In 1945, after humiliating defeat and unconditional surrender, Japan was prostrate; her people were near starvation, industry and commerce had collapsed, and her cities were devastated. An overcrowded country with little cultivable land and no natural resources, Japan's future looked bleak indeed. Today 120 million Japanese have one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. Japan is the dominant power in Asia, with a worldwide manufacturing and financial empire. This book and the 8-part television series which it accompanies, tells the extraordinary story of Japan's recovery and emergence as a world power, vividly describing the political economic and social factors which made it possible.