Sun Tzu among Japanese generals. Through its later influence on Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, it significantly affected the unification of Japan in the early modern era. Before the Meiji Restoration, mastery of its teachings was honored among the samurai and its teachings were both exhorted and exemplified by influential "daimyōs" and "shōguns". It remained popular among the Imperial Japanese armed forces. The Admiral of the Fleet Tōgō Heihachirō, who led Japan's forces to victory in the Russo-Japanese War, was an avid reader of Sun Tzu. Ho Chi Minh translated the work for his Vietnamese officers to study. His general
If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice to the Young In 2016, Seven Stories Press released what it called a "(much) expanded second edition" of the book. If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice to the Young If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice to the Young (Seven Stories Press) is a 2013 collection of nine commencement speeches from Kurt Vonnegut, selected and introduced by Dan Wakefield. After the publication of his novel "Slaughterhouse-Five" brought him worldwide acclaim in 1969, Kurt Vonnegut became one of America's most popular graduation speakers. There were years when public speaking was Vonnegut's main source of income. "We are performing animals," he used to say