This book covers the history of Japan from the mid-19th century up to the present day. It charts the spectacular rise of a society, which leapt, in little more than a generation, from late feudal to early industrial forms of organisation - an exceptionally, disturbing experience for the Japanese, as they left behind the traditional and Asian, and moved towards the modern and Western. It examines the violent thirties, and an Empire won and lost between 1937 and 1945, and investigates the major changes after 1945, including the astonishing economic growth achieved since the 1950s.