rings Mirror on the Way of CombatNotes on Combat StrategyCombat Strategy in 35 ArticlesThe Five-Direction Sword PathwaysThe Path Walked AloneThe texts are richly annotated by Bennett, who includes an extensive introduction on Musashi's life and legacy. This paperback edition also includes a new introduction by Kendo Kyoshi 7th Dan Graham Sayer, who talks about the influence Musashi's writings have had on him as a person and martial artist.The Complete Musashi: The Book of Five Rings and Other Works will be widely read by those interested in Japanese culture, Samurai history and martial arts—setting a new standard against which all other translations will be measured. Read more

An updated version of the seminal 1994 classic volume on the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. Every book with "wabi" or "wabi sabi" in the title is based on the concepts first elucidated in this book. Read more

The New York Times bestselling account of one of history's most brutal—and forgotten—massacres, when the Japanese army destroyed China's capital city on the eve of World War II, "piecing together the abundant eyewitness reports into an undeniable tapestry of horror". (Adam Hochschild, Salon) In December 1937, one of the most horrific atrocities in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking (what was then the capital of China), and within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered. In this seminal work, Iris Chang, whose own grandparents barely escaped the massacre, tells this history from three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers, that of the Chinese, and that of a group of Westerners who refused to abandon the city and created a safety zone, which saved almost 300,000 Chinese. Drawing on extensive interviews with survivors and documents brought to light for the first time, Iris Chang's classic book is the definitive history of this horrifying episode. Read more

"In an understated performance, Simon Vance details one of the stunning tragedies arising from the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011...Vance's steady pacing, crisp enunciation, and careful inflection enhance the weight of the story, which moves between reportage and interviews, and ultimately reveals unsettling truths about this particular disaster." — AudioFile Magazine Masterfully narrated by Simon Vance, winner of 14 Audie Awards and 61 Earphone Awards, comes the heartbreaking true story of a natural disaster and the resilience of Japan. the definitive account of what happened, why, and above all how it felt, when catastrophe hit Japan—by the Japan correspondent of The Times (London) and author of People Who Eat Darkness On March 11, 2011, a powerful earthquake sent a 120-foot-high tsunami smashing into the coast of northeast Japan. By the time the sea retreated, more than eighteen thousand people had been crushed, burned to death, or drowned. It was Japan’s greatest single loss of life since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. It set off a national crisis and the meltdown of a nuclear power plant. And even after the immediate emergency had abated, the trauma of the disaster continued to express itself in bizarre and mysterious ways. Richard Lloyd Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, lived through the earthquake in Tokyo and spent six years reporting from the disaster zone. There he encountered stories of ghosts and hauntings, and met a priest who exorcised the spirits of the dead. And he found himself drawn back again and again to a village that had suffered the greatest loss of all, a community tormented by unbearable mysteries of its own. What really happened to the local children as they waited in the schoolyard in the moments before the tsunami? Why did their teachers not evacuate them to safety? And why was the unbearable truth being so stubbornly covered up?Ghosts of the Tsunami is a soon-to-be classic intimate account of an epic tragedy, told through the accounts of those who lived through it. It tells the story of how a nation faced a catastrophe, and the struggle to find consolation in the ruins. Read more

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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for Nonfiction Finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize and the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book PrizeEmbracing Defeat is John W. Dower's brilliant examination of Japan in the immediate, shattering aftermath of World War II.Drawing on a vast range of Japanese sources and illustrated with dozens of astonishing documentary photographs, Embracing Defeat is the fullest and most important history of the more than six years of American occupation, which affected every level of Japanese society, often in ways neither side could anticipate. Dower, whom Stephen E. Ambrose has called "America's foremost historian of the Second World War in the Pacific," gives us the rich and turbulent interplay between West and East, the victor and the vanquished, in a way never before attempted, from top-level manipulations concerning the fate of Emperor Hirohito to the hopes and fears of men and women in every walk of life. Already regarded as the benchmark in its field, Embracing Defeat is a work of colossal scholarship and history of the very first order. 75 illustrations and map Read more