Japan in War and Peace, by John Dower (Fontana Press, £8.99 in UK)

Sealed off from the West for 300 (peaceful) years, Japan has had a traumatic 20th century - military defeat and occupation, Westernisation of its culture, the double edged process of industrialisation, cultural shock and self questioning, racist propaganda from the victorious Allies. Against this can be set its recent prosperity and burgeoning self confidence, as well as high achievements in literature and the cinema. Any simplistic definition of the Japanese mentality can hardly survive a reading of this volume, which shows the complexity of their traditions and the individualism which survived under a sometimes repressive, militarist State.