Book Review: ‘Fallout: The Hiroshima cover-up and the reporter who revealed it to the world’

Not particularly just about the nuclear bomb itself the book is more about the covering up of both the immediate and ensuing adverse aftereffects of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima on the city’s inhabitants, the US Government’s and US Military’s propaganda and censorship to play these down, and the subsequent exposé by the WWII journalist, and author, John Hersey.

Book Review: ‘Honoured and Dishonoured Guests: Westerners in Wartime Japan’

For a subject that seems rarely to have been written about this is a welcome publication highlighting (and that is the operative term being used in this review) the experience of foreigners in Japan during WWII albeit in this review with reservations about some of the assertions it makes.

Book Review: ‘Things Remembered and Things Forgotten’ By Kyoko Nakajima

More usually a fan of non-fiction books about Japan it was with some uncertainty that this book was purchased on the back of the author’s reputation alongside a love of Japanese mystery in the vein of Studio Ghibli’s air of other-worldly imagination and incipient magic, and Kwaidan’s and Lafcadio Hearn’s tales of the Japanese supernatural.

Japan Stories それぞれの日本

A beautifully written patchwork of stories of contemporary Japan each of which focuses on and mainly revolves around one person with associated minor characters who, though obviously less important than the main character, are still intimately linked to each of the stories.

Book Review: Walking in Circles: Finding Happiness in Lost Japan. A Shikoku Memoir

For the second time in seven years Todd sets off on the 88 temple 1,400 km Pilgrim’s Trail (Shikoku Henro) around the smallest, and possibly least visited by foreign tourists, of Japan’s four principle islands; Shikoku.

Book Review: Yasuke: The True Story of the Legendary African Samurai

The remarkable life of history’s first foreign-born samurai, and his astonishing journey from Northeast Africa to the heights of Japanese society.

A quite astonishing and meticulously researched biography which isn’t written in an academic style yet is suitable for both the general reader and history buff. Thoroughly engaging it reads like a novel and really does bring Yasuke’s story to life in a way that a purely academic tome could not have done.

In the pre-amble the narrative briefly touches on the aftermath of Akechi Mitsuhide’s overthrow of his liege lord Oda Nobunaga at Honnō-ji Temple in Kyōto and, as one of Nobunaga’s loyal vassals, Yasuke’s involvement. The story, broken down into three sections; ‘Warrior’, ‘Samurai’, and ‘Legend’, then turns in ‘Warrior’ to the arrival in Japan in 1579

Book Review: A Beginners Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations

A particularly idiosyncratic book this may not suit the tastes of some but is certainly one which provokes.

There are many and often inexperienced travellers to Japan who seem to think they understand the country after just one visit. The author and commentator Pico Iyer, who has lived in Japan for more than thirty-two years, seems to ‘beg to differ’. In this enjoyable romp, through a plethora of very varied perspectives from other commentators, philosophers and writers and also from his own experience during his time there, Iyer seems to assert that even after thirty-two years he no more understands

Book Review: Tokyo Stories: A Japanese Cookbook

Tokyo Stories is a journey through the boulevards and backstreets of Tokyo via recipes both iconic and unexpected!

Though having published other books (his humorous biographical essays ‘Tune in Tokyo: The Gaijin Dairies’, his own Brixton restaurant cookbook ‘Nanban: Japanese Soul Food’, and other cookbooks of classic and modern Japanese recipes; ‘Vegan JapanEasy’ and ‘JapanEasy’) Tim Anderson first began to impact on the public consciousness in the UK with his appearance on, and winning of, ‘Masterchef’ in 2011. Since then he has gone on to work as a freelance chef, food writer and consultant and is a regular contributor on Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube, the Kitchen Cabinet on Radio 4, and has appeared on various TV programmes such as

Book Review: Midnight in Broad Daylight

A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds!

Though the title of this book is taken from Sankichi Tōge’s poem about the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima this book isn’t actually all about that event; one chapter late on in the book is dedicated to the event with its post traumatic effects on the populace, and the family in particular, covered in subsequent chapters. It is quite frankly an astonishing and incredibly moving account of one Japanese-American family’s experience of immigrant status in the USA and the effect of the Great Depression, racism, movements of various members of the family back and forth between Japan and the USA in the lead up to the Second World War, the consequences for the various members of the family in situ in both countries during

Book Review: The Forty-Seven Rōnin: The Vendetta in History

John A. Tucker presents the first comprehensive historical study of one of the most famous events in Japanese history.

Published in February 2018 this seminal work about the Forty-Seven Rōnin, one of the most famous historical tales in Japan, is probably one of the most accessible academic studies in the English language. It is very well laid out, the structure eminently logical, the referencing structure precise and the bibliography pleasantly well-stocked. Unsurprisingly, whilst Tucker does mention less reliable sources, he does not dwell on the conjectural discrepancies that arise from these, his suppositions being based on his analysis of empirical texts. There are a few black and white illustrations ranging from location and portrait photographs through to reproductions of illustrations both

Book Review: Eat Sleep Sit: My Year at Japan’s Most Rigorous Zen Temple

By Kaoru Nonomura – Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter.

For anyone who has ever considered becoming a Zen monk this account is a serious wake up call to the rigours that novitiates at Eiheiji Temple in Fukui Prefecture, one of two main temples of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, have to endure.

Founded by Dōgen in 1244 its claim that Dōgen was in residence at Eiheiji tends to outshine its rival Sōjiji, the other main Sōtō school of Zen with which it tends to compete, which is located in Tsurumi near Tōkyō, though in spite of the ‘rivalry’ those undergoing zuise training to complete their

Book Review: This Great Stage of Fools – An anthology of uncollected writings

Written by Alan Booth. Edited by Timothy Harris with an afterword by Karel van Wolferen.

It is a testament to Alan Booth’s skill as a writer that he is regarded by Japanophiles as one of the pre-eminent commentators on Japan and Japanese culture (though a culture far removed from Japan’s city environs). This even though only two of his books about Japan became mainstream publications, ‘The Roads to Sata: A 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan’ (1985) and, posthumously (Booth passed away in 1993), ‘Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan’ (1995). *

‘This Great Stage of Fools’ is a comprehensive collection of his journalistic articles. Initial impressions were good and as this review progressed it became increasingly apparent that the

Book Review: The Way Of Whisky By Dave Broom – Photography By Kohei Take

‘Renowned whisky expert Dave Broom has been visiting Japan’s distilleries for the past 17 years and is recognised as a leading commentator on this fascinating whisky style… …Dave investigates what makes Japanese whisky Japanese, the secret of ‘Whisky-do’.’ (Octopus)

The first impression on seeing this book, even without opening it, was expensive coffee table book. At a glance it is beautifully put together with stunning photography by Kohei Take. Thankfully, on reading the Introduction it becomes obvious it’s so much more than that. It’s the Introduction that nails the aim of the book and it’s surprisingly close to a Buddhist concept, that of seeing the universe in a sheet of paper (what the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh calls ‘Clouds in Each Paper’) except in this case it’s applied to Japanese whisky. It’s in this typically Japanese approach, highlighted by Glaswegian whisky expert Broom’s analysis, that there is so much more involved than just the brewing process; an in

Book Review: On the Tracks of 007 – You Only Live Twice 50th Anniversary Guide to Japan

Go on an exciting journey from Tokyo to Kagoshima, revisiting all the filming locations used in You Only Live Twice!

“Go on an exciting journey from Tokyo to Kagoshima, revisiting all the filming locations used in You Only Live Twice. From Osato Chemicals HQ to Tiger Tanaka’s countryside house, from Blofeld’s volcano base to the remote shrine where Bond married Kissy. An action packed adventure!” (Rear Cover)

Written by Martijn Mulder (author of “On the tracks of 007”), who, according to his Twitter account, is a writer – musician – traveller – historian – photographer living in Holland (sic) this is the field guide to film locations in Japan for the film ‘You Only Live Twice’ published to mark the 50^th anniversary of the release of the film.

Book Review: Unbeaten Tracks In Japan By Isabella Bird

A remarkable contribution to the world of explorative literature of early modern Japan!

An interesting and charming read though interspersed throughout with comments, occasionally outrageous (e.g. ‘The Japanese have a perfect passion for children, but it is not good for European children to be much with them, as they corrupt their morals, and teach them to tell lies’), that illustrate stereotypical Victorian based attitudes and prejudicial perceptions towards the Japanese in a relatively undiscovered (at the time) country. Isabella Bird frequently exhibits a patronising pseudo-proselytising attitude towards the lower classes, cites their ‘national defects of concave chest and bow legs’, and refers to them as

Book Review: Ghosts Of The Tsunami: Death And Life In Japan’s Disaster Zone

A deeply moving book by Richard Lloyd Parry!

At 2.46pm Japan time on the 11th March 2011 a 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the Pacific coast of Tohoku. The earthquake moved Japan’s main island of Honshu 2.4 meters further east, moved the earth on its axis by between 10 – 25 cm, and at the time dropped Honshu’s Pacific coast by around one meter. It triggered massive tsunamis, some of which were up to 40.5 meters (133 feet) in height, some of which travelled up to 10km (6 miles) inland.

As is pointed out in the book it wasn’t the earthquake which caused most of the damage; most of Japan’s physical infrastructure is built to

Book Review: ‘The Meaning of Rice: And Other Tales from the Belly of Japan’ by Michael Booth

Michael Booth and his family embark on an epic journey the length of Japan to explore its dazzling food culture.

If this book were food it would have deep umami undertones. Michael Booth has written yet another intriguing account of food, cooking and Japanese cuisine in Japan as an accompaniment to his earlier and just as his readable companion piece ‘Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know about Cooking’; a main course to his earlier amuse-bouche.

We re-join him ten years after his first book on a return trip to Japan with his family to explore some of the elements of Japanese cuisine left unexplored a decade earlier. Though at first not as liberally sprinkled with the tongue in cheek humour as ‘Sushi and Beyond’ Booth warms to his

Book Review: Another Kyoto By Alex Kerr With Kathy Arlyn Sokol

An enchanting and fascinating insight into Japanese landscape, culture, history and future!

Almost a follow up to his ‘Lost Japan’ the book is a written record of conversations between Alex Kerr and his colleague and friend the author Kathy Arlyn Sokol on their visits to various sites around Kyōto. As Kerr points out the various sections delve into and expound three major influences; South East Asia, China and Japan. It takes an “off the beaten path” look at what he has seen many times before, picking up on the details that usually go unnoticed when visiting temples and shrines. More casual in style than Kerr’s previous publications his chatty style makes this guide very accessible even if the information that it contains is much more

Book Review: Samurai Trails By Lucian Swift Kirtland

A chronicle of wanderings on the Japanese high road!

Originally published in 1918 by George H. Doran in NY and Hodder and Stoughton in London, two articles relating to the book entitled ‘On Foot Through Japan’ and ‘Adventures at the Bottle Inn’ by the same author were also published in the January and February 1918 editions of Harper Monthly magazine. Though this book has since been made available by a variety of publishers this review is based on the most recent Toyo Press publication in 2017.

The husband of the WWI photographer Helen Johns Kirtland (1890-1979), Lucian Swift Kirtland (1881-1965), a scion of the very prominent Kirtland family of Poland, Ohio (originally the