As I’ve stated many times, there’s long been a blind spot about the Asian Theater of World War II. You can stack the books written about Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan side by side, the former would dwarf the latter. When books do appear about Japan during World War II, they are usually about the front in the Pacific, or, less often, in the Chinese and Burma theaters. A notable exception is Japan At War: An Oral History. However, Osprey Publishing has recently released The Japanese Home Front 1937 – 1945, which aims to help fill that gap.
Showing posts with label Asian history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asian history. Show all posts
Sunday, 5 September 2021
Saturday, 5 September 2020
When the Red Gates Opened: A Memoir of China's Reawakening
The 1980s was a period of rapid change and economic growth for China. In 1979, paramount leader Deng Xiaoping opened special economic zones in southern China, experimenting with market capitalism. Dori Jones Yang, a reporter for BusinessWeek, saw China’s rise in the 1980s and has recorded it for her memoir When The Red Gates Opened.
Thursday, 6 August 2020
Japan's Asian Allies - A Look at the Collaborationist Regimes of World War II
Compared to Nazi Germany, the Japanese Empire during World War
II receives little to no coverage in Western media. Even more obscure, are the
many puppet regimes that aided the Japanese occupation throughout Asia,
spanning from the far north in Manchuria to the south in Burma and the Philippines.
Luckily, Osprey publishing has come to the rescue with their newest edition to the Men At Arms series titled Japan’s Asian Allies 1941 – 45.
Sunday, 5 July 2020
The Bitter Peace by Philip S. Jowett - Conflict in China 1928-1937
Chinese history has long been ignored in the West, but a few
spotlights do shine out from time to time on certain events, even if only to provide superficial understanding. These usually point to the Opium Wars, the Boxer Rebellion, and, recently,
the Sino-Japanese War. However, there is a small window of time in Chinese
history that contained multiple smaller wars, which has almost been completely
ignored by Western scholars. This brief era is what The Bitter Peace – Conflict
in China 1928-37 by Philip S. Jowett illuminates.
Friday, 5 June 2020
Golden Kamuy Volumes 1-5 - A Shonen Manga of Adventure and History
Golden Kamuy by Satoru Noda is a shonen manga
series that covers a wide range of genres – adventure, war, political intrigue,
comedy, and thrillers. Set shortly after the Russo-Japanese War (1904 – 1905)
it follows Saichi Sugimoto, a veteran of the conflict, and his quest for a
legendary stash of gold hidden in Hokkaido, the most northern of Japan’s main
islands. While fighting at the vicious Battle of Port Arthur, he earned the
nickname “Immortal Sugimoto,” given his almost legendary ability to avoid
death, which he keeps throughout the remainder of this series.
Sunday, 3 May 2020
Japan's Greatest Victory, Britain's Worst Defeat - A Memoir of the Battle of Singapore
It’s often said “history is written by the victors,” and this
only half true. While the narrative of World War II is definitely constructed from
the Allied lens, this does not mean that the vanquished were unable to tell their
stories. German officers and soldiers pumped out volumes of memoirs during the
postwar years, many of which were consumed voraciously by readers in America and
Britain. Japanese memoirs were more sparse, at least regarding translations
that made it to the West. One notable exception was Masanobu Tsuji’s memoir Japan’s
Greatest Victory, Britain’s Worst Defeat.
Saturday, 4 April 2020
Osprey's Japanese Armies 1868 - 1877 - The Boshin War and Satsuma Rebellion
Osprey Publishing has
become synonymous (in my mind at least) for quality research into
military history of all time periods, throughout the world. It should come as
no surprise that I immediately picked up Osprey's latest title Japanese
Armies 1868 - 1877 by Gabriele Esposito and illustrated by Giuseppe Rave, which
covers the Boshin War and Satsuma Rebellion.
Wednesday, 18 March 2020
The Day The Music Died: Elaine Chiew Sits Down With Fairoz Ahmad
Fairoz Ahmad is the co-founder of the award-winning social enterprise, Chapter W. For his work with the community, he was awarded the National University of Singapore's Outstanding Young Alumni award and United Kingdom's Commonwealth Point of Light award. He also lectures in sociology and community development at Temasek Polytechnic. Fairoz graduated from the University of Oxford with a Master of Public Policy (Distinction) under the Chevening-Oxford scholarship. His book, Interpreter of Winds, was published by Ethos Books in 2019. The book is a reflection of his experiences and observations growing up Muslim in a world too busy, too distracted, to understand one another.
Book Synopsis:
Often an unnoticed caress on our faces, winds are voiceless and formless. How do we interpret them? What mysteries can we find in the whispers of winds? From a Dutch occupied Java where a witch was murdered, a dog who desires to be a Muslim, to a day in which all sense of music is lost, the mundane is aflame with the uncanny.
In these stories, Fairoz Ahmad invites you to take a closer look at ordinary objects, as they take on a life of their own and spin gossamer threads. This book is a celebration of the little charms and enchantments of our universes amidst struggles and eventual helplessness.
Thursday, 13 February 2020
Japanese Destroyer Captain - A Memoir of The Pacific War
Japanese Destroyer Captain is the postwar memoir of Tameichi
Hara, a Japanese Navy officer who earned the nickname the “Miracle Captain.” He
is one of the only Japanese captains to have survived the entire Pacific War
from its beginning in 1941 to its end in 1945. Of the 175 destroyers the
Imperial Navy possessed during World War II, 129 were sunk.
Monday, 3 June 2019
Eminent Historian Professor Wang Gungwu converses with Elaine Chiew on his autobiography, Home Is Not Here
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Photo courtesy of NUS Press |
From the book jacket:
Wang Gungwu is one of Asia’s most important public intellectuals. He is best-known for his explorations of Chinese history in the long view, and for his writings on the Chinese diaspora. With Home Is Not Here, the historian of grand themes turns to a single life history: his own.
In this volume, Wang talks about his multi-cultural upbringing and life under British rule. He was born in Surabaya, Java, but his parents’ orientation was always to China. Wang grew up in the plural, multi-ethnic town of Ipoh, Malaya (now Malaysia). He learned English in colonial schools and was taught the Confucian classics at home. After the end of WWII and the Japanese occupation, he left for the National Central University in Nanjing to study alongside some of the finest of his generation of Chinese undergraduates. The victory of Mao Zedong’s Communist Party interrupted his education, and he ends this volume with his return to Malaya.
Wise and moving, this is a fascinating reflection on family, identity and belonging, and on the ability of the individual to find a place amid the historical currents that have shaped Asia and the world.
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