Stephen Turnbull is widely recognised as the world’s leading English language authority on the samurai of Japan. He took his first degree at Cambridge and has two MAs (in Theology and Military History) from Leeds University. In 1996 he received a PhD from Leeds for his thesis on Japan’s ‘Hidden Christians’. In its published form the work won the Japan Festival Literary Award in 1998. He has written 85 books and is currently working on a major study of the Hojo daimyo of the sixteenth century.

• IntroductionChronologyBackground to warWarring sidesThe fightingPortrait of a soldierThe world around warPortrait of a civilianHow the war endedConclusion and consequencesFurther reading

The book has some excellent sections one of which the author looks at the conflict from a soldier’s perspective. The author also looks at how the farming community were affected and the emergence of the farmer-warrior.

Stephen Turnbull is widely recognised as the world’s leading English language authority on the samurai of Japan. He took his first degree at Cambridge and has two MAs (in Theology and Military History) from Leeds University. In 1996 he received a PhD from Leeds for his thesis on Japan’s ‘Hidden Christians’. In its published form the work won the Japan Festival Literary Award in 1998. He has written 85 books and is currently working on a major study of the Hojo daimyo of the sixteenth century.

• IntroductionChronologyBackground to warWarring sidesThe fightingPortrait of a soldierThe world around warPortrait of a civilianHow the war endedConclusion and consequencesFurther reading

The book has some excellent sections one of which the author looks at the conflict from a soldier’s perspective. The author also looks at how the farming community were affected and the emergence of the farmer-warrior.

Stephen Turnbull is widely recognised as the world’s leading English language authority on the samurai of Japan. He took his first degree at Cambridge and has two MAs (in Theology and Military History) from Leeds University. In 1996 he received a PhD from Leeds for his thesis on Japan’s ‘Hidden Christians’. In its published form the work won the Japan Festival Literary Award in 1998. He has written 85 books and is currently working on a major study of the Hojo daimyo of the sixteenth century.

• IntroductionChronologyBackground to warWarring sidesThe fightingPortrait of a soldierThe world around warPortrait of a civilianHow the war endedConclusion and consequencesFurther reading

The book has some excellent sections one of which the author looks at the conflict from a soldier’s perspective. The author also looks at how the farming community were affected and the emergence of the farmer-warrior.