"The Japanese Experience is an authoritative, lucid, and concise history of Japan from the sixth century to the present day. It is the history of a society and a culture with a distinct sense of itself, one of the few nations never conquered by a foreign power in historic times (until the twentieth century) and the home of the longest-reigning imperial dynasty that still survives. Regarded as a minor Asian state until the late nineteenth century, Japan transformed itself into a major power in the twentieth century." "Throughout The Japanese Experience W.G. Beasley, a leading authority on Japan and the author of a number of acclaimed works on Japanese history, examines the changing society and culture of Japan and considers what, apart from the land and the people, is specifically Japanese about the history of Japan."--Jacket