Inventing Japan by Ian Buruma

Inventing Japan is a kind of biography of a century of Japan's history from Commander Perry's "black ships" which sailed to Japan to force trade with the U.S. to the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. I enjoy reading history books, but until now I mainly focused on European history, so reading this book gave me a different perspective of things. It's a good introduction of how Japan became one of the biggest economic powers, and in 176 pages it was easy to read during my commute. The author's account is very personal and it goes through Japan's descent into militarism and its reaction to defeat in the Second World War. Inventing Japan gave me an overview of modern

Japan's many identities, it's transition towards democracy and the creation of a constitution drawn up under the Allied Occupation, but also of Japan's love of suicide and assassination and the fact that Japan's system of Emperor worship, far from being traditional, is a distinctly modern phenomenon.