This Pulitzer Prize–winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing 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.”

In weaving together the historical facts and human drama leading up to and culminating in the war in the Pacific, Toland crafts a riveting and unbiased narrative history. In his Foreword, Toland says that if we are to draw any conclusion from The Rising Sun , it is “that there are no simple lessons in history, that it is human nature that repeats itself, not history.”

约翰•托兰：1912年生于美国威斯康辛州一个传统的基督教家庭。青年时代的托兰根本没有想过会成为历史学家,他那时的梦想是成为百老汇的剧作家。大学里,托兰学的就是戏剧创作。大学毕业后,他背起行囊走遍了美国。四十二岁以前,他是个事业上不成功的剧作家、官场里得不到赏识的军官、家庭生活中的失败者。1954年,有人约托兰写一部有关大飞艇的书,他利用在空军服役时的关系,走访了众多飞艇时代的亲历者,掌握了大量独家的第一手材料。这本《天空中的船只》使他一举成名,也正是从这一年起,他开始了“在历史中的生活”。托兰的著作侧重史料的搜集和对当事人的采访。在书中,他会把所知的一切全部告诉读者。他写的历史著作有：《从乞丐到元首》、《日本帝国的衰亡》、《战争之神》、《丑闻：珍珠港事件及其后果》、《占领日本》和《漫长的战斗：美国人眼中的朝鲜战争》等。其中这本《日本帝国的衰亡》使他夺得了1971年度的普利策新闻奖。