From NYRB, Ian Buruma reviews Ways of Forgetting, Ways of Remembering: Japan in the Modern World by John W. Dower and Strong in the Rain: Surviving Japan’s Earthquake, Tsunami, and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster by David McNeill and Lucy Birmingham. The world’s largest “debtor” is now the world’s largest creditor: Ellen Brown on the myth that Japan is broke. Dilemmas of a frontier island in the East China Sea: Forty years after they were “normalized,” relations between Japan and China are so abnormal that events planned to celebrate the anniversary in September had to be scrapped. Billions in hidden riches for family of Chinese leader: It is unclear how much Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who has staked a position as a populist and a reformer, knows about the $2.7 billion in assets his family has amassed. George Dvorsky on the unintended consequences of China’s one-child policy. World's most popular blogger: Duncan Hewitt on Han Han, the enfant terrible of Chinese letters, makes enemies as he conquers the world literature stage. Evan Osnos on why China captures our imagination — and why we want to change it.
