China and Japan

A Financial Times Summer Books Selection Will become required reading. Times Literary Supplement Elegantly writtenwith a confidence that comes from decades of deep research on the topic, illustrating how influence and power have waxed and waned between the two countries. Rana Mitter, Financial Times China and Japan have cultural and political connections that stretch back fifteen hundred years, but today their relationship is strained. Chinas military buildup deeply worries Japan, while Japans brutal occupation of China in World War II remains an open wound. In recent years both countries have insisted that the other side must openly address the flashpoints of the past before relations can improve. Boldly tackling the most contentious chapters in this long and tangled relationship, Ezra Vogel uses the tools of a master historian to examine key turning points in SinoJapanese history. Gracefully pivoting from past to present, he argues that for the sake of a stable world order, these two Asian giants must reset their relationship. A sweeping, often fascinating, accountImpressively researched and smoothly written. Japan Times Vogel uses the powerful lens of the past to frame contemporary ChineseJapanese relations[He] suggests that over the centuriesacross both the imperial and the modern erasfriction has always dominated their relations. Sheila A. Smith, Foreign Affairs