The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936-1945.

TOLAND, John.

Item Number: 138036

New York: Random House, 1970.

First edition of the author’s Pulitzer Prize-winning chronicle of the rise and fall of the Empire of Japan during World War II. Octavo, original cloth decorated in gilt, cartographic endpapers, illustrated. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, “June 11, 1971 Williamstown, Ma. To Lois and Fred affectionately John.” Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Wladisaw Finne. First editions are uncommon signed and inscribed.

A chronicle of the rise and fall of the Empire of Japan during World War II, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is in the author's words, "a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened—muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox."