2021 is the 50th Anniversary of the San Francisco Peace Treaty ending the US Occupation of Japan.
A World Transformed: Whiting charts Tokyo evolution from a third world slum where only 25% of the city had flush toilets, with the rivers filled with toxic sludge, the water undrinkable, and the air so polluted people wore face mask, to the most modern metropolis on the globe. It is the richest city in the world, the cleanest, safest, most modern, most transportation efficient, most fashion conscious and the politest city anywhere—with arguably the best selection of restaurants on the planet, boasting more than twice as many Michelin 3-star restaurants as any other city, including Paris.
A combination of a memoir and a social history and cultural examination. Read Tokyo Junkie and you will understand Japan, Tokyo, and why anyone would want to live there.
Destination Tokyo: Trip Advisor (2018): Tokyo was voted #1 in the world, topping several of the 16 categories listed including: local friendliness, taxi services, cleanliness and public transportation.
Author has solid credentials as someone who reveals Japan “from the inside”:
- You Gotta Have Wa, a work about cultural conflict, was a Book of the Month Club selection, a Casey Award finalist and a Pulitzer Prize entry in the US. The San Francisco Chronicle described it as "one of the best-written sports books ever"). It was reprinted 25 times and sold more than 150,000 copies hardcover and trade paperback combined in North America under the Vintage imprint
- Tokyo Underworld, a 1999 book about crime and corruption involving Japanese and Americans, is in its 12th trade paperback printing. The boss of the Yokohama wing of the Ingawa-kai, the third largest criminal organization in Japan, praised its accuracy. Currently optioned to Legendary Global for film.) Approx 60,000 copies sold in all editions.
Spans a lifetime, bookended from the first Tokyo Olympics (1964) to the current one (postponed to 2021), a hook for discussion
Think Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb
