Japan reading list & resources

Non-Fiction

Tokyo and Japanese post-war history

• Low City, High City by Edward Seidensticker (1983)
• Japan’s Postwar History by Gary D. Allinson – a bit dry, but a concise survey of changes in Japan from 1932-1995
• Popcorn on the Ginza: An Informal Portrait of Postwar Japan, by Lucy Herndon Crockett (1949) – an amusing and informative first-person account of the Allied Occupation and rebuilding of Japan following World War II.
• American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880 – 1964, by William Manchester (1978) – a comprehensive biography of MacArthur, whose influence of post-war Japan was profound.
• Japan 1945: A U.S. Marine’s Photographs from Ground Zero

Older Japanese history

• The History of Japan, Together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam, 1690-92, Volume I, by Englebert Kaempfer, M.D. (available online)
• The History of Japan, Together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam, 1690-92, Volume II, by Englebert Kaempfer, M.D. (available online)
• Warlords, Artists, and Commoners, by George Elison and Bardwell L. Smith (1981)
• Ghenko, the Mongol invasion of Japan, by Nakaba Yamada (1916) (full text available from the Internet Archive).
• “Japan day by day, 1877, 1878-79, 1882-83; with illustrations from sketches in the author’s Journal“, by Edward Sylvester Morse
• The Yankees of the East: Sketches of Modern Japan, Volume 2, by William Eleroy Curtis (1896) (Google books) (Full text)
• Breaking Barriers: Travel and the State in Early Modern Japan, by Constantine Nomikos Vaporis

Architecture and Urban Planning

• See separate page: Tokyo urban design resources
• The Architecture of Tokyo: An Architectural History in 571 Individual Presentations
• Planet of Slums, by Mike Davis – some references to Tokyo and Japan (full book in PDF)

Other, and cultural history

• Mark Twain’s Literature and 20th Century Japanese Juvenile Literature and Popular Culture (PDF)
• OCHIKOBORE SEISHUN SHŌSETSU: THE PORTRAYAL OF TEENAGE REBELLION IN JAPANESE ADOLESCENT LITERATURE, by Marie Kim (PDF)
• 1940 Japan-America Student Conference Diary by James J. Halsema (PDF)
• Word and Image in Japanese Cinema (Google Books)
• Dissenting Japan: A History of Japanese Radicalism and Counterculture from 1945 to Fukushima, by William Andrews

Fiction:

 

Author Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

Junichiro Tanizaki 谷崎 潤一郎:

• Naomi 痴人の愛 Chijin no Ai (A Fool’s Love)
• The Makioka Sisters
• Some Prefer Nettles

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa 芥川 龍之介

• Rashomon, and other stories: collection of stories translated to English by Takashi Kojima, 1952; in Japanese, the stories include “Rashōmon” 羅生門 (1915) and “In a Grove” 藪の中 Yabu no Naka (1922), which combine to form the story of the 1950 film, Rashomon.
• Kappa 河童: 1927; translated to English by Seiichi Shiojiri, 1970

Yukio Mishima 三島 由紀夫 (Wikipedia)

• Death in Midsummer and other stories 『真夏の死 その他』
• After the Banquet 『宴のあと』 (Utage no Ato), by Yukio Mishima 三島 由紀夫.

Natsume Sōseki 夏目 漱石

• I Am a Cat 吾輩は猫である Wagahai wa Neko dearu (1905)
• The Miner 坑夫 (1908) (see also: Tagawa City Coal and History Museum 田川市石炭・歴史博物館)
• Sanshirō 三四郎  (1908)

Other:

• In the Shade of Spring Leaves: The Life of Higuchi Ichiyo, with Nine of Her Best Stories (fiction and biography of Ichiyō Higuchi 樋口 一葉)
• The Dancing Girl of Izu 伊豆の踊子 and other stories, by Yasunari Kawabata 川端 康成
• Tokyo Year Zero
• Tokio Whip (review by The Japan Times)
• Author:  Otsuichi 乙一, the pen name of Hirotaka Adachi 安達 寛高
• Seichō Matsumoto 松本清張: famous crime writer

Blogs and resources

• GHQ/SCAP Records, International Prosecution Section　（IPS）
• THE TRIAL WITHIN: NEGOTIATING JUSTICE AT THE INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL FOR THE FAR EAST, 1946-1948
• University of Pennsylvania library; example post: Japanese Naval Cruise Books and the Renshū Kantai
• Art of the Japanese Postcard (Boston Museum of Fine Arts, MFA)