Human Tradition in Modern Japan

Anne Walthall teaches Japanese history at the University of California, Irvine.

• Chapter 1 Introduction: On the Trail of People in the PastPart 2 I: The World of Shogun, Samurai, and Court, 1600-1868Chapter 3 Shinanomiya Tsuneko: Portrait of a Court LadyChapter 4 Mori Yoshiki: Samurai Government OfficerPart 5 II: The Meiji Restoration and the Transformation of State and SocietyChapter 6 Nishimiya Hide: Turning Palace Arts into Marketable SkillsChapter 7 The Ishizaka of Notsuda: A family in TransitionPart 8 III: Building the Modern StateChapter 9 Hatoyama Haruko (1861-1938): Ambitious WomanChapter 10 Jahana Noboru: Okinawan Activist and ScholarChapter 11 Kinoshita Yoshio: Revolutionizing Service on Japan's National RailroadsPart 12 IV: Twentieth-Century VicissitudesChapter 13 Matsuura Isami (1880-1962): A Modern Patriarch in Rural JapanChapter 14 Yoshiya Nobuko: Out and Outspoken in Practice and ProseChapter 15 Takahashi Masao (1901-1995): Flexible MarxistPart 16 V: World War II and the Postwar WorldChapter 17 Yokoi Shoichi: When a Soldier Finally Returns HomeChapter 18 Misora Hibari: The Postwar Myth of Mournful Tears and SakeChapter 19 Index

The Human Tradition in Modern Japan illustrates the themes of 'big history' through the flesh-and-blood experiences of real people: a pop star, a feudal administrator, an Okinawan peasant-turned-official, a lesbian novelist, a princess, an economist, the mother of a prime minister. It beautifully enriches our understanding of Japan's last 350 years by humanizing, and thus complicating, it. The writing is lively and accessible.