Politics & Diplomacy
Hashimoto to retract sex suggestion for U.S. military
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto aims to retract his remark that U.S. servicemen in Okinawa should use the local adult entertainment industry to avoid committing sex crimes.
Review | THE YEAR IN BOOKS Dec 23, 2012
Seasonality, internal awareness
by David Burleigh
“Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature and the Arts” (Columbia University Press) by Haruo Shirane. The whole seasonal consciousness of Japan, so meticulously considered and observed, is an intangible cultural tradition, though it has a certain physical embodiment in saijiki, ...
Review | THE YEAR IN BOOKS Dec 23, 2012
Celebrating the female dragons
by Kris Kosaka
“All That I Am” (Harper) by Anna Funder blazes across pre-World War II Europe, illuminating the period when Hitler eliminated all national opposition in his prelude to the rest of the world. Funder imaginatively melds historical figures, painstaking research and creative fire to chronicle ...
Review | THE YEAR IN BOOKS Dec 23, 2012
Alternative histories about JFK
by Mark Schreiber
The 50th anniversary of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy next November is expected to see a flood of new works on that topic. Two alternative history novels have already appeared on this theme. In Stephen King’s “11/22/63: A Novel” (Scribner), Maine ...
Review | THE YEAR IN BOOKS Dec 23, 2012
U.S. essays, Japan's Christians
by Paul Mccarthy
It may seem like cheating, but my first best book of 2012 is “The Best American Essays of 2012″ (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), part of the Best American Series. I read it each year and am never disappointed. This year’s selection was made by David ...
Review | THE YEAR IN BOOKS Dec 23, 2012
Seeing the past, humanity afresh
by David Cozy
“Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City” (Columbia University Press) by Dung Kai-cheung, translated by Anders Hansson and Bonnie S. McDougall. Lovers of maps, devotees of Borges and Calvino, those who understand that novels need not be first-this-happened-then-that-happened catalogs of events in the lives ...
Review | THE YEAR IN BOOKS Dec 23, 2012
Four aspects of Japan's history
by Michael Hoffman
“Oh, what happy people they must have been!” Thus Yukie Chiri (1903-22), reflecting on the pristine past of her people, the Ainu of southwestern Hokkaido. “Ainu Spirits Singing” (University of Hawaii Press) by Sarah Strong is an elegy to a lost time and an ...
Review | THE YEAR IN BOOKS Dec 23, 2012
Revisiting Asia's past, present
by Jeff Kingston
“From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia” (Allen Lane) by Pankaj Mishra. This is the story of the Asian intellectual’s response to Western imperialism. It is an intelligent and rewarding read that crisscrosses time and space, ...