Books in the Asia/Pacific/Perspectives series

To Hell and Back offers readers a stunning, "you are there" time capsule, wrapped in elegant prose. Charles Pellegrino's scientific authority and close relationship with the A-bomb survivors make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written.

This book explores the history of the Jeju massacre or Jeju 4.3, the deadliest civilian massacre in modern South Korean history. It examines state violence in relation to the birth of anti-communism, the reintegration of Jeju people through mobilization in the Korean War, the capitalist modernization movement, and attempts at reconciliation.

This compelling book analyzes the dramatic changes in rural Chinese society as a result of rapid urbanization. Building on eight decades of studies of the village of Lengshuigou, Chinese sociologists examine the fundamental changes over the last century that have radically transformed centuries-old systems of patriarchy and generational order.

This book offers the first history of the rediscovery of a UNESCO World Heritage site in China, Longmen's caves and the Buddhist statuary of Luoyang. Drawing on fieldwork and archival sources, Wang traces the ties between cultural heritage and modernity, unraveling how this historical monument has been understood from antiquity to the present.

This distinctive and enlightening book explores development of tea drinking in China, using tea culture to explore the profound question of how Chinese have traditionally expressed individuality. By linking tea to individualism, Bret Hinsch's deeply researched book makes an original and influential contribution to the history of Chinese culture.

An exploration of the multifaceted Mongol experience in China, past and present. Charting the interface between a state-centred multinational Chinese polity and a primordial nationalist multiculturalism, it explores Mongol ethnopolitical strategies to preserve their heritage.

A historically-grounded examination of the dynamics of contemporary society in Vietnam - including cultural, political and economic dimensions. It focuses on dynamic tensions both within society and among societal forces, the state, and global capital.

In this analysis, Brian J. McVeigh confronts both the demonizers and apologists of Japan. He argues that far from being unique, Japanese nationalism becomes demystified once "management" and "mysticism" - the same processes and practices that operate in other national states - are taken into account.

These gripping biographies poignantly illustrate the strengths and the vulnerabilities of professional housewives and of families facing social change and economic uncertainty in contemporary Japan.

Features a study of the Indonesian presidency, which aims to redefine the understanding of Indonesian politics since its independence. This study shows how Indonesia's constitution provided for the personal rule of presidents Sukarno and Soeharto, and then facilitated the shift towards constitutional rule that marked other presidencies.

This is study and analysis of social and political change in the Taihang Base Area during the key years of the War of Resistance to Japan, which was instrumental to the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

By focusing on such controversies and conflicts as the status of women, relations between the sexes, class antagonisms and the growth of a commercial mass culture, this book offers a new interpretation of the key decade of the 1920s and its significance for contemporary Thailand.

Using the field of genetics as a case study, this text follows the troubled development of modern natural science in China from the 1920s, through Mao's China, to the present post-socialist era.

For decades, the US military has been contaminating the Pacific region with toxic substances. Thousands of service members, their families, and local residents have been exposed-but the US has hidden the damage and refused to help victims. This book reveals the enormous extent of contamination and the lengths the Pentagon will go to conceal it.

Resistant Islands offers an overview of Okinawan history, focusing on the colonization by Japan, its fate during World War II, and its status as a US military base. This new edition includes an analysis of events since the book first published, including the deployment of MV-22 Ospreys, the approval of the new base, and the "all-Okinawa movement."

This groundbreaking book takes a fresh look at the Korean War by considering the conflict from a Northeast Asian perspective. It highlights the connections of the war to earlier conflicts and examines its human impact on neighboring countries, It also considers the lasting consequences for the region's society and unsettled politics today.

This groundbreaking book takes a fresh look at the Korean War by considering the conflict from a Northeast Asian perspective. It highlights the connections of the war to earlier conflicts and examines its human impact on neighboring countries, It also considers the lasting consequences for the region's society and unsettled politics today.

This first volume in a two-volume set provides the only comprehensive, Western-language history of Pan-Asianism through primary sources and commentaries. The book argues that Pan-Asianism, often—though unfairly—associated with the Yellow Peril, has been a powerful political and ideological force in modern Asia. It has shaped national identities and strongly influenced the development of international relations across Asia and the Pacific. Scholars have long recognized the importance of Pan-Asianism as an ideal of Asian solidarity, regional cooperation, and integration but also as an ideology that justified imperialist expansion and military aggression. Yet sustained research has been hampered by the difficulty of accessing primary sources. Thoroughly remedying this problem, this unique sourcebook provides a wealth of documents on Pan-Asianism from 1850 to 1920, many translated for the first time from Asian languages. All sources are accompanied by expert commentaries that provide essential background information. Providing an essential overview of Pan-Asianism as it developed throughout modern Asia, this collection will be an indispensable tool for scholars in history, political science, international relations, and sociology. Its accessible presentation makes it a valuable resource for non-specialists as well.Contributions by: Cemil Aydin, Yuan P. Cai, Peter Duus, Selçuk Esenbel, Jing He, Eri Hotta, Joël Joos, Kim Bongjin, Kyu Hyun Kim, Eun-jeung Lee, Matsuda Koichiro, Marc Andre Matten, Sven Saaler, Michael A. Schneider, Alistair Swale, Christopher W. A. Szpilman, Brij Tankha, Renée Worringer, and Urs Matthias Zachmann.

This compelling book explores Okinawa's makeover as a tourist mecca among the physical ruins of the Pacific War's most devastating land battle. Gerald Figal considers how a place burdened by a history of semi-colonialism, memories of war and occupation, economic hardship, and contentious politics has reshaped itself into a resort destination.

This classic in the annals of village studies will be widely read and debated for what it reveals about China''s rural dynamics as well as the nature of state power, markets, the military, social relations, and religion. Built on extraordinarily intimate and detailed research in a Sichuan village that Isabel Crook began in 1940, the book provides an unprecedented history of Chinese rural life during the war with Japan.   It is an essential resource for all scholars of contemporary China.