The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur by Mark Perry

The Most Dangerous Man in America zeroes in on what might be called the critical years of MacArthur's military career -- the close to 13 years of FDR's presidency.

Boiled down it's the story of creative conflict -- between FDR and MacArthur through those years, and between MacArthur in command of the army and Ernest King from the navy over who should run the campaign against Japan.

21st Century Tokyo: A Guide to Contemporary Architecture by Julian Worrall, Erez Golani Solomon, Joshua Lieberman

It's like a trip to Tokyo in black and white and without the long flight. In this COVID world it's wonderful to look at the late architecture of the city that is Tokyo. Some buildings I have seen - and admired - and others I wish I had found the time to visit.

The level of the architectural descriptions is just right - simple enough to get the concepts across to non-architects, but with enough details and explanation to reveal why the building carries some importance.

Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan by Alan Booth

Something that seems lost these days are great English-language travel books about Japan. I do not mean guides — those come out a plenty on a regular basis. I mean travel narratives. There have been a few food based ones.

Booth's death was such a great loss. His keen observations during his odd and wonderful walks around Japan, collected in this volume, capture so much of a way of life that has likely passed.

Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W. Dower

This is an amazing history that explains the Japan of today (though published in 1999) by peeling back how both Japan and the United States reacted to the results of the Second World War.
It's a complex and intricate relationship and it is thoroughly explored here.

Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan by Donald Keene

What a wonderful journey and what a wonderful life.

Donald Keene traces the chains of his long life (he's passed just over a year ago in his 90s) that lead from sitting next to a Chinese student in his youth to a life as one of the world's preeminent experts on Japanese literature (and quite the writer on culture and history as well).

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

What connects us through time and space is at the heart of A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. It connects the story of a young Japanese girl told through her diary and a Japanese-American novelist reading that diary on the isolated Cortes Island of British Columbia. 

Both are outsiders - the girl who wrote the diary spent her formative years in the States so she's culturally more American than Japanese. The novelist is from the big city and living on a remote island. 

Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence by Andrew Juniper

There is probably no Japanese concept more mentioned and less understood than wabi sabi.

It seems that any exploration of Japanese aesthetics has the term thrown around — sometimes correctly, and other times wildly inaccurately. It’s often imperfectly defined as the Japanese art of imperfection. But it is so much more.

Drinking Japan: A Guide to Japan's Best Drinks and Drinking Establishments by Chris Bunting

Though a few years old now Drinking Japan: A Guide to Japan's Best Drinks and Drinking Establishments is a hand dandy guide to alcoholic beverages in Japan. 

More than just a guide to sake bars, whisky bars, and great craft brewers, it's a great introduction to Japan's native and adopted alcohols and their history.