INTERVIEW WITH
DANNY CHAPLIN
Danny is a Singaporebased author and former travel magazine journalist. He is the author of five historical books, including Sengoku Jidai - Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and leyasu: Three Unifiers of Japan (2018).
Photo courtesy of Danny Chaplin
With the victory of Tolcugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, years of internal strife and conflict ended, and the Edo (modernday Tokyo) period began. Japan was once again unified. For more than two centuries the iron fist of strict military and feudal rule of the shogunate that touched every aspect of people's lives, plus almost total isolation from the rest of the world, ensured the survival of the Tokugawa regime. Japan had time to heal the wounds it had inflicted upon itself. A form of tranquillity had descended upon the country. But all the while the world was changing, and what would happen if Japan did not change with it?
What would a fractured Japan have
