Book cover of The Orphan Tsunami of 1700

Book description

A puzzling tsunami entered Japanese history in January 1700. Samurai, merchants, and villagers wrote of minor flooding and damage. Some noted having felt no earthquake; they wondered what had set off the waves but had no way of knowing that the tsunami was spawned during an earthquake along the coast…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Orphan Tsunami of 1700 as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is not just one of my favorite books on Japanese history; it is one of my favorite books, period.

Written by a team of Japanese and American historians and geologists, it solves a three-hundred-year-old mystery: What caused the tsunami that struck northeast Japan, sans earthquake, in January 1700? (Spoiler alert: The culprit was an M9 temblor along the Pacific coast of North America, which left clues in the geological record and the historical memory of Native Americans.)

The book is profusely illustrated and extremely easy to understand, even for those without a background in the geology of Cascadia or…

From Bruce's list on Japanese environmental history.

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A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

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