History - Asia (East, SE, South): Japan and Korea
Catalog Searches for Japan
Here are some sample searches in our catalog for subjects related to Japan. You can limit it to online resources by clicking on the check box next to "Full Text Online" on the left side of the screen and then clicking "Apply Filter." If you are looking for articles, use some of these search terms in one of our Databases.
Catalog Searches for Korea
Here are some sample searches in our catalog for subjects related to Korea. You can limit it to online resources by clicking on the check box next to "Full Text Online" on the left side of the screen and then clicking "Apply Filter." If you are looking for articles, use some of these search terms in one of our Databases.
Reading List for History 107: Korea and Japan
Here are some sample titles of books we have in the library. Some of them are available as ebooks and some are only available as print -- please check the format at the top of the item description.
Ninja: 1,000 years of the shadow warrior by Blends mythology and anthropology to trace the history of the warriors with extraordinary skills in combat, climbing, deception, disguise, and camouflage from their first appearance in feudal Japan to the present.
Escape from Camp 14 by Shin Dong-hyuk was born inside Camp 14, one of five sprawling political prisons in the mountains of North Korea. This is the gripping, terrifying story of his escape from this no-exit prison - to freedom in South Korea.
The Impossible State: North Korea, past and future by Looks at the nation of North Korea, its history, social conditions, and place in world politics as it stands today and where it is likely to end up in the future.
North Korea: beyond charismatic politics by This timely, path breaking study of North Korea's political history and culture sheds invaluable light on the country's unique leadership continuity and succession.
Crisis on the Korean Peninsula by Christoph Bluth presents an in-depth analytical account of North Korea's development from a Soviet satellite to a failed state in the post-Cold War period.
The Korean War: a history by As Cumings eloquently explains, for the Asian world the Korean War was a generations-long fight filled with untold stories of bloody insurgencies and rebellions, massacres and atrocities. He incisively ties America's current foreign policy back to this remarkably violent war that killed as many as four million Koreans, two thirds of whom were civilians.
To Kill a Tiger: a memoir of Korea by Against the backdrop of modern Korea's violent and tumultuous history, To Kill A Tiger relates not only one woman's story, but also an ancient people's journey into the modern, globalized world. Drawing on Korean legend and myth, as well as an Asian woman's unique perspective on the United States, Lee has written a searing portrait of a woman and a society in the midst of violent change.
The Darkest Summer: Pusan and Inchon 1950: the battles that saved South Korea--and the Marines--from extinction by Sloan recounts the dramatic first three months of the Korean War, when South Korea was saved from Communism's conquest.
The Hidden People of North Korea: everyday life in the hermit kingdom by This unique book provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of life in North Korea today. In vivid detail, the authors describe how the secretive and authoritarian government of Kim Jong-il shapes every aspect of its citizens' lives, how the command socialist economy has utterly failed, and how ordinary individuals struggle to survive through small-scale capitalism.
Nothing to Envy: ordinary lives in North Korea by Follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years, a chaotic period that saw the rise to power of Kim Jong Il and the devastation of a famine that killed one-fifth of the population, illustrating what it means to live under the most repressive totalitarian regime today.
Handbook of Japanese Mythology by Provides an introduction to the mythology of Japan, viewing the myths in their social, historical, and cultural context.
Japan Rising: the resurgence of Japanese power and purpose by Kenneth B. Pyle explores the remarkable history of Japan's shifting foreign policy over the last 150 years. He identifies the common threads that bind the divergent strategies of modern Japan, arguing that few countries in recent history have been as responsive to the forces of the international environment.
The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by Halberstam gives us a full narrative of the political decisions and miscalculations on both sides, charting the disastrous path that led to the massive entry of Chinese forces near the Yalu, and that caught Douglas MacArthur and his soldiers by surprise.
Liquid Jade: the story of tea from east to west by Traveling from East to West over thousands of years, tea has played a variety of roles on the world scene--in medicine, politics, the arts, culture, and religion. Behind this most serene of beverages, idolized by poets and revered in spiritual practices, lie stories of treachery, violence, smuggling, drug trade, international espionage, slavery, and revolution.
Everlasting Flower: a history of Korea by Keith Pratt describes Korea's common heritage from the ancient states of Old Choson and Wiman Choson, to the present relics of Cold War politics. He describes the physical and cultural landscape in which this history unfolds, dealing with religious identities and social aspects as well as more controversial issues such as torture.
Blossoms in the Wind: the human legacy of the Kamikaze by In the last days of World War II, the Japanese unleashed a new breed of warrior, the kamikaze--idealistic young men believing there could be no greater glory than to sacrifice their lives in suicide attacks to defend their homeland. But what of those men who took the sacred oath to die in battle--and lived?
Music in Japan: experiencing music, expressing culture by Music in Japan offers a vivid introduction to the music of contemporary Japan, a nation in which traditional, Western, and popular music thrive side by side. Packaged with an 80-minute CD containing examples of the music discussed in the book, it features guided listening and hands-on activities that encourage readers to engage actively and critically with the music.
A Plague upon Humanity: the secret genocide of Axis Japan's germ warfare operation by In wartime Japan's bid for conquest, a hidden genocide took the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Cloaked in secrecy and protected under the banner of scientific study, the best and brightest of Japan's medical establishment volunteered for a major initiative in support of the military that involved the systematic murder of Chinese civilians. With the help of the United States government, they were allowed to get away with it.
Samurai William: the Englishman who opened Japan by In 1611, the merchants of London's East India Company received a mysterious letter from Japan, written several years previously by a marooned English mariner named William Adams. Foreigners had been denied access to Japan for centuries, yet Adams had been living in this unknown land for years. He had risen to the highest levels in the ruling shogun's court, taken a Japanese name, and was now offering his services as adviser and interpreter. Seven adventurers were sent to Japan with orders to find and befriend Adams, in the belief that he held the key to exploiting the opulent riches of this forbidden land.
The Great Wave: gilded age misfits, Japanese eccentrics, and the opening of old Japan by In The great wave, Benfey tells the story of the tightly knit group of nineteenth-century travelers--connoisseurs, collectors, and scientists--who dedicated themselves to exploring and preserving Old Japan. These travelers include Herman Melville, Henry Adams, John La Farge, Lafcadio Hearn, Mabel Loomis Todd, Edward Sylvester Morse, Percival Lowell, and President Theodore Roosevelt.
The Rising Sun: the decline and fall of the Japanese empire, 1936-1945 by This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the viewpoint of the Japanese.
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism by Original enlightenment thought (hongaku shiso) dominated Buddhist intellectual circles throughout Japan's medieval period. Enlightenment, this discourse claims, is neither a goal to be achieved nor a potential to be realized but the true status of all things.
From Imperial Myth to Democracy: Japan's two constitutions, 1889-2002 by Lawrence W. Beer and John M. Maki contrast Japan's two modern-era constitutions - the Meiji Constitution of 1889 and the Showa Constitution of 1947 - and present them as key to understanding differences in Japanese society and politics before and after World War II.
Emperor of Japan: Meiji and his world, 1852-1912 by When Emperor Meiji began his rule in 1867, Japan was a splintered empire, dominated by the shogun and the daimyos, who ruled over the country's more than 250 decentralized domains and who were, in the main, cut off from the outside world, staunchly anti-foreign, and committed to the traditions of the past. Before long, the shogun surrendered to the emperor, a new constitution was adopted, and Japan emerged as a modern, industrialized state.
Japanese Religions by This text provides a succinct and balanced overview of Japanese religions. Michiko Yusa covers both major and minor Japanese beliefs including: Shinto, Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism.
Japan, a modern history by Chronicles the history of modern Japan from the Tokugawa Ieyasu's investiture as shogun in the Fushimi Castle in 1603 to the cultural and societal changes which occurred in the twentieth century.
The World Turned Upside Down by In this remarkable portrait of a complex period in Japanese history, Pierre F. Sonyri uses a wide variety of sources -- ranging from legal and historical texts to artistic and literary works -- to form a magisterial overview of medieval Japanese society.
Perpetual Happiness by Perpetual Happiness will captivate all who enjoy historical biography, and will be of interest to specialists in history and Asian studies.
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by A biography of the Japanese emperor reveals a powerful man who successfully cultivated an image of a reluctant king while manipulating important events behind the scenes for five decades.
Traditional Japanese Music and Musical Instruments by Accompanying CD contains examples of Japanese music performed by various performers.
Nanking: anatomy of an atrocity by Drawing on English, Chinese, and Japanese sources, this study challenges the prevailing view that the Rape of Nanking was a deliberate, planned effort on the part of the Japanese military and concludes that it was instead an unfortunate tragedy of conventional warfare.
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the wake of World War II by Drawing on a vast range of Japanese sources and illustrated with dozens of documentary photographs, Embracing Defeat is history of the more than six years of American occupation which affected every level of Japanese society.
The Gates of Power : monks, courtiers, and warriors in premodern Japan by The political influence of temples in pre-modern Japan, most clearly manifested in divine demonstrations, has traditionally been condemned and is poorly understood. In an examination of this intriguing aspect of medieval Japan, Mikael Adolphson employs a wide range of previously neglected sources to argue that religious protest was a symptom of political factionalism in the capital rather than its cause.
Comfort Women: sexual slavery in the Japanese military during World War II by This is the definitive account, available for the first time in English, of sexual slavery in the Japanese military during World War II.
Zen Buddhist Landscape Arts of Early Muromachi Japan (1336-1573) by Examining inscriptions on landscape paintings and related documents, this book explores the views of the "two jewels" of Japanese Zen literature, Gido Shushin (1325-1388) and Zekkai Chushin (1336-1405), and their students.
The Rape of Nanking: the forgotten holocaust of World War II by Relates an account of the 1937 massacre of 250,000 Chinese civilians in Nanking by the invading Japanese military, a carnage for which the Japanese government has never admitted responsibility.
Edo Culture: daily life and diversions in urban Japan, 1600-1868 by Edo Culture presents a selection of Nishiyama's writings that serves not only to provide an excellent introduction to Tokugawa cultural history but also to fill many gaps in our knowledge of the daily life and diversions of the urban populace of the time.
The Emergence of Japanese Kingship by This is the first comprehensive study of the sources and nature of classical Japanese kingship and state formation.
Hidden Horrors: Japanese war crimes in World War II by This book documents previously hidden Japanese atrocities in World War II, including cannibalism; the slaughter and starvation of prisoners of war; the rape, enforced prostitution, and murder of noncombatants; and biological warfare experiments.
Japanese Wartime Empire, 1931-1945 by These essays seek to illuminate some of the more significant processes and institutions during the period when the empire was at war: the creation of a Japanese-dominated East Asian economic bloc centered in northeast Asia, the mobilization of human and physical resources in the older established areas of Japanese colonial rule, and the penetration and occupation of Southeast Asia.
The Abacus and the Sword by Duus analyzes Japan's acquisition of Korea, the largest and most populous of its colonial possessions, as the result of two separate but interlinked processes, one political/military and the other economic.
The comfort women : Japan's brutal regime of enforced prostitution in the Second World War by The Comfort Women is an account of a shameful aspect of Japanese society and psychology. It is also an exploration of Japanese racial and gender politics. Above all else, The Comfort Women allows the victims of this unacknowledged war crime to tell their own stories powerfully and poignantly, to speak of their shame and the full magnitude and brutality of the system.
Eloquent Zen by Zen master Daito (1282-1337) played a leading role in the transmission of Zen (Ch'an) from China to Japan. He founded Daitokuji, a major monastery that has been influential for centuries, and he provided interpretations of Chinese texts. In Eloquent Zen Kenneth Kraft offers the first comprehensive account of the life and teachings of one of the greatest of Japan's Zen masters.
Tokugawa Japan: the social and economic antecedents of modern Japan by Based on: Shinpojūmu "Edo Jidai to Kindaika." Edo jidai to kindaika, 1986.
Shintō and the state, 1868-1988 by Explores church/state question in Japan. Focuses on the ordinary people whose lives are affected by the ongoing struggle of the Japanese to define their national character and policy.
The Hiroshima maidens : a story of courage, compassion, and survival by ISBN: 9780140083521
Japan's Modern Myths: ideology in the late Meiji period by Ideology played a momentous role in modern Japanese history. Not only did the elite of imperial Japan (1890-1945) work hard to influence the people to "yield as the grasses before the wind," but historians of modern Japan later identified these efforts as one of the underlying pathologies of World War II. This study examines how this ideology evolved.
Zen and Japanese Culture by ISBN: cover artOne of this century's leading works on Zen, this book is a valuable source for those wishing to understand its concepts in the context of Japanese life and art. In simple, often poetic, language, Daisetz Suzuki describes what Zen is, how it evolved, and how its emphasis on primitive simplicity and self-effacement have helped to shape an aesthetics found throughout Japanese culture.
The Mayor of Aihara by ISBN: 9780520258587Publication Date: 2009-07-13The life of the mayor of a Japanese Village, 1865-1925.
Current Events in Japan and Korea
This is a list of recent headlines about Korea and China as discovered by Google News. Click on the links to read the news stories or look for more news stories on China in Google News.
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Japanese Music
Hear traditional Japanese musical instruments, and learn about their history. From the companion website for the PBS documentary: "Japan, Memoirs of a Secret Empire." Check out the DVD at PCC Library.