Inventing Japan: 1853-1964

For those not inclined to read Marius Jansen's well-nigh definitive 800-page masterwork "The Making of Modern Japan," this very readable short book gives the neophyte an excellent overview of modern Japanese history. Buruma does as good a job as can be done in such a slim volume (a few trivial factual errors aside).

Buruma sets out with the ambitious task of summarising a century of Japanese history - and a turbulent century at that - in less than 150 pages. Covering the Meiji restoration, the militarism of the 1930s, war, defeat and reconstruction could (and for many authors has) take volumes, but Buruma manages his challenge extremely well. This is not necessarily a book for a Japan expert - in so short a work, necessarily the discussion about the topics raised is fairly cursory. Even major issues like the involvement of the Showa emperor in pursuing the war are necessarily brief - though Buruma's opinion does come through fairly strongly on this topic. Facts are not comprehensively sourced, either - pitched as a "general reader" on Japanese history, Buruma clearly did not want the flow of the story to be interrupted. However, there is a good appendix on suggested further reading. Buruma also has a talent for highlighting key facts in a new context, and in doing so triggering a response from even the more experienced reader. "Inventing Japan" makes a good job of dispelling the "uniqueness" myths that surround the country (promoted by both Japan's supporters and protagonists). Japan is, of course, unique - in the same way that France or Serbia is unique. It is not, as the militarists of the 1930s would have us believe, unique in a divine sense. This is something modern day nationalists and anti-Japan protectionists on the two sides of the Pacific could do well to reflect on. Perry did not "open up" an entirely isolated community, but instead visited a country that was already cognoscent with affairs in Europe and America. The Shinto rituals of the 1930s were not (all) hallowed traditions stretching back through the millennia, but were at least in part created to fit the purposes of the government of the day.Overall Buruma gives an excellent précis of the development of Japan in a concise and well-written manner. This is a superb introduction for a general reader, but it is not something that the more informed reader should overlook.

It's difficult enough to write a comprehensive and readable modern history of a large nation-state like Japan, but it's a far more onerous task to attempt to do so in less than 200 pages. Ian Buruma's 177-page book manages to do so with an excellence rarely found in volumes three or four times the size."Inventing Japan" traces the history of Japan from the landing of Commodore Perry's black ships in 1853 to the 1964 Olympics, a time when Buruma claims Japan "rejoined the world". Buruma's writing is graceful and vivid. Despite covering over a century of history, his short book never feels attenuated. He knows what to focus on and, more importantly for a book of this length, what to leave out.Buruma stirs up some hard feelings among Japan's partisans -- including some here! -- by writing very directly about what he perceives as modern Japan's negative national traits. These include an obsession with national standing, fanaticism, overconfidence and (ironically, considering the alleged overconfidence) an inferiority complex. Balanced against these, Buruma says, is a grace in defeat and an ability to rebound quickly after disaster.I enjoyed Buruma's directness. He doesn't soft-pedal Japan's crimes. But he also doesn't dwell on them. This book could only have been written by someone with a profound interest in Japan and its people. Buruma ends on a hopeful note, saying he looks forward to the day Japan does not need black ships to break out of the destructive patterns it finds itself in.

In contrast to Dr. Noguchi, I think Mr. Buruma has, again, shone some well-needed light into those recesses of Japan's past many here would rather forget.His ability to weave the cultural, intellectual, and political threads of Japan's modern history into a lucid text is nonpareil, particularly in such a brief work.Rather than bemoan the recent revelatory books by Blix, Dower & Co., Dr. Noguchi might be wiser to re-think the reasons behind Japan's unprecedented brutality from the Marco Polo Bridge in China to Sugar Loaf Hill in Okinawa.And maybe he might also note that Mr. Buruma's formative years in Japan were adult ones.

The Modern Library Chronicles series has struck again and have come up with another winner. Ian Buruma's Inventing Japan (1853 - 1964) is a valuable edition to this marvelous series. The author uses the short format effectively and efficiently as he demonstrates Japan's growing and changing sense of self since violently being pulled out of isolation in the middle of the nineteenth century. He even provides a brief look at the history of Japan before this moment to show that it was not as isolated or as ignorant of the West as the myths would have one believe. This book is wonderful at dispelling any illusions of the Japanese as a monolithic people but, instead, shows the many intellectual, cultural and political threads being woven throughout its history, often at the same time. It was a fascinating read that was over much too soon.