Download or read book Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun written by Rhoda Blumberg and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1853, few Japanese people knew that a country called America even existed. For centuries, Japan had isolated itself from the outside world by refusing to trade with other countries and even refusing to help shipwrecked sailors, foreign or Japanese. The country's people still lived under a feudal system like that of Europe in the Middle Ages. But everything began to change when American Commodore Perry and his troops sailed to the Land of the Rising Sun, bringing with them new science and technology, and a new way of life.
Download or read book Yankees in the Land of the Gods written by Peter Booth Wiley and published by Viking. This book was released on 1990 with total page 602 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Breaking Open Japan written by George Feifer and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-07-02 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On July 14, 1853, the four warships of America's East Asia Squadron made for Kurihama, 30 miles south of the Japanese capital, then called Edo. It had come to pry open Japan after her two and a half centuries of isolation and nearly a decade of intense planning by Matthew Perry, the squadron commander. The spoils of the recent Mexican Spanish–American War had whetted a powerful American appetite for using her soaring wealth and power for commercial and political advantage. Perry's cloaking of imperial impulse in humanitarian purpose was fully matched by Japanese self–deception. High among the country's articles of faith was certainty of its protection by heavenly power. A distinguished Japanese scholar argued in 1811 that "Japanese differ completely from and are superior to the peoples of...all other countries of the world." So began one of history's greatest political and cultural clashes. In Breaking Open Japan, George Feifer makes this drama new and relevant for today. At its heart were two formidable men: Perry and Lord Masahiro Abe, the political mastermind and real authority behind the Emperor and the Shogun. Feifer gives us a fascinating account of "sealed off" Japan and shows that Perry's aggressive handling of his mission had far reaching consequences for Japan – and the United States – well into the twentieth if not twenty–first century.
Download or read book Stranger in the Shogun s City written by Amy Stanley and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography* *Winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award* *Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography* A “captivating” (The Washington Post) work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman during the first half of the 19th century in Edo—the city that would become Tokyo—and a portrait of a city on the brink of a momentous encounter with the West. The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village and was expected to live a traditional life much like her mother’s. But after three divorces—and a temperament much too strong-willed for her family’s approval—she ran away to make a life for herself in one of the largest cities in the world: Edo, a bustling metropolis at its peak. With Tsuneno as our guide, we experience the drama and excitement of Edo just prior to the arrival of American Commodore Perry’s fleet, which transformed Japan. During this pivotal moment in Japanese history, Tsuneno bounces from tenement to tenement, marries a masterless samurai, and eventually enters the service of a famous city magistrate. Tsuneno’s life provides a window into 19th-century Japanese culture—and a rare view of an extraordinary woman who sacrificed her family and her reputation to make a new life for herself, in defiance of social conventions. “A compelling story, traced with meticulous detail and told with exquisite sympathy” (The Wall Street Journal), Stranger in the Shogun’s City is “a vivid, polyphonic portrait of life in 19th-century Japan [that] evokes the Shogun era with panache and insight” (National Review of Books).
Download or read book Native American in the Land of the Shogun written by Frederik L. Schodt and published by Stone Bridge Press, Inc.. This book was released on 2003 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "MacDonald helped "crack the seal" on Japan. He gave American officials hints on how to impress the Japanese, and equipped Japanese officials with tools for understanding the intruders. His life was, and is, a bridge between wildly different cultures, races, and eras."
Download or read book The Making of Modern Japan written by Marius B. Jansen and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 933 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magisterial in vision, sweeping in scope, this monumental work presents a seamless account of Japanese society during the modern era, from 1600 to the present. A distillation of more than fifty years’ engagement with Japan and its history, it is the crowning work of our leading interpreter of the modern Japanese experience. Since 1600 Japan has undergone three periods of wrenching social and institutional change, following the imposition of hegemonic order on feudal society by the Tokugawa shogun; the opening of Japan’s ports by Commodore Perry; and defeat in World War II. The Making of Modern Japan charts these changes: the social engineering begun with the founding of the shogunate in 1600, the emergence of village and castle towns with consumer populations, and the diffusion of samurai values in the culture. Marius Jansen covers the making of the modern state, the adaptation of Western models, growing international trade, the broadening opportunity in Japanese society with industrialization, and the postwar occupation reforms imposed by General MacArthur. Throughout, the book gives voice to the individuals and views that have shaped the actions and beliefs of the Japanese, with writers, artists, and thinkers, as well as political leaders given their due. The story this book tells, though marked by profound changes, is also one of remarkable consistency, in which continuities outweigh upheavals in the development of society, and successive waves of outside influence have only served to strengthen a sense of what is unique and native to Japanese experience. The Making of Modern Japan takes us to the core of this experience as it illuminates one of the contemporary world’s most compelling transformations.
Download or read book The Perry Expedition and the Opening of Japan to the West 1853 1873 written by Paul Hendrix Clark and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 2020-04-01 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the time U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry's squadron of four ships sailed into Tokyo Bay on July 8, 1853, the Japanese Tokugawa government had already fended off similarly unwelcome intrusions by the French, the Russians, the Dutch, and the British. These Western imperialists had the power and the means to force Japan into the kinds of treaties that would effectively spell the end of Japan’s autonomy, maybe even its existence as an independent country. At the same moment, Japan was also grappling with a serious insurrection, the death of an emperor, and the death of a shogun—as well as with a series of natural disasters and associated famines. The Japanese response to this incredible series of catastrophes would permanently alter the balance of geopolitical power around the world. Drawing on the best recent scholarship, this short introductory volume examines the motivations and maneuvers of the major participants in the conflict and sets the "opening" of Japan in the context of broader global history. Selections from twenty-nine primary sources provide firsthand accounts of the event from a variety of perspectives. Several illustrations are also included, along with a note on historiographic interpretation.
Download or read book Black Ships Off Japan written by Arthur Walworth and published by Walworth Press. This book was released on 2007-03-01 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
Download or read book The Last Shogun written by Ryotaro Shiba and published by Vertical Inc. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Ryotaro Shiba's account of the life of Japan's last shogun, Perry's arrival off the coast of Japan was merely the spark that ignited the cataclysm in store for the Japanese people and their governments. It came to its real climax with the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, the event which forms the centerpiece of this book. The Meiji Restoration—as history calls it—toppled the shogunate, and brought a seventeen-year-old boy emperor back from the secluded Imperial Palace in Kyoto to preside over what amounted to a political and cultural revolution. With this, Japan's extraordinary self-modernization began in earnest. Coming to power just as the Tokugawa regime was suffering the worst military defeat in its history, Yoshinobu strongly suspected that the rule of the Tokugawas—the third and longest lived of Japan's three warrior governments - was swiftly becoming an anachronism. During a year of frenetic activity, he overhauled the military systems, reorganized the civil administration, promoted industrial development, and expanded foreign intercourse, with the farsighted aim of creating a unified Japan. Alarmed by these reforms, pro-imperial interests moved against him, precipitating the Boshin Civil War and the final defeat of the shogunal armies. To the surprise of his enemies, Yoshinobu capitulated. It was this surrender of authority at a crucial point that made the transfer of sovereignty relatively peaceful. He then retired to Mito and lived quietly for the rest of his life, studying the new art of photography. Ennobled a prince in the new European-style nobility of the Meiji era, he died in 1913.
Download or read book Yankees in the Land of the Gods written by Peter Booth Wiley and published by Penguin Mass Market. This book was released on 1991 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book With Perry to Japan written by Wilhelm Heine and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A translation of the firsthand account of the 1853 "opening" of Japan by the US Navy, written by the young German official artist of the expedition, and first published in 1856. Includes nearly 20 drawings by Heine (1827-1885) and Japanese artists, and a chronology. Annotation(c) 2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Download or read book Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan written by Francis Lister Hawks and published by Nonsuch Publishing, Limited. This book was released on 2005 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Signified their resolve through systematic expulsion, detention and execution. Perry's success, however, contrived to open up what had once been 'the curiosity of Christendom' to the nations of the world.
Download or read book Yankees in the Land of the Gods written by Peter Booth Wiley and published by Viking. This book was released on 1990 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Shipwrecked written by Rhoda Blumberg and published by Turtleback Books. This book was released on 2003-01-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For use in schools and libraries only. In 1841, rescued by an American whaler after a terrible shipwreck leaves him and his four companions castaways on a remote island, 14-year-old Manjiro learns new laws and customs as he becomes the first Japanese person to set foot in the United States.
Download or read book Samurai William written by Giles Milton and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2011-10-13 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1611 an astonishing letter arrived at the East India Trading Company in London after a tortuous seven-year journey. Englishman William Adams was one of only twenty-four survivors of a fleet of ships bound for Asia, and he had washed up in the forbidden land of Japan. The traders were even more amazed to learn that, rather than be horrified by this strange country, Adams had fallen in love with the barbaric splendour of Japan - and decided to settle. He had forged a close friendship with the ruthless Shogun, taken a Japanese wife and sired a new, mixed-race family. Adams' letter fired up the London merchants to plan a new expedition to the Far East, with designs to trade with the Japanese and use Adams' contacts there to forge new commercial links. Samurai William brilliantly illuminates a world whose horizons were rapidly expanding eastwards.
Download or read book Italy Invades written by Christopher Kelly and published by Greenleaf Book Group. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Italy Invades, full of restless adventurers, canny generals, and the occasional scoundrel, is a fast-paced and compelling read, the perfect sequel to America Invades. Recreating their success with America Invades, Christopher Kelly and Stuart Laycock take another global tour, this time starting from Italy and exploring that country's military involvements throughout the ancient and modern worlds. From the empire building of the Romans, through the globe-spanning Age of Exploration, to the multinational cooperation of NATO, Italy has conquered and explored countries as diverse and far-ranging as Cape Verde and Mongolia and Uruguay. With the additional guide of maps and photographs, the reader can visually follow the Italians as they conquer the world. The book also contains an excerpt from the never before published An Adventure in 1914, written by Christopher Kelly's maternal great-grandfather, Thomas Tileston Wells. Wells served as the American consul general to Romania each summer; and in the summer of 1914, as war exploded across Europe, he was there with his wife and two children.
Download or read book A Child s Delight written by Noel Perrin and published by UPNE. This book was released on 2003-08 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An appealing guide to 33 neglected gems in children's literature by the author of A Reader's Delight.
