Viz Releases Century of the Black Ships

Viz Media’s English language publication of Naoki Inose’s book of historical analysis The Century of the Black Ships is now on sale. The new book offers meticulously researched insights from a variety of Japanese writers that voiced the anxieties of a nation headed toward a war that would eventually be fought against the United States. Beginning when U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry first sailed into Tokyo Bay with his fleet of so-called “Black Ships” in 1853 and demanded Japan open itself to the West, Japanese novelists and military analysts, along with select foreign counterparts, wrote extensively of the coming conflict, creating a massive body of works through which Japan would debate its passage into the modern global era. Many of these opinions have rarely been read outside Japan until now.

Award winning writer Naoki Inose is one of Japan’s most preeminent academics and presently serves as Vice Governor of Tokyo.