The Century of the Black Ships (Novel): Chronicles of War Between Japan and America

US: VIZ Media LLC, 2009. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting.The spine remains undamaged.(Signed By Author, First Edition) For nearly a century, Japanese writers gave voice to the anxieties of a nat ion headed inexorably toward war. Not just any war, but one that in the min ds of many would eventually--and inevitably--take place with Japan's neighb or across the Pacific, the United States. In the wake of U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry's first visit to Japan with his Black Ships in 1853, Japanese novelists and military analysts, alo ng with a few foreign counterparts, produced a dizzying array of prophetic visions of this coming conflict, creating a massive body of popular works t hrough which Japan would debate its own passage, however violent, into the modern, globalized era. Painstakingly researched by one of Japan's preemine nt men of letters, Tokyo Prefecture Vice Governor Naoki Inose, The Century of the Black Ships is a landmark study of a literary tradition that anticip ated the defining moment in the lives of a nation and its people. Editorial Reviews About the Author Born in Nagano Prefecture in 1946. A well-known writer in Japan, Naoki Inose was awarded the prestigious Lya Prize for non-fiction in 1987 for his book on the Emperor's image, The Mikado's Portrait. Writing on a wide range of topics from literature to economy, he has become a specialist in fact-finding studies. His work centers on Japan's modernity. In 1996, he won the Bungei Shunju Reader's Prize for his A Study of Japan, a richly documented examination of Japan's Public Corporations and the need.