history japan

Hardcover. NY, Columbia University, 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket, 300 pages. Book from 1980, being one of the most influential works of Japanese history and political theory. With its glorification of Japan's system of imperial succession, the author's 14th century tract became the catechism of loyalty to the throne for generations of Japanese. Beginning with recounting of Japan's divine origins, it tells of the early deities who ruled before heaven and earth were separated. Then the lives of the human sovereigns are chronicled who ruled over Japan in the 21 centuries following the founding of the empire in the year 606 BC. This first complete English translation of this landmark work gives an extensive introduction placing the chronicle in the context of 14th century Japan and exploring its powerful legacy of Japan before the Tokugawa period. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Washington DC, Potomac Books, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 166 pages. The attack on Pearl Harbor is one of the most perplexing cases in living memory of a weaker power seeming to believe that it could vanquish a clearly superior force. On closer inspection, however, Record finds that Japan did not believe it could win; yet, the Japanese imperial command decided to attack the United States anyway. Conventional explanations that Japan's leaders were criminally stupid, wildly deluded, or just plumb crazy don't fully answer all our questions, Record finds. Instead, he argues, the Japanese were driven by an insatiable appetite for national glory and economic security via the conquest of East Asia. The scope of their ambitions and their fear of economic destruction overwhelmed their knowledge that the likelihood of winning was slim and propelled them into a war they were always going to lose. Clean copy.

Softcover. Annapolis MD, Naval Institute Press, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 343 pages, b&w illustrations. This remarkable memoir tells the compelling story of the near-mythic British district officer who helped shape the first great Allied counteroffensive. Scottish-born and Cambridge-educated, Martin Clemens managed to survive months behind Japanese lines in one of the most unfriendly climates and terrains in the world. Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. Philadelphia, Casemate Publishers, reprint, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 226 pages, b&w illustrations. With his parting words "I shall return", General Douglas MacArthur sealed the fate of the last American forces on Bataan. Yet one young Army Captain named Russell Volckmann refused to surrender. He disappeared into the jungles of north Luzon where he raised a Filipino army of over 22,000 men. For the next three years he led a guerrilla war against the Japanese, killing over 50,000 enemy soldiers. At the same time he established radio contact with MacArthur?s HQ in Australia and directed Allied forces to key enemy positions. When General Yamashita finally surrendered, he made his initial overtures not to MacArthur, but to Volckmann. This book establishes how Volckmann's leadership was critical to the outcome of the war in the Philippines. Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. Millerton, Aperture Magazine, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 80 pages. Magazine. Illustrated with black & white photographs. Features articles: 'People and Ideas', 'Real Pictures for just 25 cents', 'The Arctic Voyage of William Bradford', 'Views of Japan', 'Photographer without Photographs', Passion for Genius', 'The Peasant Miners of Morococha'. Light wear. Clean, unmarked.

Hardcover. North Clarendon, VT, Tuttle Publishing, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 176 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket edges. A tight copy. Color photographs throughout.

Hardcover. New York, Ridge Press/Macmillan, 1st, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 251 pages. Illustrated with full color photographs. price clipped dust jacket shows standard wear. Clean, tight copy. Bil Baird, a master puppeteer of our time, recounts the history of his art, from its remotest yesterday to its bright and promising tomorrow. Along the way, he examines the famous and outrageous Mr. Punch, the raucous Karaghioz, the noble knights of the Orlando legend, the lovely shadow plays of Asia, the unique Bunraku puppets of Japan, and the exciting developments in today's puppetry around the world. To which we would like to add: There has never been any book to compare with this one. It remains the classic text on the history of puppetry around the world. It has dozens of amazing photographs, and a very lucid text written by one of the great master puppeteers of our time.

Hardcover. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, 478 pages. Name on half-title page, otherwise clean.

Softcover. Mechanicsburg PA, Stackpole Books, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 194 pages, b&w illustrations. This is a fascinating account of Australia's M/Z commando unit and the part it played in the Southwest Pacific during World War II. M Unit personnel were secretly landed to set up coast-watching posts and radio stations to monitor Japanese shipping movements and bombing flights. Members of the Z Unit carried out raids in enemy-controlled areas and also attacked targets of opportunity. Many commandos were delivered on their missions by U.S. Navy submarines that sneaked into dangerously shallow waters to put the men ashore. Other operatives were inserted by PT boats, Catalina aircraft, parachute, and snake boats. Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. Annapolis MD, Naval Institute Press, 1st pbk, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 325 pages, b&w illustrations. Author Edward S. Miller contends in this work that the United States forced Japan into international bankruptcy to deter its aggression. While researching newly declassified records of the Treasury and Federal Reserve, Miller, a retired chief financial executive of a Fortune 500 resources corporation, uncovered just how much money mattered. Washington experts confidently predicted that the war in China would bankrupt Japan, not knowing that the Japanese government had a huge cache of dollars fraudulently hidden in New York. Once discovered, Japan scrambled to extract the money. But, Miller explains, in July 1941 President Roosevelt invoked a long-forgotten clause of the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 to freeze Japan's dollars and forbade it to sell its hoard of gold to the U.S. Treasury, the only open gold market after 1939. Roosevelt s temporary gambit to bring Japan to its senses, not its knees, was thwarted, however, by opportunistic bureaucrats. Dean Acheson, his handpicked administrator, slyly maneuvered to deny Japan the dollars needed to buy oil and other resources for war and for economic survival. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 128 pages. Francoise Mouly takes us behind the scenes at the New Yorker and reveals how the magazine creates its signature covers commenting on the most urgent political and cultural events of the day. She shows the shocking and hilarious sketches that didn't make the cut and explains how these are essential stages in the evolution of a cover that stands the test of time but retains its edge. Her book captures contemporary history--from the farce of Monica Lewinsky to the adventures of Michelle and Barack to nuclear meltdown in Japan--in images that are as acute as they are outrageous. More than that, it shows how the magazine that exemplifies journalistic excellence in America also dares to cultivate a sense of humor when grappling with complex moral and political issues.

Hardcover. Salt Lake City, Gibbs Smith, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 229 pages, profusely illustrated in b&w. In "Building with Nature: Inspiration for the Arts & Crafts Home" Freudenheim weaves together the lives and philosophies of William Morris, John Ruskin, Frederick Law Olmsted, John Muir, Greene & Greene, Irving Gill, Bernard Maybeck, and others with the dramatic economic, social, design and cultural changes that took place in America between 1876 and 1916. Chronicling both intellectual theory and architectural history, this ground-breaking book will appeal to general readers as well as to those enthusiastic about the Arts and Crafts Movement, its architecture and furniture. Freudenheim demonstrates how the "simple life" manifested in the rustic architecture found in Yosemite, English cottages, Japanese barns, and Swiss chalets, became the basis for the design of the American Arts and Crafts home advocated by these pioneering thinkers. Their devotion to simplicity for both the interior and exterior design of these houses also helps to explain why they embraced plain, sturdy Mission Style furniture. Freudenheim points out how numerous individuals, both American and British, helped spread these ideas across America.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's Press, 1st US, 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, olive green boards, gilt lettering on spine. Illustrated with B&W plates and maps; Large 8vo 9' - 10' tall; 686 pages; 'Allen's work deals primarily with the human elements of the forgotten war waged between the doomed empires of Great Britain and Japan in Southeast Asia between 1941 and 1945. The author's familiarity with Japanese sources enables him to strike a balance unusual in Western accounts. Allen's Japanese are as much prisoners of their culture as the British are of theirs. They are victims of incompetent command and inadequate logistics. They do not want to die, but their ready acceptance of death lends a special horror to Allen's descriptions of some of the century's most vicious fighting.' Clean bright copy, no dust jacket.

Softcover. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Asia Center, 1st pbk, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in pictorial wrappers, 445 pages, b&w illustrations. In China Made, Karl Gerth argues that two key forces shaping the modern world-nationalism and consumerism-developed in tandem in China. Early in the twentieth century, nationalism branded every commodity as either "Chinese" or "foreign," and consumer culture became the place where the notion of nationality was articulated, institutionalized, and practiced. Based on Chinese, Japanese, and English-language archives, magazines, newspapers, and books, this first exploration of the historical ties between nationalism and consumerism reinterprets fundamental aspects of modern Chinese history and suggests ways of discerning such ties in all modern nations. Clean copy.

Softcover. Mechanicsburg PA, Stackpole Books, 1st pbk, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 218 pages, b&w illustrations. From their perches on islands such as Buka and Bougainville, coast watchers -- for the most part, Australian civilians -- monitored Japanese shipping and aircraft activity. They played a pivotal role during the battle for Guadalcanal in the fall of 1942, when their intelligence facilitated the interception and destruction of twelve Japanese transports. These reports from the participants themselves provide a fascinating account that will intrigue historians as well as World War II and espionage buffs. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Tokyo, Kodansha, 1st, 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 187 pages. Large format. Illustrated with full color and black & white examples of of fine contemporary prints from Japan. Dust jacket shows wear with dime sized chunk missing at top of spine and piece missing at bottom left corner of rear flap. Clean, tight copy. May require additional postage. "Contemporary Japanese Prints" is a fine, beautifully printed folio book--just the way art books should be. Written by a key art historian and critic as well as museum director, it serves as an excellent and eye-opening overview of just what the straightforward title indicates, artistic prints by Japanese artists then currently active as of 1967. Kawakita's introduction is clear and concise but properly informative, defining this art form's general characteristics and then outlining its modern history, starting with its rise in the early twentieth century. Contrary to what one might expect, these prints are almost totally unrelated to Japan's rather famous ukiyo-e prints of the early modern period, these modern "hanga" instead representing the creative vision and artistic labor of one individual artist. And well, a picture's worth a thousand words, so the bulk of the book presents a selection of 150 prints by 119 artists--47 color plates and 103 monochrome plates.

Hardcover. UK, Cambridge University Press, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 407 pages. Color and b&w illustrations. Details the history of cotton and how it has impacted the textile and garment trade. Today's world textile and garment trade is valued at a staggering $425 billion. We are told that under the pressure of increasing globalisation, it is India and China that are the new world manufacturing powerhouses. However, this is not a new phenomenon: until the industrial revolution, Asia manufactured great quantities of colorful printed cottons that were sold to places as far afield as Japan, West Africa and Europe. Cotton explores this earlier globalized economy and its transformation after 1750 as cotton led the way in the industrialization of Europe. By the early nineteenth century, India, China and the Ottoman Empire switched from world producers to buyers of European cotton textiles, a position that they retained for over two hundred years. This is a fascinating and insightful story which ranges from Asian and European technologies and African slavery to cotton plantations in the Americas and consumer desires across the globe. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 267 pages, b&w photos. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. This book examines the often-neglected role played by immigrant artists and critics in the circle of Alfred Stieglitz, including Japanese-German author Sadakichi Hartmann, Mexican-born caricaturist Marius de Zayas and English Sri-Lankan curator Ananda Coomaraswamy, as well as better-known U.S.-born painters, including Arthur Dove and Georgia O'Keeffe.

Hardcover. Tokyo, Sophia University, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 87 pages. INSCRIBED BY GEORGE M. WILSON ON FRONT ENDPAPER. Black boards, cream cloth spine with gilt titles, white dust jacket with illustration. Price-clipped, slight rubbing to dust jacket, pages crisp and unmarked; overall, a very clean, tight copy in great condition.

Hardcover. Long Beach CA, Long Beach Museum of Art, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover with a nice dust jacket. Since 1970, Mizuno's work has evolved from functional dinnerware to abstract sculptural forms, from playful and humorous trompe l'oeil plates to richly layered sculpture informed by his evocative personal history, paralleling the development of the ceramics field itself in the late 20th century as it evolved from functional forms to a medium of full artistic expression. The exhibition is the first major museum exhibition to survey the work of this artist whose superbly crafted works, while firmly grounded in the traditions of the ceramic arts, extend to new forms in clay that defy traditional categories. This exhibition catalogue designed by Takaaki Matsumoto includes a forward, interview with the artist, a biography and exhibition history, and the exhibition checklist of 48 artworks. The exhibition and publication trace the work of this Japanese-born, Los Angeles-based ceramist from 1971 through 2003. Interview of the artist by Deborah McLeod, foreword by Museum Director Harold Nelson Format: hardcover Dimensions: 8-1/2 x 6-1/4 inches, 96 pages plus cover / 51 color plates. in conjunction with the exhibition of the same title at the Long Beach Museum of Art November 18, 2005 through January 15, 2006.

Hardcover. Long Beach CA, Long Beach Museum of Art, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 95 pages, illustrated with 45 color plates. Like new in publisher's shrinkwrap. Since 1970, Mizuno's work has evolved from functional dinnerware to abstract sculptural forms, from playful and humorous trompe l'oeil plates to richly layered sculpture informed by his evocative personal history, paralleling the development of the ceramics field itself in the late 20th century as it evolved from functional forms to a medium of full artistic expression. The exhibition is the first major museum exhibition to survey the work of this artist whose superbly crafted works, while firmly grounded in the traditions of the ceramic arts, extend to new forms in clay that defy traditional categories. This exhibition catalogue designed by Takaaki Matsumoto includes a forward, interview with the artist, a biography and exhibition history, and the exhibition checklist of 48 artworks. The exhibition and publication trace the work of this Japanese-born, Los Angeles-based ceramist from 1971 through 2003. ISBN 0-97127772-3-0 Published by the Long Beach Museum of Art Interview of the artist by Deborah McLeod, foreword by Museum Director Harold Nelson Format: hardcover Dimensions: 8-1/2 x 6-1/4 inches 96 page plus cover / 51 color plates.

Hardcover. NY/London, Faber & Faber, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. 304 pages. This is the first of two titles by the Manic Street Preachers' bassist and lyricist, Nicky Wire. For more than twenty years and from Blackwood, Wales to Tokyo, Japan, Nicky Wire has kept a personal visual history of the band in their various stages from "Generation Terrorists" through "Holy Bible" and right up to last year's remarkable album, "Postcards from a Young Man". Edited down from over 1,000 of Wire's personal polaroid's and with accompanying text by the man himself, "Death of The Polaroid" promises to be a rich, visual biography of one of the most loved and iconoclastic British bands of the past two decades.

Hardcover. NY/London, Faber & Faber, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. 304 pages. This is the first of two titles by the Manic Street Preachers' bassist and lyricist, Nicky Wire. For more than twenty years and from Blackwood, Wales to Tokyo, Japan, Nicky Wire has kept a personal visual history of the band in their various stages from "Generation Terrorists" through "Holy Bible" and right up to last year's remarkable album, "Postcards from a Young Man". Edited down from over 1,000 of Wire's personal polaroid's and with accompanying text by the man himself, "Death of The Polaroid" promises to be a rich, visual biography of one of the most loved and iconoclastic British bands of the past two decades.

Hardcover. Philadelphia, Chilton Company, 2nd pr., 1959, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcver in a bright, unclipped dust jacket with $4.95 on the flap. This is the fascinating story of a naval squadron, a study in depth and in action of DesRon-23, of Arleigh Burke's tremendously significant doctrine of faith, and of the mystique which it produced to make this the greatest destroyer squadron in the history of the U. S. Navy. Included are authentic, minute-by-minute details, the scalp-tingling stories of the slashing naval battles of Tassafaronga, Savo Island, Rmpress Augusta Bay, and Cape St. George , battles fought against the Japanese in World War II. ' ... Six pages of maps. Index. Mild wear to dj, clean copy.