Full name: The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945

Author: John Toland Year: 1970 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Award winners, History, Non Fiction, War/Military Culture: Japan Purchase/reserch links: Amazon Goodreads LibraryThing ISBNs: 9780812968583

This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author's words, "a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened-muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox." In weaving together the historical facts and human drama leading up to and culminating in the war in the Pacific, Toland crafts a riveting and unbiased narrative history. In his Foreword, Toland says that if we are to draw any conclusion from The Rising Sun, it is "that there are no simple lessons in history, that it is human nature that repeats itself, not history." Similar books: Japan at War by Haruko Taya Cook Soldiers of the Sun by Meirion Harries Japan 1941 by Eri Hotta Embracing Defeat by John W. Dower The Fall of Japan by William Craig Downfall by Richard B. Frank Okinawa by Robert Leckie Moral Combat by Michael Burleigh The Storm of War by Andrew Roberts Adolf Hitler by John Toland Fateful Choices by Ian Kershaw Wartime by Paul Fussell A Short History of World War II by James L. Stokesbury The Second World War by John Keegan All Hell Let Loose by Max Hastings The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan KL by Nikolaus Wachsmann Embers of War by Fredrik Logevall