Japan

Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto and a mountain in the background

Explore Kyoto: Japan’s city of gardens and geishas

John Buckley and James Holland next to a fighter plane at the Imperial Museum, London

Second World War

The War in the West: James Holland in conversation

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Silence: the history behind Martin Scorsese’s new film

Matthew Perry Entertaining Japanese Commissioners on Ship

What happened when US Commodore Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay?

British soldiers arrive to take part in the battle of France, 1940. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Second World War

Books interview with Daniel Todman: “Everything that happened in 1940 isn’t somehow down to Winston Churchill”

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Second World War

Q&A Why did the Germans never convince the Japanese to start a serious invasion of the Soviet Union during the Second World War?

Ruins of Hiroshima shortly after the dropping of the atomic bomb. (US Air Force/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Second World War

Timeline: the countdown to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima

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Second World War

Kamikaze pilots and Captain John Smith . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Kamikaze pilot scores a direct hit on a US aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean, c1942. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

Second World War

The reluctant kamikaze of the Second World War

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Second World War

“Being in a prison camp was better than going to a British boarding school”: child hostage of Japanese in WW2 reflects on his experience

Residents of Chongqing on the streets of their bombed-ravaged city in the autumn of 1940. China's temporary wartime capital was subjected to 218 Japanese air raids between May 1938 and August 1941, costing nearly 12,000 lives. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Second World War

China’s forgotten Second World War

German soldiers with a horse-drawn cart during the retreat from Ukraine in 1943. The idea of Teutonic efficiency was a triumph of Nazi spin, says James Holland. (Keystone/Getty Images)

Second World War

The great misconceptions of the Second World War

An illustration depicting the battle of Naseby, arguably one of the most significant land battles in British history. (Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

20 important battles that shaped Britain

LA Times photo from newspaper report 1942

Second World War

A big day in history: Japanese planes attack Los Angeles. Or do they?

Industrial might: Blenheim bombers in production in England, late 1939. The Allies’ combined industrial strength proved too much for the Axis. (Getty Images)

Second World War

The Library The world in flames