Comments on: What If http://www.froginawell.net/japan/2004/11/what-if/ The Japan History Group Blog Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:45:05 -0800 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Jonathan Dresner http://www.froginawell.net/japan/2004/11/what-if/comment-page-1/#comment-74 Jonathan Dresner Mon, 29 Nov 2004 22:50:11 +0000 http://www.froginawell.net/japan/?p=25#comment-74 The scholars on PMJS strongly suggested the Lotus Sutra, possibly the Burton Watson translation, as a candidate. The scholars on PMJS strongly suggested the Lotus Sutra, possibly the Burton Watson translation, as a candidate.

]]> By: Jonathan Dresner http://www.froginawell.net/japan/2004/11/what-if/comment-page-1/#comment-73 Jonathan Dresner Sun, 28 Nov 2004 01:32:00 +0000 http://www.froginawell.net/japan/?p=25#comment-73 Oh, and for general Japanese history survey, John Whitney Hall's <i>Government and local power</i> or Sansom's surveys would be good. Oh, and for general Japanese history survey, John Whitney Hall’s Government and local power or Sansom’s surveys would be good.

]]> By: Jonathan Dresner http://www.froginawell.net/japan/2004/11/what-if/comment-page-1/#comment-72 Jonathan Dresner Sun, 28 Nov 2004 01:26:10 +0000 http://www.froginawell.net/japan/?p=25#comment-72 You beat me to it: I was just working on a separate entry for here. That's OK. My quibble with Hiroshima is that it's not really there because it's about Japan: it's there because it's about the results of one of the most dramatic US actions of the 20th century. What's missing? Let's start with Japan's Nobel Laureates in literature, Oe and Kawabata, not to mention some Chikamatsu (Shakespeare was all over the list, but other dramatists got really short shrift). How about some Haiku books: arguably Japan's most important contribution to world poetic literature? Japanese historians have won two Pulitzer prizes in the last ten years, how about them? Reischauer's <i>Japan and its peoples</i> is old enough and venerable enough that it ought to be pretty widely distributed by now. Pirsig's <i>Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance</i> is the only book which is even remotely about Buddhism... You beat me to it: I was just working on a separate entry for here. That’s OK.

My quibble with Hiroshima is that it’s not really there because it’s about Japan: it’s there because it’s about the results of one of the most dramatic US actions of the 20th century.

What’s missing? Let’s start with Japan’s Nobel Laureates in literature, Oe and Kawabata, not to mention some Chikamatsu (Shakespeare was all over the list, but other dramatists got really short shrift). How about some Haiku books: arguably Japan’s most important contribution to world poetic literature?

Japanese historians have won two Pulitzer prizes in the last ten years, how about them? Reischauer’s Japan and its peoples is old enough and venerable enough that it ought to be pretty widely distributed by now.

Pirsig’s Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance is the only book which is even remotely about Buddhism…

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