Japanese American Books

Written circa 1890, this is a diary-like essay on the lives of Japanese women at the turn of the century. It explains many of the old customs that are still present today among certain classes in Japan and those customs that will be used for the new Princess Royal born in 2001.

For those who know modern Japan, it is a an interesting comparative on the lives of women over time.

"The selection and accuracy of the citations are excellent . . . includes many unusual, elusive, but valuable sources, and is the book's strongest feature."
-Choice

"A useful reading and research list, reasonable price."
-Reference Book Annual

"An imaginative and comprehensive guide to Japanese history and culture, as valuable to the expert as to the beginner; a bibliography that can be read as well as used, for it leaves almost nothing out."
-Carol Gluck, Columbia University

This book by Herschel Webb is a thorough and interesting account of the role played by Japan's emperors in the Tokugawa period (1603-1868) and their relations with the Shogun's court. Anyone fond of Japanese history, especially the history of the Japanese Royal Family and/or the Tokugawa shoguns should not pass this volume up!

This book paints some excellent vignettes of Japanese-Americans in California, as well as a short introduction to the history of Japanese immigration in California. It includes sections on Norm Mineta, the current Secretary of Transportation for the Bush administration (though he was just a retired US congressman at the time of publishing), Wendy Tokuda (news anchor for KRON TV in San Francisco), as well as many other lesser-known but interesting personalities. Also gives mention to notables such as S.I Hayakawa, Judge Lance Ito, Pat Morita, George Takei and Kristi Yamaguchi.

The author, Dr. Motoyoshi, is well-suited to cover the subject matter as the daughter of a WWII Japanese internment camp inmate and granddaughter of a well-known Japanese Buddhist "archbishop" who immigrated to California before the war.

Intended for elementary school classrooms, this book makes an excellent introduction to the subject of Japanese immigrants in California.

This is the best book ever written on the little known story of the Japanese immigrants in Texas. From the turn-of-the-century Rio Grande ricefields to the multi-national businesses in Houston, the author has described the Japanese immigrant experience in his native Texas. The book was especially interesting to me as a 4th generation descenedent of these people. I am forever grateful to the author for documenting the history of these people.

A very unique cookbook that features over 300 traditional and obscure Japanese dishes. Each recipe is in both English and Japanese. The book is long out of print and has become quite a sought after item among international cuisine cooking enthusiasts.

This book really opened my eyes to how the "nationalist" Americans really treated the Japanese-Americans. This book totally blew my mind and made me angry. I was angry because we were just as bad as those nazi's. All in all i'd recommend this book if you want to learn the truth.

Haibun is a Japanese form consisting of poetic prose with haiku and/or tanka interspersed or at the end of the piece. The title is an allusion to the work, "The Narrow Path to the Interior" by the great haiku master Basho.

Ross writes a priceless introduction to haibun that serves as a course all by itself so if you know nothing at all about this wonderful form, you will come away from this book with a solid foundation.

If aircraft (and aircraft books) could be compared to PC's, the Kawasaki Ki-61 Tony could be considered a clone (using the same engine as the German Bf 109), and the final variant, the Ki-100 (taking a very different radial engine), a major upgrade.
This book is meant to be an upgrade to the earlier book with the same title and author, published in the early 1970's by Osprey. In this case it is a long overdue re-issue of a book that for many years was the virtualy the sole source of supply in both visual history of the plane and of its painting schemes, both of which this book has ample supply. Maybe Schiffer can be talked into re-publishing the whole Aircam line?

If you're writing a paper on Japanese Internment Camps, this book is really good. It superbly defines the generation gap of Japanese-Americans during the 1940's. In addition, the foreward to this book is well-written and very helpful. This book helps show what happened to the Japanese during World War 2.