This book provides an answer to the mystery of why no peace treaty has yet been signed between Japan and Russia after more than sixty years since the end of World War Two. The author, a leading authority on Japanese-Russian diplomatic history, was trained at the Russian Institute of Columbia University. This volume contributes to our understanding of not only the intricacies of bilateral relations between Moscow and Tokyo, but, more generally, of Russia's and Japan's modes of foreign policy formation. The author also discusses the U.S. factor, which helped make Russia and Japan distant neighbors, and the threat from China, which might help these countries come closer in the near future. It would be hardly possible to discuss the future prospects of Northeast Asia without having first read this book.

Introduced by David Mitchell In a coastal village in medieval Japan, a young boy called Isaku battles to keep his family alive against the odds. With his father gone, Isaku is forced to grow up well before his time. He must learn how to catch fish, how to distil salt, and about all the mysteries of the vast churning sea, not least the legend of O-fune-sama, of ships wrecked offshore providing the village with unexpected bounty. When a ship founders on the rocks, Isaku and the villagers rejoice. Long have they prayed for the sea's gifts. But the cargo is not at all the blessing they had hoped for. At first mystifying, then terrifying, something dark is coming ashore and it's about to change their lives forever.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been destroyed. Japan is in ruins and occupied by the Americans. Takuya, an ex-officer in the Imperial Army, has returned to his native village only to learn that the Occupation authorities are intensifying their efforts to apprehend suspected war criminals. And those who are found guilty are being sentenced to death. Fearing that his role in the execution of a number of American pilots, Takuya takes to the road and becomes a fugitive in his own country. One Man's Justice is both a reflection on the murky reality of war and a page-turning novel of pursuit and escape.

In 1983, concerned about the need to record and explain the experiences of Okinawans caught up in Battle of Okinawa, the Ryukyu Shimpo carried out several hundred interviews with survivors. With explanatory comment added, this was published first in serial form, then later as a book. More often than not, talking in detail about their experiences and visiting the caves and shelters where they spent weeks on end as the U.S. bombardment destroyed everything above ground was a cathartic experience for those who came forward to tell their stories. Ten of thousands of Okinawans were killed in the bombardment by U.S. forces, ten of thousands more recruits died in Home Guard units, thousands of starvation and disease in places away from the fighting. Hundreds of evacuees lost their lives in ships sunk by U.S. submarines or aircraft. People took their own lives or the lives of loved ones to avoid what they had been told by the Japanese Army would be a far worse fate at the hands of American captors. Descent into Hell is the story of this apocalyptic struggle as told by those Okinawans who survived.