10 Best Japan, History Books
Japan, History is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Japan, History audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 10 Japan, History audiobooks below.
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Utmost Savagery
- By: Joseph H. Alexander
- Narrator: Tom Weiner
- Length: 8 hours 42 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2010
- Language: English
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4.22(471 ratings)
4.22(471 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDOn November 20, 1943, in the first trial by fire of America’s fledgling amphibious assault doctrine, five thousand men stormed the beaches of Tarawa, a seemingly invincible Japanese island fortress barely the size of the three hundred-acreOn November 20, 1943, in the first trial by fire of America’s fledgling amphibious assault doctrine, five thousand men stormed the beaches of Tarawa, a seemingly invincible Japanese island fortress barely the size of the three hundred-acre Pentagon parking lots. Before the first day ended, one-third of the marines who had crossed Tarawa’s deadly reef under murderous fire were killed, wounded, or missing. In three days of fighting, four Americans would win the Medal of Honor and six thousand combatants would die.
Now, Colonel Joseph Alexander, a combat marine himself, presents the full story of Tarawa in all its horror and glory: the extreme risks, the horrific combat, and the heroic breakthroughs. Based on exhaustive research, never-before-published accounts from marine survivors, and new evidence from Japanese sources, Colonel Alexander captures the grit, guts, and relentless courage of United States Marines overcoming outrageous odds to deliver victory for their country.
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Marching Orders
- By: Bruce Lee
- Narrator: Jeff Harding
- Length: 24 hours 1 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: August 30, 2016
- Language: English
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4.2(130 ratings)
4.2(130 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDA stunning account of how the American military’s breaking of the Japanese diplomatic Purple codes led to the defeat of Nazi Germany. Bruce Lee, having had access to more than one million pages of US Army documents and thousands of pages ofA stunning account of how the American military’s breaking of the Japanese diplomatic Purple codes led to the defeat of Nazi Germany. Bruce Lee, having had access to more than one million pages of US Army documents and thousands of pages of daily top-secret messages dispatched to Tokyo from the Japanese embassy in Berlin, assembles fascinating revelations about pivotal moments in the war, including the reason Eisenhower stopped his army at the Elbe and let the Russians capture Berlin, the invasion of Europe, and the battles on the African and Eastern fronts. This groundbreaking book clearly demonstrates how the success of the American code breakers led to so many favorable military and strategic outcomes for the Allies and hastened the end of this devastating war.
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The Rape of Nanking
- By: Iris Chang
- Narrator: Anna Fields
- Length: 8 hours 3 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2012
- Language: English
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4.18(32648 ratings)
4.18(32648 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDIn December 1937, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred in the capital of China. The Japanese army swept into Nanking and not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured,In December 1937, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred in the capital of China. The Japanese army swept into Nanking and not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured, and murdered half of the city’s remaining population, some 300,000 Chinese civilians. Amazingly, the account of this atrocity was denied by the Japanese government.
The Rape of Nanking tells the story from three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, that of the Chinese civilians who endured it, and finally, that of a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety zone that saved almost 300,000 Chinese. Among these was John Rabe, the tireless German leader of the rescue effort, whom Iris Chang called the “Oskar Schindler of China.”
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Embracing Defeat
- By: John W. Dower
- Narrator: Edward Lewis
- Length: 21 hours 39 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2005
- Language: English
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4.14(3783 ratings)
4.14(3783 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.95 USDIn this illuminating study, Dower explores the ways in which the shattering defeat of the Japanese in World War II, followed by over six years of American military occupation, affected every level of Japanese society. He describes the countless waysIn this illuminating study, Dower explores the ways in which the shattering defeat of the Japanese in World War II, followed by over six years of American military occupation, affected every level of Japanese society. He describes the countless ways in which the Japanese met the challenge of “starting over”–from top-level manipulations concerning the fate of Emperor Hirohito to the hopes, fears, and activities of ordinary men and women in every walk of life. He shows us the intense and turbulent interplay of conqueror and conquered, West and East, in a way no Western historian has done before.
This is a fascinating portrait of an extraordinary moment in history, when new values warred with the old, and early ideals of demilitarization and radical reform were soon challenged by the United States’ decision to incorporate Japan in the Cold War Pax Americana.
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In the Cauldron
- By: Lew Paper
- Narrator: Robertson Dean
- Length: 14 hours 59 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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4.07(23 ratings)
4.07(23 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDThis is not just another book about Pearl Harbor. It is the story of Joseph Grew, America’s ambassador to Japan, and his frantic effort in the months before the Pearl Harbor attack to orchestrate an agreement between Japan and the UnitedThis is not just another book about Pearl Harbor. It is the story of Joseph Grew, America’s ambassador to Japan, and his frantic effort in the months before the Pearl Harbor attack to orchestrate an agreement between Japan and the United States to avoid the war he saw coming. It is a story filled with hope and heartache, with complex and fascinating characters, and with a drama befitting the momentous decisions at stake.
And more than that, it is a story that has never been told.
In those months before the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan and the United States were locked in a battle of wills. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s economic sanctions were crippling Japan. America’s noose was tightening around Japan’s neck–but the country’s leaders refused to yield to American demands.
In this cauldron of boiling tensions, Joseph Grew offered many recommendations to break the deadlock. Having resided and worked in Tokyo for almost ten years, Grew understood what Roosevelt and his administration back home did not: that the Japanese would rather face annihilation than endure the humiliation of surrendering to American pressure.
The President and his administration saw little need to accept their ambassador’s recommendations. The administration’s policies, they believed, were sure to succeed. And so, with increasing urgency, Grew tried to explain to the President and his administration that Japan’s mindset could not be gauged by Western standards of logic and that the administration’s policies could lead Japan to embark on a suicidal war with the United States “with dangerous and dramatic suddenness.”
Relying on Grew’s diaries, letters and memos, interviews with members of the families of Grew and his staff, and an abundance of other primary source materials, Lew Paper presents the gripping story of Grew’s effort to halt the downward spiral of Japan’s relations with the United States. Grew had to wrestle with an American government that would not listen to him–and simultaneously confront an increasingly hostile environment in Japan, where pervasive surveillance, arbitrary arrest, and even unspeakable torture by Japan’s secret police were constant threats.
In the Cauldron reads like a novel, but it is based on fact. And it is sure to raise questions whether the Pearl Harbor attack could have been avoided.
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A World Destroyed
- By: Martin J. Sherwin
- Narrator: John Lescault
- Length: 8 hours 57 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2010
- Language: English
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4.05(81 ratings)
4.05(81 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDContinuously in demand since its first, prize-winning edition was published in 1973, this is the classic history of Hiroshima and the origins of the arms race, from the development of the American atomic bomb to the decision to use it against JapanContinuously in demand since its first, prize-winning edition was published in 1973, this is the classic history of Hiroshima and the origins of the arms race, from the development of the American atomic bomb to the decision to use it against Japan and the beginnings of US atomic diplomacy toward the Soviet Union. In the introduction, the author describes and evaluates the lengthening trail of new evidence that has come to light concerning these often emotionally debated subjects. He also invokes his experience as a historical advisor to the controversial, aborted 1995 Enola Gay exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, which leads him to analyze the impact on American democracy of one of the most insidious legacies of Hiroshima: the political control of historical interpretation.
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Stranger in the Shogun’s City
- By: Amy Stanley
- Narrator: Joy Osmanski
- Length: 10 hours 1 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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3.76(1140 ratings)
3.76(1140 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USD*Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography* *Winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award* *Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography* A “captivating” (The Washington Post) work of history that explores*Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography*
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*Winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award*
*Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography*
A “captivating” (The Washington Post) work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman during the first half of the 19th century in Edo–the city that would become Tokyo–and a portrait of a city on the brink of a momentous encounter with the West.
The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village and was expected to live a traditional life much like her mother’s. But after three divorces–and a temperament much too strong-willed for her family’s approval–she ran away to make a life for herself in one of the largest cities in the world: Edo, a bustling metropolis at its peak.
With Tsuneno as our guide, we experience the drama and excitement of Edo just prior to the arrival of American Commodore Perry’s fleet, which transformed Japan. During this pivotal moment in Japanese history, Tsuneno bounces from tenement to tenement, marries a masterless samurai, and eventually enters the service of a famous city magistrate. Tsuneno’s life provides a window into 19th-century Japanese culture–and a rare view of an extraordinary woman who sacrificed her family and her reputation to make a new life for herself, in defiance of social conventions.
“A compelling story, traced with meticulous detail and told with exquisite sympathy” (The Wall Street Journal), Stranger in the Shogun’s City is “a vivid, polyphonic portrait of life in 19th-century Japan [that] evokes the Shogun era with panache and insight” (National Review of Books). -
First into Nagasaki
- By: George Weller
- Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 11 hours 39 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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3.7(280 ratings)
3.7(280 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0020.95 USDOn September 6, 1945, less than a month after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, George Weller, a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter, became the first free Westerner to enter the devastated city. Going into hospitals and consulting doctorsOn September 6, 1945, less than a month after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, George Weller, a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter, became the first free Westerner to enter the devastated city. Going into hospitals and consulting doctors of the bomb’s victims, he was the first to document its unprecedented medical effects. He also became the first to enter the Allied POW camps, which rivaled Nazi camps for cruelty and bested them for death count. Among the prisoners’ untold stories was of their voyage to imprisonment in Japan on “hellships” that transported them so inhumanely that one third of them died in transit.
Heavily censored by General MacArthur, most of these dispatches were never published and believed lost—until now. This historic body of work is a stirring reminder of the courage of rogue reporting that ferrets out the truth.
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The First Samurai
- By: Karl Friday
- Narrator: Matt Miller
- Length: 5 hours 58 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: July 14, 2020
- Language: English
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3.49(69 ratings)
3.49(69 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDWas samurai warrior Taira Masakado a quixotic megalomaniac or a hero swept up by events beyond his control? Did he really declare himself to be the “”New Emperor””? Did he suffer divine retribution for his ego and ambition?Was samurai warrior Taira Masakado a quixotic megalomaniac or a hero swept up by events beyond his control? Did he really declare himself to be the “”New Emperor””? Did he suffer divine retribution for his ego and ambition?
Filled with insurrections, tribal uprisings, pirate disturbances, and natural disasters, this action-packed account of Masakado’s insurrection offers a captivating introduction to the samurai, their role in tenth-century society, and the world outside the capital–a must-listen for those interested in early Japan, samurai warfare, or the mystique of ancient warriors.
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Supreme Commander
- By: Seymour Morris
- Narrator: Charles Constant
- Length: 11 hours 11 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: April 15, 2014
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDSeymour Morris Jr. combines political history, military biography, and business management to tell the story of General Douglas MacArthur’s tremendous success in rebuilding Japan after World War II in Supreme Commander, a lively, in-depth workSeymour Morris Jr. combines political history, military biography, and business management to tell the story of General Douglas MacArthur’s tremendous success in rebuilding Japan after World War II in Supreme Commander, a lively, in-depth work of biographical history complementary to The Generals, The Storm of War, and Truman.
He is the most decorated general in American history–and the only five five-star general to receive the Medal of Honor. Yet Douglas MacArthur’s greatest victory was not in war but in peace.
As the uniquely titled Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, he was charged with transforming a defeated, militarist empire into a beacon of peace and democracy–“the greatest gamble ever attempted,” he called it. A career military man, MacArthur had no experience in politics, diplomacy, or economics. A vain, reclusive, and self-centered man, his many enemies in Washington thought he was a flaming peacock, and few, including President Harry Truman’s closest advisors, gave him a chance of succeeding. Yet MacArthur did so brilliantly, defying timetables and expectations.
Supreme Commander tells for the first time, the story of how MacArthur’s leadership achieved a nation-building success that had never been attempted before–and never replicated since. Seymour Morris Jr. reveals this flawed man at his best who treated a defeated enemy with respect; who made informed and thoughtful decisions yet could be brash and stubborn when necessary, and who lead the Occupation with intelligence, class, and compassion.
Morris analyzes MacArthur’s key tactical choices, explaining how each contributed to his accomplishment, and paints a detailed picture of a true patriot–a man of conviction who proved to be an outstanding and effective leader in the most extraordinary circumstances.
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Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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