Author(s): Ian Buruma

History

The fateful span of Japan's modern history, in which it has undergone as dramatic a transformation as any country has known.
The story of modern Japan, from first 'opening' to the West with Admiral Perry's Black Ships in 1853, through World War II, to Japan's emergence as a Western-style democracy and economic power at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

About the Author:
Ian Buruma was born in the Netherlands to a Dutch father and English mother in 1951. Though educated in both Holland and Japan, Ian Buruma spent a great portion of his life in Asia. He has been a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Institute for the Humanities in Washington, D.C.