 In 1938, he published Jinkaku to jinruisei (Personality and Humanity), and in 1943, he published his two volume Sonnō shisō to sono dentō (The Idea of Reverence for the Emperor and the Imperial Tradition). This latter publication is one of the works for which Watsuji was branded a right-wing, reactionary thinker. In 1944, he published a volume of two essays, Nihon no shindō (The Way of the Japanese [Loyal] Subject; and Amerika no kokominsei (The Character of the American People), and in 1948, The Symbol of National Unity (Kokumin tōgō no shōchō). His last publications were the best-selling Sakoku—Nihonno higeki (A Closed Country—The Tragedy of Japan) in 1950, Uzumoreta Nihon (Buried Japan) in 1951, Nihon rinri shisōshi (History of Japanese Ethical Thought) in two volumes in 1953, Katsura rikyû: seisaku katei no kōsatsu (The Katsura Imperial Villa: Reflections on the Process of Its Construction) in 1955, and Nihon geijutsu kenkyū (A Study of Japanese Art), also published in 1955. 