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

TOLAND, John.

Item Number: 138873

New York: Random House, 1970.

First edition, early printing 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, “Nov 26, 1976 To Richard Hubert who knows what I’m writing about- after his experiences for OWL on Saipan- Best regards, John Tolland.” 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."