Swords of the Weeping Willow

This is the story of a samurai family, and the dojo they owned, through the last 300 years of samurai existence. It is also about the changes in Japan during this same period, especially during Japan's period of modernization. While the novel starts off with the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941, some would consider such an attack as the end result of the forced opening of Japan to the West in 1853 by Commodore Perry and the U.S. Navy - which led to Japan's modernization and its own imperialism. The small epilogue of the book brings the story full circle.