Toland - Rising Sun The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire

“[The Rising Sun] is quite possibly the most readable, yet informative account of the Pacific war.”—Chicago Sun-Times

This  Pulitzer Prize–winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic  rise  and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria  and China to the  atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from  the Japanese perspective, The  Rising Sun is, in the author’s  words, “a factual saga of people caught up in the  flood of the most  overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened—muddled, ennobling,   disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox.”

In weaving together  the historical facts  and human drama leading up to and culminating in  the war in the Pacific, Toland crafts  a riveting and unbiased narrative  history. In his Foreword, Toland says that if we  are to draw any  conclusion from The Rising Sun, it is “that there are no simple lessons  in history, that it is human nature that repeats itself, not history.”

“Unbelievably  rich . . . readable and exciting . . .The best parts of [Toland’s] book  are not the battle scenes but the intimate view he gives of the highest  reaches of Tokyo politics.”—Newsweek