Alexander Bennett

"Kendo is the first book in English to provide an in-depth historical, cultural, and political account of the Japanese martial art of swordsmanship, from its beginnings in military training and arcane medieval schools to its widespread practice today as a global sport. Alexander Bennett shows how kendo evolved through a recurring process of 'inventing tradition', which served the changing ideologies and needs of Japanese warriors and governments over...

Author Alexander Bennett is the ultimate insider, having lived in Japan for decades. He holds multiple black belts in Kendo and Naginata, as well as PhDs in Japanese literature and history. An Insider's Guide to the Japanese Martial Arts is Bennett's personal guide for fellow martial artists and seekers who wish to undertake their own personal quest to study or practice a martial art in Japan. In this book, Bennett outlines the history of the Japanese...

"The Samurai are continuously celebrated as the greatest warriors the world has ever seen. They ruled Japan for centuries, finally uniting the nation after a prolonged period of brutal war and bloodshed. Though famed for their loyalty, honor, and chivalry, they could also be treacherous, bloodthirsty, and merciless. This book tells the story of their rise and eventual demise through carefully curated images, both historical and contemporary, with...

An incredible, untold story of survival and acceptance that sheds light on one of the darkest chapters in Japanese history.This book tells the story of Kazuo Odachi who, in 1943, when he was just 16 years-old joined the Imperial Japanese Navy to become a pilot. A year later, he was unknowingly assigned to the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps, a group of airmen whose mission was to sacrifice their lives by crashing planes into enemy ships. Their callsign...

"This piece of writing by famed samurai Musashi (1584-1645) is the single-most influential work on samurai swordsmanship, offering insights into samurai history, the Zen Buddhist state of 'no-mind' that enables warriors to triumph and the philosophical meaning of Bushido--'the way of the warrior.' Until now, English translations of The Book of Five Rings have been based on inaccurate copies of Musashi's long-lost original manuscript. Bennett's translation...

"This volume is part of a Foreign Relations subseries that documents the most important issues in the foreign policy of Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford. The volume has been divided into two parts: Part One, published in 2012, documents the intellectual foundations of the foreign policy of the second Nixon and Ford administrations and should be read in conjunction with this release; Part Two, this specific volume, covers the organization...