--- title: History of Japan description: Japan's history runs from the classical court through the samurai age to modernisation and postwar recovery. You will learn its periods, culture and politics and the best surveys and specialist works. category: humanities subcategory: history difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/history-of-japan --- # History of Japan Japan's history runs from the classical court through the samurai age to modernisation and postwar recovery. You will learn its periods, culture and politics and the best surveys and specialist works. ## Available Resources 4 Books • 1 Websites ## Podcasts ### 1. The History of Japan Podcast **Author:** Isaac Meyer Long-running weekly podcast of 20–40 minute episodes, with more than 640 so far, on Japanese history from prehistory to the present. Includes multi-part series on periods, figures and events, with show notes, maps and a glossary. The best free audio companion covering the whole span. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://isaacmeyer.net/the-history-of-japan-podcast/ **Tags:** japanese history, history podcast, premodern japan, modern japan, east asian history ## Websites ### 1. Visualizing Cultures **Author:** John W. Dower, Shigeru Miyagawa MIT project that teaches modern Japanese history through period images: woodblock prints, posters, photographs and advertising. It has illustrated scholarly essays on the Perry expedition, Meiji Westernization, the Russo-Japanese War and Tokyo's growth, plus classroom curricula. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://visualizingcultures.mit.edu/ **Tags:** modern japanese history, meiji era, visual history, woodblock prints, russo-japanese war, perry expedition ## Books ### 1. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II **Author:** John W. Dower The definitive specialist work on the postwar-recovery phase. History of the American occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1952. Examines how Japanese people and the occupiers reshaped politics, the constitution, the emperor system and everyday culture after defeat, drawing on popular media, letters and official records. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393320278?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** occupation of japan, postwar japan, world war ii, social history, john dower ### 2. Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume One: From Earliest Times to 1600 (2nd Edition) **Author:** Wm. Theodore de Bary, Donald Keene, George Tanabe, Paul Varley (eds.) Anthology of translated primary sources from the early chronicles to the end of the sixteenth century. Includes Shinto and Buddhist texts, court writings, Chinese political thought in Japan, warrior-house laws and precepts, and tea-ceremony writings, each with editorial introductions. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0231121393?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** primary sources, premodern japan, japanese religion, shinto, buddhism, samurai ### 3. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present (4th Edition) **Author:** Andrew Gordon The most readable rigorous entry point to modern Japan. University-standard survey of Japan from the Tokugawa shogunate to the twenty-first century. Traces the Meiji revolution, imperial expansion, militarism, the Pacific War, the American occupation, the postwar economic boom and the stagnation that followed, with attention to social history. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0190920556?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** modern japan, tokugawa shogunate, meiji restoration, pacific war, postwar japan ### 4. A History of Japan (2nd Edition) **Author:** Conrad Totman The strongest single-volume history covering the full span from the classical court through the postwar era. Most modern surveys start in 1600, so this fills the premodern gap. Single-volume survey of Japanese history from the prehistoric Jomon era to the present. Covers politics, economy, environment, religion, literature and foreign relations across the classical, medieval, early-modern and modern periods, with an updated bibliography. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1405123591?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** japanese history, premodern japan, survey history, medieval japan, early modern japan --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/history-of-japan