Toriko Takarabe's 'Heaven and Hell': A child's perspective of war's aftermath
Toriko Takarabe's "Heaven and Hell," a 2005 novel recently translated into English for the first time, provides the key to Takarabe's poetry and childhood, both of which were defined by Japan's brief colonial adventure in Manchuria.
'Glory in a Line' reveals the complicated life of Tsuguharu Foujita
Arguably Phyllis Birnbaum's best biography to date, "Glory in a Line" examines the life of Japanese painter Tsuguharu "Leonard" Foujita. Glory In A Line, by Phyllis Birnbaum352 pagesFaber & Faber, Nonfiction. Although he supported Japan's ...
Invoking Manchuria's cross-dressing spy
She was born the daughter of a Manchu prince in Beijing in 1907. Later, as she grew up in Japan, she earned notoriety for her flamboyant challenges to gender roles and her military exploits as a princess-spy. Even today Yoshiko Kawashima still stokes controversy, ...
Yoshiko Kawashima's life has been the subject of novels, soap operas and movies since the 1920s. Manchu Princess, Japanese Spy, by Phyllis Birnbaum272 pages.Columbia University Press, Nonfiction. This Manchu Qing princess was sent to Japan ...
