Asian War

Dereliction of Duty is a stunning analysis of how and why the United States became involved in an all-out and disastrous war in Southeast Asia. Fully and convincingly researched, based on transcripts and personal accounts of crucial meetings, confrontations and decisions, it is the only book that fully re-creates what happened and why.

A war-torn land. A forgotten boy. A love that changes everything. In the heart of occupied Kashmir, seventeen-year-old Imran Ullah has spent his life haunted by a past he never knew. Orphaned as an infant by the Indian army, Imran has grown up amid poverty, violence, and a relentless search for meaning in a world that seems to have forgotten him. But everything changes the day he meets Fiza, a girl whose kindness begins to unravel the pain buried deep within him. As their bond grows, Imran embarks on a journey to uncover the truth about his parents’ deaths—and to discover his place in a...

The Kennedy Withdrawal offers an inside look at presidential decision-making in this liminal period of the Vietnam War and makes clear that portrayals of Kennedy as a dove are overdrawn. His proposed withdrawal was in fact a cagey strategy for keeping the United States involved in the fight—a strategy the country adopted decades later in Afghanistan.

Richard Sorge was dispatched to Tokyo in 1933 to serve the spymasters of Moscow. For eight years, he masqueraded as a Nazi journalist and burrowed deep into the German embassy, digging for the secrets of Hitler's invasion of Russia and the Japanese plans for the East. In a nation obsessed with rooting out moles, he kept a high profile - boozing, womanizing, and operating entirely under his own name.

"Shadows of the Rising Sun" delves into the enigmatic Black Dragon Society, a secretive ultranationalist group in early 20th-century Japan. As Western imperialism spread across Asia, the Society proclaimed Japan as the defender and leader of Asian unity against Western dominance. Their ideology of "Greater Asianism" influenced Japan's aggressive expansion and contributed to the regional conflicts of World War II. This book explores the Society's origins, philosophy, and significant impact on Japan's foreign policy. It also examines their strategic support for Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-...

On 1 April, 1945, the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific Theater began. The battle for the island of Okinawa would last for the next 82 days. Through the course of this dramatic battle, over 20,000 Americans would lose their lives, and over 75,000 Japanese were killed in one of the bloodiest clashes of World War II. Okinawa: The Last Battle is a remarkably detailed account of this monumental event by four soldiers who witnessed the action first-hand.

Frances and Ginger Park, authors of both children's books and young adult novels, based this inspiring and deeply affecting tale on their own mother's childhood. Winner of the International Reading Association Award, My Freedom Trip features a courageous girl named Soo who makes a desperate bid for freedom by journeying from North Korea to South Korea. Her father awaits across the border, but to achieve her new life, Soo must leave her mother behind.

The Korean situation has been a big waste of time for the US and the world for the past 75 years, and upon further investigation, one finds that the business conglomerates that make up 85% of South Korea's GDP and employ 10% of the people in South Korea are just as bad as the dictator in North Korea, Kim Jung Un. I love Samsung products, but this isn't reason enough to overlook what has happened in the country over the past 70 years. Over 75% of Koreans were indeed illiterate in 1940, and the shift to an industrialized nation from an agrarian society following the Korean War made it one of ...

"We had to take that island to speed the end of the war against Japan." But the capture of Iwo Jima had come at great cost. Sixty-thousand marines had landed on the barren, volcanic island. For five weeks these men would become involved in some of the bloodiest and fiercest fighting of the Second World War. One third of them would end the battle either dead or wounded. The U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima, written by five official marine combat writers who personally saw action on the island, provides vivid insight into the battle that was described as "a nightmare in hell."

After the furious battles around Dak To and the horrific fight for Hill 875, Youth in Asia is a new novella of young Americans trapped in the jungles of Vietnam's Central Highlands in a war they did not understand. Youth In Asia relives the friendships, loyalties and betrayals of young men in combat, and for those that survive, the memories they carried home.

Japan has seen the rise and fall of emperors, samurai warriors, isolation, expansion, defeat, rebirth, and much more. In this book we explore the magnificent history of Japan from its early origins to its rise as a modern superpower.

The war that broke out in Korea on a Sunday morning 70 years ago has come to be recognized as a critical turning point in modern history - as the first great clash of arms of the Cold War, the last conflict between superpowers, and the root of a nuclear crisis that grips the world to this day. In this vivid, emotionally compelling, and highly original account, Charles J. Hanley tells the story of the Korean War through the eyes of 20 individuals who lived through it.

The story of Japanese involvement in WWII is one that includes a number of amazing events between 1939 and 1945. The Japanese went from fighting against the Chinese to attempting to practically take on the entire world at the same time.

In the closing days of the 30-year Sri Lankan civil war, tens of thousands of civilians were killed, according to UN estimates, as government forces hemmed in the last remaining Tamil Tiger rebels on a tiny sand spit, dubbed "The Cage". Gordon Weiss, a journalist and UN spokesperson in Sri Lanka during the final years of the war, pulls back the curtain of government misinformation to tell the full story for the first time. Tracing the role of foreign influence as it converged with a history of radical Buddhism and ethnic conflict, The Cage is a harrowing portrait of an island paradise torn apart by war.

Kimi’s Obaachan, her grandmother, had always been a silent presence throughout her youth. Sipping tea by the fire, preparing sushi for the family, or indulgently listening to Ojichan’s (grandfather’s) stories for the thousandth time, Obaachan was a missing link to Kimi’s Japanese heritage, something she had had a mixed relationship with all her life. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, all Kimi ever wanted to do was fit in, spurning traditional Japanese cuisine and her grandfather’s attempts to teach her the language.

Set in Calcutta, London, the glacier-locked wilds of the Karakoram, and on Everest itself, The Last Englishmen is also the story of a generation. The cast of this exhilarating drama includes Indian and English writers and artists, explorers and Communist spies, Die Hards and Indian nationalists, political rogues and police informers. Key among them is a highborn Bengali poet named Sudhin Datta, a melancholy soul torn, like many of his generation, between hatred of the British Empire and a deep love of European literature, whose life would be upended by the arrival of war on his Calcutta doorstep.

In February 1944, a rag-tag collection of clerks, drivers, doctors, muleteers and other base troops, stiffened by a few dogged Yorkshiremen and a handful of tank crews, managed to hold out against some of the finest infantry in the Japanese Army and then defeat them in what was one of the most astonishing battles of the Second World War. What became known as the Defence of the Admin Box, fought amongst the paddy fields and jungle of Northern Arakan over a 15-day period, turned the battle for Burma.

The Battle of Iwo Jima, a major event in the Pacific Theater of World War II - and one of the bloodiest in United States history - began on February 19, 1945. But what happened two days earlier has largely been a footnote - until now.... On February 17, Landing Craft Infantry 449 was among a dozen gunboats helping to prepare the area for their invasion two days later. US military leaders thought that they had weakened Japanese forces in the area.

Adults wage war, while children are unwitting victims, pulled into a maelstrom of fear and hate without any choice. This is a story about two groups of teenagers on opposite sides of the world, forever connected by an act of war. It is a story about the adults some of those teens became, forever connected by acts of forgiveness, understanding, and peace. And it is a story about one remarkable man, whose heart belonged to both America and Japan, who put that peace and understanding in motion.

Afghanistan's strategically significant lands have long been fought over by foreign invaders. Today, as yet another generation risks life and limb in this inhospitable territory, an ever-rising death toll puts back under the spotlight the way the modern war in Afghanistan is being run, and demands answers. Drawing on interviews with Afghan politicians, businessmen and ordinary people, British, American and European diplomats and soldiers, Sandy Gall addresses the challenges that face those now fighting on the most dangerous frontier in the world.