The Forgotten Japanese
Title | The Forgotten Japanese PDF eBook |
Author | Tsuneichi Miyamoto |
Publisher | Stone Bridge Press |
Pages | 318 |
Release | 2010-03-01 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1933330805 |
A revealing look into the hearts of the Japanese people and at rural lifestyles that have all but disappeared, in a long-awaited translation of a classic text by one of Japan's great folklore scholars.
Wabi Sabi
Title | Wabi Sabi PDF eBook |
Author | Andrew Juniper |
Publisher | Tuttle Publishing |
Pages | 180 |
Release | 2011-12-10 |
Genre | Design |
ISBN | 1462901611 |
Developed out of the aesthetic philosophy of cha-no-yu (the tea ceremony) in fifteenth-century Japan, wabi sabi is an aesthetic that finds beauty in things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. Taken from the Japanese words wabi, which translates to less is more, and sabi, which means attentive melancholy, wabi sabi refers to an awareness of the transient nature of earthly things and a corresponding pleasure in the things that bear the mark of this impermanence. As much a state of mind--an awareness of the things around us and an acceptance of our surroundings--as it is a design style, wabi sabi begs us to appreciate the simple beauty in life--a chipped vase, a quiet rainy day, the impermanence of all things. Presenting itself as an alternative to today's fast-paced, mass-produced, neon-lighted world, wabi sabi reminds us to slow down and take comfort in the simple, natural beauty around us. In addition to presenting the philosophy of wabi-sabi, this book includes how-to design advice--so that a transformation of body, mind, and home can emerge. Chapters include: History: The Development of Wabi Sabi Culture: Wabi Sabi and the Japanese Character Art: Defining Aesthetics Design: Creating Expressions with Wabi Sabi Materials Spirit: The Universal Spirit of Wabi Sabi
The Forgotten Highlander
Title | The Forgotten Highlander PDF eBook |
Author | Alistair Urquhart |
Publisher | Simon and Schuster |
Pages | 283 |
Release | 2010-10-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1628731508 |
Alistair Urquhart was a soldier in the Gordon Highlanders, captured by the Japanese in Singapore. Forced into manual labor as a POW, he survived 750 days in the jungle working as a slave on the notorious “Death Railway” and building the Bridge on the River Kwai. Subsequently, he moved to work on a Japanese “hellship,” his ship was torpedoed, and nearly everyone on board the ship died. Not Urquhart. After five days adrift on a raft in the South China Sea, he was rescued by a Japanese whaling ship. His luck would only get worse as he was taken to Japan and forced to work in a mine near Nagasaki. Two months later, he was just ten miles from ground zero when an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. In late August 1945, he was freed by the American Navy—a living skeleton—and had his first wash in three and a half years. This is the extraordinary story of a young man, conscripted at nineteen, who survived not just one, but three encounters with death, any of which should have probably killed him. Silent for over fifty years, this is Urquhart’s inspirational tale in his own words. It is as moving as any memoir and as exciting as any great war movie.
Forgotten Armies
Title | Forgotten Armies PDF eBook |
Author | Christopher Alan Bayly |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Pages | 614 |
Release | 2005 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780674017481 |
In the early stages of the Second World War, the vast crescent of British-ruled territories stretching from India to Singapore appeared as a massive Allied asset. It provided scores of soldiers and great quantities of raw materials and helped present a seemingly impregnable global defense against the Axis. Yet, within a few weeks in 1941-42, a Japanese invasion had destroyed all this, sweeping suddenly and decisively through south and southeast Asia to the Indian frontier, and provoking the extraordinary revolutionary struggles which would mark the beginning of the end of British dominion in the East and the rise of today's Asian world. More than a military history, this gripping account of groundbreaking battles and guerrilla campaigns creates a panoramic view of British Asia as it was ravaged by warfare, nationalist insurgency, disease, and famine. It breathes life into the armies of soldiers, civilians, laborers, businessmen, comfort women, doctors, and nurses who confronted the daily brutalities of a combat zone which extended from metropolitan cities to remote jungles, from tropical plantations to the Himalayas. Drawing upon a vast range of Indian, Burmese, Chinese, and Malay as well as British, American, and Japanese voices, the authors make vivid one of the central dramas of the twentieth century: the birth of modern south and southeast Asia and the death of British rule.
Unit 731
Title | Unit 731 PDF eBook |
Author | Derek Pua |
Publisher | |
Pages | 90 |
Release | 2018-06-16 |
Genre | |
ISBN | 9781947766044 |
Under the leadership of Dr. Shiro Isshi, Unit 731 subjected 3,000-250,000 innocent men, women, and children to cruel experiments and medical procedures that were carried out by the brightest medical students and staff that Imperial Japan had to offer.
Japanese Rifles of World War II
Title | Japanese Rifles of World War II PDF eBook |
Author | Duncan O. McCollum |
Publisher | |
Pages | 61 |
Release | 1996-01-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9781880677117 |
Japanese small arms, while less sophiscated than those of her adversaries in World War II, still served their intended purposes well. Japanese Rifles of World War II is a sweeping view of the rifles and carbines that made up Japan's arsenal during that conflict. Chapters include Arisaka development and Japanese rifle markings; the Type 38 rifle, carbine and cavalry rifle; the Type 44 carbine; the Type I rifle, the Type 99 rifle and long rifle; the Type 2 paratroop rifle; and Concentric Circle rifles. Additional chapters deal with sniper rifles, the Naval Special Type 99 rifle, the Type 02/45 rifle, the North China Type 19 carbine, training rifles, bayonets and slings. The book contains 81 photographs and numerous illustrations. Contact Excalibur Publications, PO Box 35369, Tucson, AZ 85740-5369. Voice: (520) 575-9068. Fax: (520) 575-9068.
The Rape of Nanking
Title | The Rape of Nanking PDF eBook |
Author | Iris Chang |
Publisher | Basic Books |
Pages | 301 |
Release | 2014-03-11 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 046502825X |
The New York Times bestselling account of one of history's most brutal—and forgotten—massacres, when the Japanese army destroyed China's capital city on the eve of World War II, "piecing together the abundant eyewitness reports into an undeniable tapestry of horror". (Adam Hochschild, Salon) In December 1937, one of the most horrific atrocities in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking (what was then the capital of China), and within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered. In this seminal work, Iris Chang, whose own grandparents barely escaped the massacre, tells this history from three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers, that of the Chinese, and that of a group of Westerners who refused to abandon the city and created a safety zone, which saved almost 300,000 Chinese. Drawing on extensive interviews with survivors and documents brought to light for the first time, Iris Chang's classic book is the definitive history of this horrifying episode.