This may not be what you have in mind at all, but I really liked the Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa.
For several centuries prior to the 1850s, Japan cut itself off almost completely from the rest of the world. In the 1850s, however, they became aware of how far behind everyone they had fallen in terms of economic, military, and social development. In the last half of the 1800s, Japan modernized faster than any nation ever had.
Fukuzawa was a more or less ordinary person who lived through this extraordinary period and played his small but not insignificant part in Japan’s efforts to engage with the rest of the world after centuries of isolation. For example, he was a member of the first delegation Japan ever sent to the US. His impressions of America are a fascinating part of the book.
Anyway, if you want an interesting read on a key period of Japan’s pre-World War 2 history, I recommend it.
3 Comments
Kafka On The Shore
This may not be what you have in mind at all, but I really liked the Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa.
For several centuries prior to the 1850s, Japan cut itself off almost completely from the rest of the world. In the 1850s, however, they became aware of how far behind everyone they had fallen in terms of economic, military, and social development. In the last half of the 1800s, Japan modernized faster than any nation ever had.
Fukuzawa was a more or less ordinary person who lived through this extraordinary period and played his small but not insignificant part in Japan’s efforts to engage with the rest of the world after centuries of isolation. For example, he was a member of the first delegation Japan ever sent to the US. His impressions of America are a fascinating part of the book.
Anyway, if you want an interesting read on a key period of Japan’s pre-World War 2 history, I recommend it.
The Box Man – Kobo Abe