---
product_id: 10885683
title: "Inventing Japan: 1853-1964 (Modern Library Chronicles)"
brand: "ian buruma"
price: "S$34"
currency: SGD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 12
url: https://www.desertcart.sg/products/10885683-inventing-japan-1853-1964-modern-library-chronicles
store_origin: SG
region: Singapore
---

# Inventing Japan: 1853-1964 (Modern Library Chronicles)

**Brand:** ian buruma
**Price:** S$34
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** Inventing Japan: 1853-1964 (Modern Library Chronicles) by ian buruma
- **How much does it cost?** S$34 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sg](https://www.desertcart.sg/products/10885683-inventing-japan-1853-1964-modern-library-chronicles)

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## Description

Inventing Japan: 1853-1964 (Modern Library Chronicles)

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    100 years of Japan's history - in a concise, compelling package
  

*by C***B on Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2019*

I've read 35 or so Japanese novels and nonfiction in translation since 2017. The more I read, the more aware I became that augmenting my knowledge of Japanese history, particularly post-1850, would inform my reading. Plus, Japanese history is fascinating, at least to me, and I had the good fortune to stumble across a copy of Inventing Japan at a used book sale in September. I read a lot for the job that pays for my books and prioritize fiction for the part of my reading life that is under my control, so Inventing Japan, at fewer than 200 pages, plus a bibliography and other helpful tools, was the careful, precise 50,000 foot view I wanted. If you already are especially familiar with the key events and themes or want to burrow in to a historian's detailed, context-laden tome with a warm blanket and beverage of your choice, this isn't the book for you. It also isn't for you unless you're keenly interested in Japanese politics, governments and political systems, Japan's relationship with China and Korea, the post-WWII US occupation, and more on Japanese political parties and the like. On the other hand, for example, if you know that japan's Constitution (as written and imposed on Japan by the US) forbids it to maintain a standing army and yet you are aware that it has a standing army - the Japan Self-Defense Forces, and you wonder how the JSDF can exist, Ian Buruma explains the mystery.In terms of approach and tone, Buruma is challenging and direct. He calls out stupid and wrong where he sees it, delights in doing so, and his tolerance for numbskulls is close to zero. Talking about this 100-year period with any level of honesty and accuracy means challenging the stories that each of the key players tells about themselves and about their history. Many sacred cows (to someone) are taken on and dismantled efficiently. He's particularly hard on American actors, including General MacArthur, but he's not going to lose any educated readers around the world by bashing us. We make ourselves easy targets and I read nothing unfair here. Other critical events and actions -- Japan's treatment of Koreans over the decades, Japan's slaughter, mass rape and looting at Nanking, then the capital of China, of non-combatant Chinese over the 6-week period after Nanking's capture, for example -- are addressed head on, but are such hot-button and important topics to all participants that no statement can be deemed bias-free, notwithstanding Buruma's likely efforts at achieving that goal. This book is best for those whose first response to a statement that raises a reader's eyebrow is not to interpret the statement as an insult or unfair, but to further research it, who seek to recognize bias and build that recognition into their interpretation of what they read but who don't attribute everything they disagree with as bias-motivated, without more, and who are fond of the "curmudgeon with deep expertise, passionate about his topic" school of writing about history.Also, the first chapter and the Epilogue are circular and frustrating, especially the first chapter. Read it, push through it and be assured that the remaining chapters are far more enlightening and better organize, and Buruma's presentation is compelling. He doesn't get bogged down at any point on a story he really, really wants to tell, as is the wont of some academics. Maybe he's the sort that is always the best in the middle and finds on-ramps and off-ramps difficult. Who knows. Just know not to abandon it until you've at least read half of Chapter 2.As a start in shedding light on possible bias, note that Buruma, born and raised in the Netherlands, a graduate of Leiden University with a degree in Chinese literature and history, a (chaired) Professor at Bard College since 2003, and briefly-tenured (2017 - 2018) editor of The New York Review of Books, lived in Japan for only 6 years from 1975 - 1981 and spent that time as a photojournalist. Readers understandably may remain offended by his handling of events immediately prior to his departure from The New York Review of Books, but, if you can do so without tripping any of your own ethical wires, I highly recommend finding a copy and reading Inventing Japan.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Graceful Losers: The Emergence of Modern Japan
  

*by O***Y on Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2005*

Since Mathew Perry's Black Ships reached Japan and broke its self imposed exclusion from the world, the Japanese Experience has been extraordinary.  Alone among the non Western nations it has mastered Western science, technology, and economic prowess, and had earned a place among the major world powers in the pre WW2 world.  Then it has joined in with Hitler and Mussolini as part of the Axis power, unleashing a gruesome campaign against its weaker Asian neighbors and a suicidal one against the United States.  Following its defeat, Japan reemerged as a pacifist democracy and an economic and cultural world leader.Ian Buruma's fascinating little book about the century between Perry's arrival and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, has to cover a lot of ground in 160 pages (he has about 1.5 pages per year).  His book is necessarily frustrating in its gloss of important aspects, but he nonetheless supplies a useful account of Japan's political history throughout the period (and, surprisingly, quite a lot about Japanese culture as well, particularly the Cinema).It seems redundant to summarize the political developments in Japan; Suffice to say that, rather then a confrontation between traditionalists and modernists; Buruma sees a conflict between modernists of the Liberal and illiberal kind.  The latter, drawing upon the German model, transformed Shinto into a state religion celebrating a divine emperor, created a highly militaristic state, and led Japan into a series of Military adventures, from the Sino-Japanese war of 1895, through the war with Russia in 1905, the 'Manchurian incident' in 1931, and finally to Pearl Harbor.Following Japan's inevitable defeat, The American occupation force purged the hardliner military leaders, but maintained Emperor Hirohito (Buruma is inconclusive as to the level of his culpability in Japan's militarism).  It created a new Constitution (dedicated to Pacifism), and partially, but not entirely, reshaped Japan's political culture.  After some turbulence, the conservative Liberal-Democratic Party settled to rule Japan fairly effectively, partially betraying and partially fulfilling the Liberal hopes from the Post War era. As interesting as Japan's political history has been, the extraordinary question of Japanese history is economic:  How did Japan manage to twice rise from great disadvantages to a position as a world leader?  How did Japan, alone among all non Western nations, manage to Industrialize as early as the 19th century, and how come it is today a leading member in the still almost exclusively Western club of developed countries?Buruma hardly addressed these questions, and as such his ability to explain the history of Japan suffers greatly.  As interesting as the political and ideological history is, that's not where the story of Modern Japan truly is; Japan's triumph, and current difficulties are hardly addressed, and Buruma mostly sees the enrichment of post war Japan as a distraction, "Opium to the Masses", so to speak, allowing the conservatives to shrink from fuller Liberalization of Japan (pp. 166-167).The best insight Buruma offers to Japan's extraordinary success is in the Prologue, describing the Judo contest in the 1964 Olympics.  The Japanese expected their smallish Judo champion, Kaminaga Akio to defeat his six foot six Dutch opponent, Anton Geesink.  Such a victory would have signaled the "superiority of Japanese culture, of the Japanese spirit".  (p.6)But in the end, Geesink won.  The Dutchman defeated the Japanese: "Once again, Japanese manhood had put to the test against superior Western manhood, and once again it was found wanting".  But the humiliation subsided when Geesink showed the proper respect by bowing the traditional bow.  "Geesink... would be treated as a hero in Japan forever after...  One quality has stood out to serve Japan better than any other: the grace to make the best of defeat".I think Buruma has hit upon a major element in Japan's success.  Unlike many other traditional societies, Japanese were able to accept the victories of the West and to profit from them; I think people around the world have much to benefit by reflecting upon the Japanese capacity of Embracing Defeat.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    rather educational read
  

*by H***Y on Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2018*

Had this for Sociology of japan. Learned some interesting ways of things and thought I had no idea of. e.g. The emperor of Japan being a figure head after the war, a little bit of brainwashing

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*Last updated: 2026-01-28*