"A good starting place for anyone seeking a better understanding of Japanese thinking on imperial and Second World War historical issues." --Joel Campbell, International Affairs Memories can be shared--or contested. Japan and Korea, just one case in point, share centuries of intertwined history, the nature of which continues to be disputed, particularly with regard to World War II.

Give and Take offers a new history of government in Tokugawa Japan (1600-1868), one that focuses on ordinary subjects: merchants, artisans, villagers, and people at the margins of society such as outcasts and itinerant entertainers.

East Asia is now the world's economic powerhouse, but ghosts of history continue to trouble relations between the key countries of the region, particularly between Japan, China and the two Koreas.

Lady Murasaki's exquisite, 11th-century portrait of courtly life in medieval Japan has been widely celebrated as the world's first novel. Offering a lively and well-rounded glimpse of golden age Japan with a cast of richly conceived and nuanced characters, This translation, detailed and poetic, is scrupulously true to the Japanese original yet appeals as well to modern readers.

Japan's geographical expansion in the face of domineering Extra-Asian empires. Underneath this multilateral process were the connections forged by individuals. Translators, doctors, traffickers, castaways, and indigenous hunters crisscrossed border regions and enacted violence, exchanged knowledge, and forged friendships. Although their motivations were eclectic and their interactions transcended national borders, the linkages they created were essential in driving territorialization forward.

Exactly twenty years after the first undersea cable was laid across the English Channel in 1851, the last leg of the north- and south- bound cable networks reached Japan via Shanghai, connecting all the continents, except for the Antarctic.