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slash Japan to claim your offer. This week, I'm going to recommend Imperial Twilight,

The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age, by Stephen R. Platt. Honestly, I really recommend everything Platt has ever written.

I think much like Amy Stanley for early modern Japan, he's very readable, and a very informative,

good writer.

This particular topic happens to be one I'm very interested in, the Opium War being something

well, particularly important to the

history of the region. So if you're at all curious to check it out, go to audible trial.com

slash Japan to claim your copy. Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 408, The Contenders, part three.

Personally speaking, I'm always hesitant to use phrases like inevitable to describe a specific

historical event or outcome.

This is more of a philosophical objection, I suppose, but I'm always hesitant to say things

had to turn out a certain way, that a given outcome was inevitable past a certain point.

But if you do believe in historical inevitabilities, I think it would be fair to mark

2006 as the year that the LDP's defeat, and thus the ascension of the Democratic Party of Japan

to government, became inevitable. And there are a few reasons why. As has traditionally been the case

...