The Japan Journals : 1947-2004

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Summary: THANK YOU, MR. RICHIE!
Review: As an American woman who has studied the Japanese people and language, worked with them, is happily married to one, and yet is avowedly NOT a 'Japanophile', Donald Richie's JAPAN JOURNALS is a wonderfully insightful, refreshing read that has contributed to my sanity living here in Tokyo. After reading more than half of the author's other titles, the JOURNALS is like a personal gift of intimacy and understanding--a very CLASS ACT, culminating a career of first-class writing. Ms. Lowitz's intelligent editing prevents overlapping previously published works, and her own comments are well-wrought.

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Summary: An unforgettable picture of one man's life
Review: The Japan Journals 1947-2004 is the memoir of Donald Richie, a leading Western authority on Japanese film, who resided for more than fifty years in Japan. His eyewitness testimony of Japan's transformation from the ruin of the second world war to a cultural and economic powerhouse leaps off the pages day by day in his journal entries. Some entries are only a couple paragraphs long; others are pages long. A skillfully edited firsthand account painting an unforgettable picture of one man's life in an evolving country, his experiences unfolding bit by bit.