I've been watching Japanese anime shows and some of them use a historical background. I would like to have a general idea of what is accepted history and what is alternate. For example; Tokyo was once called Edo. I don't know anything about Japanese history. I'd like to fill in this yawning chasm in my education.
Spelling may not be right and I can't remember the author. Read it 50 years ago but the history should not change.
George Sansom has written a three-volume History of Japan that does a good job outlining the major historical issues. Don't let the fact that it's three volumes dissuade you. It's interesting and accurate.
This is a good, fairly short book on modern Japan from 1853 (which marks the end of the Tokoguwa Shogunate and is the normally accepted start date). Probably gives you enough background for what you need.
Although I'm a prof of European History, I also had a field in East Asian studies, which I teach each semester. I've found W.G. Beasley's, The Japanese Experience A Short History, to be a solid introduction to Japanese history. BTW, my son also is a big anime fan who spends most of his cash on DVDs from Amazon. (No ad intended!)
Henshall, a New Zealand professor of Japanese studies, has written a lively and literate introduction to the vast sweep of Japanese history, providing a well-balanced overview that is accessible to the novice without being at all dumbed down. Although his emphasis is on political history, he devotes enough attention to cultural, literary, religious, and economic developments to give the reader a good sense of these spheres as well. He even manages to flavor the text with excerpts from poetry and key historical documents. Roughly equal weight is given to pre-modern and modern Japan. Henshall focuses on key issues in each of his six chapters and provides very useful tables summarizing both historical chronology and the main values and practices that characterized each period. A paperback version of this book, if made available, would find its way into many university surveys of East Asian history.
