CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY IN MODERN JAPAN, edited by Ian Inkster and Fumihiko Satofuka. 2000, I.B. Tauris, 39.50 British pounds / St. Martin's Press, $59.50. THE JAPANESE AND EUROPE: Images and Perceptions, by Bert Edstrom. Japan Library, 35 British pounds / $55.

In less than 150 years, Japan has changed from a peripheral feudal state into the second-most-powerful industrial nation in the world. This is no accident. When Commander Matthew C. Perry forcibly unlocked Japan from its self-imposed isolation by triggering the Meiji Restoration of 1868, it quickly became clear that Japan's only choice was a forced march to modernization.

The Japanese sacrificed the old to the new with great brutality and little opposition. Inside 50 years, they had transformed themselves from an island marooned in history to a military power that could take on and sink the might of the Russian Navy in 1905 at the Battle of Tsushima, after besting the Russian Army in the almost chivalrous siege of Port Arthur.

Japan's drive to modernize was motivated as much by fear as by envy. All too obvious a fate awaited if it failed to make the grade. The search was on for the magic formula for success. In the 1880s, the answer was biology: improving the feeble Japanese body and mind by opening Japan up, encouraging mixed marriages, promoting a meat diet and studying English.