Kanno Suga and Kaneko Fumika were both found guilty on different occasions in 1911 and 1926 of conspiring to assassinate the Japanese emperor. Kanno was executed and Kaneko hanged herself whilst in prison, but both women maintained their defiance of the state even in the face of death. Through examination of their own life stories and writings, Helene Bowen Raddeker brings to life the women's own interpretations of their lives and their attitudes to death, with the associations of political martyrdom, heroism and notions of immortality. She finds that their self-presentations became weapons in an ideological war of words about social and political realities and their deaths were a means of self-empowerment within their historical context.

How women figured in the expansion of the national body of the Japanese empire

This work on Hiratsuka Raichō at last fully assesses her key role in the history of the Japanese women's movement. It provides a full and contextual analysis of the life (1886-1971) and work of this leading Japanese feminist, all in the light of the changes affecting women in Japan. At the same time the author compares her working with similar historical shifts and movements in western countries, notably Great Britain and the United States. International comparisons at the level of personal biography and associated ideas are made, to see the influence of Western feminists on Hiratsuka's feminism. Hiratsuka is compared with other Japanese feminists, whereby her pivotal role in the history of the Japanese women's movement becomes clear. With extensive footnotes for further reference - and research -, a number of appendices, a detailed bilingual glossary and bibliography; a true reference on an important subject.

DIVA study of the "modern" woman in Japan before World War II./div

Barbara N. Ramusack writes on South and Southeast Asia, surveying both the prescriptive roles and the lived experiences of women, as well as the construction of gender from early states to the 1990s. Although both regions are home to Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim religious traditions and had extended trade relations, they reveal striking differences in the status and roles of women and the processes of cultural adaptation. Sharon Sievers presents an verview of women's participation in the histories of China, Japan, and Korea from prehistory to the modern period that provides a framework for incorporating women into world history classrooms. It offers analyses on major issues derived from recent research and discusses such stereotypical cultural practices as footbinding (long seen as "exotic" in the West) in the context of women's lives. Book jacket.

This book presents the essential facts of modern Japanese history. It covers a variety of important developments through the 1990s, giving special consideration to how traditional Japanese modes of thought and behavior have affected the recent developments.

The book demonstrates that, even if during the first period of the Shwa era (1931–1945) the real driving force to war was the Japanese military, Hirohito, as supreme commander, gave full support to the army. On multiple occasions, as an emperor, he sanctioned many government policies. Accordingly, he was responsible for the war and for the atrocities that the Japanese troops committed in Asia during the Pacific War. Japan’s Empire Disaster is a book of information and training; a reference document that should be read as an educational tool on the history of the modernization of Japan and the war launched by Emperor Meiji and Hirohito to build Japan Empire in the Pacific and East Asia. The book shares the view of the author on Hirohito’s responsibility on the events that marked Japan’s entry into the war that began when Japanese troops invaded Manchuria on September 19, 1931, and culminated with Japan’s surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941.