A STUDY OF THE 1974 ALBUM _KOGUN_ BY THE TOSHIKO AKIYOSHI-LEW TABACKIN BIG BAND, THIS BOOK ASSESSES NOT JUST ITS IMPORTANCE IN JAZZ HISTORY BUT ALSO ITS PART IN PUBLIC REMEMBRANCE OF WORLD WAR II IN JAPAN. In 1974 a Japanese soldier emerged from the Philippine jungle where he had hidden for three decades, unconvinced that World War II had ended. Later that year, the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band released its first album, _Kogun_ (“solitary soldier”), the title track of which adopted music from medieval Japanese _no _theater for the first time in a jazz context as aural commemoration of his experience. At a time when big band jazz was mostly a vehicle for nostalgia and no longer regarded as a vital art, the album was heralded as a revelation. _Kogun _elevated Akiyoshi's reputation as a brilliant composer/arranger and earned Tabackin acclaim as a compelling, versatile improviser on tenor saxophone and flute.