Book: Japan - Past and Present

[Nathan Scott]

Hi all,

I came across a box full of free books next door to my dojo recently. I ended up grabbing a book called:

"Japan - Past and Present"
by Edwin O. Reischauer
Charles E. Tuttle Co.
Tokyo 1946 (reprinted in 1953)

The author is listed as being a Professor of Far Eastern Languages at Harvard, and was born in Japan in 1910. Reishcauer served in WWII as a Lieutenant-Colonel in Military Intelligence, and claims to be recognized as an authority on Japan, due to his long residence there.

The book appears to be a general treatment of Japan, but perhaps interesting all the same.

I was curious if anyone else has come across this book or has any comments about the author?

Regards,

[Joseph Svinth]

The biographical details you have listed are correct. For some details about Reischauer, whose accomplishments included teaching East Asian studies at Harvard, helping create the McCune-Reischauer system of romanizing Hangul, and serving as US ambassador to Japan from 1961-1966, see http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~rijs/eorbio.html . (Harvard's Japanese studies center is named for Professor Reischauer.)

[Nathan Scott]

Cool, thanks Joe!

It sounded like the author had pretty impressive credentials. I hope it is a good read.

Regards,