Chinese and Japanese names are generally written with the family name first, followed by the given name. I usually refer to individuals by their family names, but in cases where a family name can refer to more than one person, the given name is used. For example, Kawashima Yoshiko is usually referred to as Yoshiko; Aisin Gioro Xianli is referred to as Xianli.
For Chinese people and places I’ve generally used the pinyin system of romanization, except for those better known in other forms, for example Chiang Kai-shek. In the few quotations from older English-language works and translations, I’ve kept the Chinese and Japanese names and places as printed in the originals.
Chinese and Japanese traditionally count their ages using a system different from the one used in the West—a child is one on the date of birth and two the following New Year’s Day—but they now also use the Western system. Frequently it is hard to determine which system is being used. For this reason, I have left the ages as cited in the original documents. Yoshiko’s age is particularly difficult to determine, with many different dates cited by contemporaries and biographers.