Japan
On War, Part II: Occupied Japan and the End of Empire
For those of you who missed the last blog post: A couple of weeks ago I spent the day attending the fifth annual “On War” military history symposium at the Pritzker Military Library. This was the third time I’ve attended and the third time I’ve come away with a notebook full of ideas, factoids, and…
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Hojo Masako: The Nun Shogun
One of the unexpectedly side effects of writing this book on women warriors* is that I’m accumulating stories of amazing women who don’t fit in the book. Some of them don’t fit the definition I’ve struggled to craft. In some cases, there isn’t enough information available–or at least not enough information available in a language…
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Blown Away: The (Attempted) Mongol Invasion of Japan
Japan had expected the Mongol invasion for years. In 1266, Kublai Khan, the new Mongol emperor of China, sent envoys to Japan with a letter addressed to the “King of Japan”–a title guaranteed to offend the Japanese emperor. The letter itself was equally unpalatable. The Great Khan “invited” Japan to send envoys to the Mongol…
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